1
25-005
Accelerating Plant Commissioning: Unlocking Early Profits
Through Strategic Planning
Antoine Berton
Soutex, Munich, Germany
Danielle Bouffard
Soutex, Quebec, Canada
Daniel Roy
Soutex, Quebec, Canada
Simon Gariépy
Soutex, Quebec, Canada
ABSTRACT
Commissioning a mineral processing plant has always been
a challenging task. The process includes pre- operational
verification, dry and wet commissioning, and a gradual
ramp-up to full production, all of which must be executed
within the shortest possible timeframe, requiring numerous
highly interdependent tasks to be conducted concurrently.
This phase is under scrutiny by shareholders, corporate
management, and other stakeholders who are keen to see
a return on investment as the operation starts yielding
results. Despite extensive documentation in the literature
highlighting its significance, the impact of the commission-
ing phase remains underestimated in contemporary mining
projects.
This paper provides an overview of the commission-
ing process and its associated challenges before focusing on
a critical success factor: building a dedicated commission-
ing team with the required competencies and personality
profiles.
The roadmap to achieving an efficient plant start-up
is outlined. Drawing on over 15 years of experience with
more than 20 concentrator commissioning and start-ups,
a general framework is presented to maximize success. This
method emphasizes the crucial role of the operation and
metallurgy team in supporting these projects.
Finally, insights from Soutex’s involvement in multiple
start-ups are shared, offering lessons learned that emphasize
best practices and challenges encountered in expediting the
ramp-up process while maintaining high Health, Safety,
and Environment (HSE) standards.
Keywords: Plant commissioning, start-up, commercial
production, ramp-up, risk mitigation, and workforce
training.
INTRODUCTION: START-UPS REMAIN A
CHALLENGE IN 2025
Commissioning a new plant is a significant event that occurs
rarely, especially in smaller companies. Consequently,
schedules and budgets are frequently developed with
limited references. Combined with budget constraints,
this often results in the underestimation of the resources
required for the start-up and commissioning phases.
A key issue arises from the assumption that once the
plant is handed over by the construction team, the opera-
tions team will seamlessly take control and achieve com-
mercial production and even target capacity within a few
months (often arbitrarily set at six months). However, this
assumption and the resulting lack of preparation can cause
the commissioning, start-up, and ramp-up phases to often
extend significantly beyond the intended timeline. Such
delays can have significant financial, human, and reputa-
tional consequences. Smaller companies with limited assets
are at greater risk compared to corporations that can sustain
new operation ramp-ups over a longer period. For tightly
financed companies, delays could threaten the entire proj-
ect or company: for instance, in the case of a 150 tph, 4 g/t,
gold ore processing plant, a single week of operation rep-
resents approximately 7 M$CAD in revenue at the current
price of 2 600 $CAD/oz of gold.
Rollins and Lam (2017) gathered data from over 100
mining projects from commissioning to the end of the
25-005
Accelerating Plant Commissioning: Unlocking Early Profits
Through Strategic Planning
Antoine Berton
Soutex, Munich, Germany
Danielle Bouffard
Soutex, Quebec, Canada
Daniel Roy
Soutex, Quebec, Canada
Simon Gariépy
Soutex, Quebec, Canada
ABSTRACT
Commissioning a mineral processing plant has always been
a challenging task. The process includes pre- operational
verification, dry and wet commissioning, and a gradual
ramp-up to full production, all of which must be executed
within the shortest possible timeframe, requiring numerous
highly interdependent tasks to be conducted concurrently.
This phase is under scrutiny by shareholders, corporate
management, and other stakeholders who are keen to see
a return on investment as the operation starts yielding
results. Despite extensive documentation in the literature
highlighting its significance, the impact of the commission-
ing phase remains underestimated in contemporary mining
projects.
This paper provides an overview of the commission-
ing process and its associated challenges before focusing on
a critical success factor: building a dedicated commission-
ing team with the required competencies and personality
profiles.
The roadmap to achieving an efficient plant start-up
is outlined. Drawing on over 15 years of experience with
more than 20 concentrator commissioning and start-ups,
a general framework is presented to maximize success. This
method emphasizes the crucial role of the operation and
metallurgy team in supporting these projects.
Finally, insights from Soutex’s involvement in multiple
start-ups are shared, offering lessons learned that emphasize
best practices and challenges encountered in expediting the
ramp-up process while maintaining high Health, Safety,
and Environment (HSE) standards.
Keywords: Plant commissioning, start-up, commercial
production, ramp-up, risk mitigation, and workforce
training.
INTRODUCTION: START-UPS REMAIN A
CHALLENGE IN 2025
Commissioning a new plant is a significant event that occurs
rarely, especially in smaller companies. Consequently,
schedules and budgets are frequently developed with
limited references. Combined with budget constraints,
this often results in the underestimation of the resources
required for the start-up and commissioning phases.
A key issue arises from the assumption that once the
plant is handed over by the construction team, the opera-
tions team will seamlessly take control and achieve com-
mercial production and even target capacity within a few
months (often arbitrarily set at six months). However, this
assumption and the resulting lack of preparation can cause
the commissioning, start-up, and ramp-up phases to often
extend significantly beyond the intended timeline. Such
delays can have significant financial, human, and reputa-
tional consequences. Smaller companies with limited assets
are at greater risk compared to corporations that can sustain
new operation ramp-ups over a longer period. For tightly
financed companies, delays could threaten the entire proj-
ect or company: for instance, in the case of a 150 tph, 4 g/t,
gold ore processing plant, a single week of operation rep-
resents approximately 7 M$CAD in revenue at the current
price of 2 600 $CAD/oz of gold.
Rollins and Lam (2017) gathered data from over 100
mining projects from commissioning to the end of the