ABB has secured a contract from Marathon Gold to provide an integrated process and power automation system for the Valentine Gold Project in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

Under the contract, ABB will design, supply and commission the process and power control systems.

These process and power control systems will be integrated under the ABB Ability System 800xA distributed control system (DCS).

ABB said the unification of these systems under one common framework allows mine operators to have greater visibility across the operation and optimise productivity.

It is also expected to help operators find additional ways to improve safety, plant efficiency and profitability across the mining value chain.

The integrated automation system will be based on ABB’s Select I/O and Industrial Ethernet networks, ABB said.

This helps the project team to reduce late changes or schedule delays to the project and simplifies evolution of automation systems at the mine.

ABB Process Industries North America mining head Sachin Jari said: “It is set to become a very important gold mining operation in Canada and one that our experienced project team will make a positive impact on. They have decades of experience working with mining projects of similar stature in Canada and globally.”

Reputed to be the largest undeveloped gold resource in the Atlantic Canada region, the Valentine project is currently under construction.

The project is expected to have an average production of 195,000 ounces of gold per year for the first 12 years.

The mine, which is expected to have operational life of 14 years, is scheduled to start gold production in Q1 2025.