The plant is going up in West Africa, the project team sits in Australia, and the vendor data arrives package by package. On a gold build, the EPC contractor’s obligation ends at handover of the plant. The asset register, strategies, task lists, spares basis and CMMS master data are the owner’s job, and without them at first gold, ramp-up runs on breakdowns and emergency spares.
This guide sets out how that maintenance system gets built from Australia for a plant on another continent: what the gap costs, how the work divides between desk and site, the practical questions a project director asks before inviting an Australian firm, and when the work has to start.
Quick Links
- The short answer
- The gap: a plant handed over without the system to maintain it
- Can an Australian firm deliver readiness for a West African mine?
- How the work is delivered: four stages
- The practical questions
- What the operating crew receives
- When to start: before the purchase orders are signed
- Where this has been done
- Frequently asked questions
The short answer
HolisticAM delivers operational readiness for gold projects in West Africa from Australia. Reliability engineers build the maintenance system as a desktop program from vendor data, under principal oversight, and the owner’s team validates it on site before it loads into the CMMS. Engineers build. The crew who will run the plant validates it and owns it.
The gap: a plant handed over without the system to maintain it
When the maintenance system slips past first gold, the cost arrives disguised as operations: a reactive first year, emergency spares bought at premium prices and freight, and unplanned downtime through ramp-up, when every lost ounce is hardest to win back. The maintenance team ends up writing its strategy under pressure, on a plant it is already running.
What good looks like at first gold: the asset register, strategies and task lists loaded and tested in the CMMS, the critical spares on site and receipted, and the operating crew opening planned work orders from day one, on a system they reviewed and signed off.
Can an Australian firm deliver readiness for a West African mine?
Yes, and the reason is how the work divides. Most of a maintenance readiness build is engineering done from documents: vendor manuals, drawings, equipment lists and the purchase orders. That work does not need to happen on site. Reliability engineers do it as one team, under principal review, package by package as the vendor data arrives.
Our senior team came up inside Rio Tinto, BHP, Alcoa and MMG, so every package is reviewed by engineers who have run maintenance on operating plants. What does need the site is validation. The owner’s engineers and maintainers, the people who will run the plant, review the strategies, spares and task lists in workshops before anything loads into the CMMS. They change what does not fit their plant, and they sign it off. That is how the system becomes theirs rather than ours.
How the work is delivered: four stages
The sequence lets a team in Australia build the maintenance system for a plant on another continent without the plant waiting on it.
- Vendor data in. We gather the manuals, drawings, equipment lists and purchase orders for each package, and log what is missing. Where the vendor data is thin, we go back to the vendor.
- Desktop build. Reliability engineers build the hierarchy, failure-mode-based strategies, task lists, spares and bills of materials, package by package as the data arrives, under principal review.
- Validation on site. The owner’s engineers and maintainers review the work in workshops, change what does not fit their plant, and accept it.
- Load and hand over. Load sheets in the client’s CMMS format, Pronto or SAP, so the operating team opens planned work orders from day one.
The practical questions
The objection to a specialist from Australia is rarely the engineering. It is distance, time zones and the contract. These are the answers.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Where are the decisions made? | Many ASX-listed owners building in West Africa run study management and procurement from Perth and Melbourne, in our working day. |
| What about the time difference to site? | West Africa runs 7 to 11 hours behind Australia, which is why validation runs as planned workshops. |
| Which CMMS? | The client’s format: Pronto, SAP or others, structured to ISO 14224. |
| What if the vendor data is thin? | Each package is logged against its source; gaps are raised with the vendor, not filled by assumption. |
| How is it contracted? | Staged, with milestone payments matched to delivery. |
| What is the first step? | A fixed-scope readiness diagnostic. |
What the operating crew receives
- Asset register and hierarchy: every maintainable item, structured to ISO 14224 and tagged to the client’s convention.
- Maintenance strategies: built from failure modes on the equipment that matters, not copied from the OEM manual.
- Task lists and work instructions: intervals, trades and plant state set to how the site will actually work.
- Spares and bills of materials: commissioning, operating and critical spares, each line justified. How a new plant’s spares list is built
- CMMS load sheets: in the client’s format, checked before they reach the system administrator.
- Work management: the roles and routines that turn a loaded CMMS into planned work.
When to start: before the purchase orders are signed
The first readiness deadline on a gold project is contractual. Vendor data requirements (manuals, data books, spares lists) must be written into the EPC and OEM purchase orders before they are executed, around 24 months before first ore. Miss that window and the data gets bought back later, at the contractor’s price, while the build waits.
| When | What has to happen |
|---|---|
| About 24 months before first ore | Vendor data requirements written into the EPC and OEM purchase orders |
| From about 18 months | The build runs: criticality, strategies, asset register and spares analysis |
| About 6 months before first ore | The proof point: the CMMS loaded and tested |
The readiness checklist sets out every date, counted back from first ore. A project already past the purchase-order point should still start; the checklist shows which dates have passed and what it takes to recover them.
Where this has been done
Client names are withheld until each client gives written consent.
- A West African greenfield gold plant (in delivery): hierarchy, maintenance strategies, task lists, spares and bills of materials for 235 fixed plant assets in the first phase, built in the client’s CMMS format. A second phase of 213 units was awarded while the first was closing out.
- A readiness framework for operating gold sites (in delivery): we are writing a group operational readiness framework, aligned to ISO 55001, for a West African gold producer’s operating sites.
- A new iron-ore plant in India (delivered): a 12-week desktop build for a crushing and screening plant, with an SAP-ready hierarchy across 23 asset lines, 353 planned routine tasks and a critical spares register, before commissioning. Read the case study
On our first West African engagement, a global advisory firm bid the same full scope. The developer chose independence and specialist depth.
How far is your maintenance system from first gold?
Tell us where the project sits: study, FID, construction or pre-start. We will show you what readiness has to cover by your first gold date, what is already late, and what it takes to close the gap from here. The first step is a fixed-scope readiness diagnostic, with no open-ended commitment.
Frequently asked questions
Can an Australian firm deliver operational readiness for a West African gold project?
Yes. Most of a maintenance readiness build is engineering from documents, which reliability engineers do as a desktop program under principal oversight. The owner’s engineers and maintainers then validate the work in workshops on site before it loads into the CMMS. HolisticAM is delivering this on a greenfield gold plant in West Africa now.
What happens on site, and what happens in Australia?
In Australia: gathering vendor data, building the hierarchy, strategies, task lists, spares and bills of materials, and checking the load sheets. On site: validation workshops with the people who will run the plant, who change what does not fit and accept the result.
Which CMMS do you build for?
The client’s. Recent builds went into Pronto and SAP. The master data is structured to ISO 14224 and delivered as load sheets in the client’s own format.
What if the vendor data arrives late or incomplete?
The build runs package by package as the data arrives, and every package is logged against its source documents. Where the data is thin, we go back to the vendor rather than fill the gap with an assumption, and the gap stays visible until it is closed.
How are West African engagements contracted?
Readiness starts with a fixed-scope diagnostic, then a blueprint, then the build. West African engagements are contracted and staged with milestone payments matched to delivery.
When should a West African gold project start operational readiness?
Before the EPC and OEM purchase orders are executed, because that is when vendor data requirements must be written into them, around 24 months before first ore. A project already past that point should still start; the readiness checklist shows which dates have passed and what it takes to recover them.