Project success is defined by many different measures, with the most definitive being the judgement of history. Projects like Murrin Murrin, Ravensthorpe and Sino Iron were judged during their development, at many stages and against many criteria, to be on the pathway to success. However it seems to the author that almost all those positive judgements and decision points that were signed off in the long period from the scoping study to commissioning must have either overlooked or ignored some major issues that were to result in project failures. With a focus on process engineering, guidelines will be suggested that will allow owners and engineers to raise red flags at the earliest possible stage in project evaluation and development and emerge from commissioning with a successful plant. Success means achieving the planned net revenue generation in the promised time frame and within the success-focused budget.
CITATION:David, D, 2019. The Definition of Project Success, in Proceedings MetPlant 2019, pp 214 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).