IN MARCH 2013 Wilmar Sugar’s Pioneer Mill identified two crack-like indications in the steam drum of their No. 2 boiler. The following day several convection bank tubes were removed from the drum in this location to reveal that these indications were real cracks. The cracks had propagated through the 60 mm thick steam drum and were located in the ligatures between three convection bank tube holes running in the circumferential direction. As this boiler was the single source of steam for the factory, repairs had to be implemented promptly so that the boiler would be safe to return to operation for the 2013 crushing season in a little over 10 weeks’ time. Experts in weld repair of boiler pressure parts, non-destructive testing and metallurgical failure analysis were identified and contracted to assist in the repair of the steam drum and to identify the root cause. This paper presents: the events leading up to the identification of the cracks, Wilmar’s response to mobilise an expert repair team, results of the non-destructive testing, the specialised weld procedure adopted to repair the cracks and the results of the metallurgical analysis to identify the root cause.