Yet one of its most pressing problems remains general workforce productivity – or lack thereof – which curtails the sector from reaching its full potential.
Says insights company EY’s report, Top 10 Business Risks and Opportunities for Mining & Metals in 2024: “The lack of experienced operators and managers is becoming acute, negatively impacting productivity. In some cases, training does not adequately prepare workers for the job, hampering productivity and safety. We are observing an overreliance on point technology solutions to compensate for diminishing operational experience.”
By Arjen de Bruin, Group CEO at OIM Consulting
One South African company with an international footprint has the vision and means to shift this status quo – enter OIM Consulting. Established in 1985, OIM Consulting champions an integrated, people centric approach to business performance that nurtures leaders’ capacity, transforms workplace culture and embeds optimisation into daily processes.
It achieves this through its Supervisory Development Programme (SDP), which equips people with the skill sets and toolsets needed for operational excellence while galvanising a mindset shift. The company has the necessary local context and experience across the Southern African mining industry. Thanks to extensive research and expertise, it has developed and established our unique model and methodology, with proven results.
OIM has worked with numerous highprofile mining corporations, including Rio Tinto, Anglo American, the De Beers Group, Kumba Iron Ore and Glencore. But amid an impressive client list that reads like the who’s who of African mining, perhaps its most well-publicised success is its role in the remarkable turnaround at Gold Fields’ South Deep mine.
When Gold Fields took ownership of South Deep in 2006, the mine had struggled to show a sustainable profit. A failure to meet production expectations forced downward revisions in its annual projections while operating costs continued to climb. Yet in 2019, things started to change, and in 2020 – despite operating well below its full labour complement following the pandemic-triggered national lockdown – South Deep continued to show progress on most of its operational measures that following year as well.
The metrics reflected a profound operational transformation. The mine saw a 41% increase in gold production, a 30% increase in tonnes per employee and 87% in tons per rig, while all-in cost/kg decreased by 31%. All this contributed to turning the net loss reported in 2018 into a net profit of over R104 million in 2019 – the first time in years South Deep showed a positive bottom line.
There was continued improvement: while 2019 had seen an initial huge jump in tonnes per rig/ employee/month, this increase continued in 2020 with a further 8% and again in 2021 with 11% (14 345). At the time, Gold Fields attributed this sharp uptick to a broader cultural and capability alignment process, crediting OIM Consulting as having played a significant role in its drastic about-turn. Skills for the new mining environment
Another OIM client, a leading global diamond producer, planned to extend the life of one of its South African mines by transitioning it from an open pit to an underground mine. As part of the ramp-up, OIM Consulting was brought on board to equip 100 supervisors for operational leadership in the new environment by focusing on skills development, improved role execution and building sustainability.
Applying this integrated approach, the diamond producer saw a 21% increase in average truckloads per day, a 224% increase in tons blasted, a 108% increase in Rhino metres, and an 89% increase in overall management maturity levels of supervisors.
A coal mine that underwent OIM’s SDP programme saw similar improvements in operational excellence, recording a 16% increase in productivity, a 25% rise in plant run and 20% in sales tonnes delivered, and a 300% increase in the consistency of direct operating hours (DOH) over the assessment period.
For another client, an integrated PGM producer, a 90-day turnaround project was launched, again focusing on the combination of people development, operational practices and organisational performance. Within eight weeks, the mine achieved operational targets, production records were broken, and safety practices stabilised.
A well-known mining organisation approached OIM in 2015 to implement its SDP at one of its iron ore mines. At the time, the commodity price created a challenging environment, but the pilot delivered such positive results the consultancy was contracted to roll out its programme across two additional mines.
Focused on driving profitability by developing first-line leaders and process optimisation, the project spanned several sites and operational divisions – including Mining, Plant and Engineering – and involved more than 50 supervisors. This work was completed by the end of 2019, with significant improvements in areas such as machinery utilisation (23%), efficiency (15%) and throughput (9%) recorded in the execution of daily activities.
The successful implementation of these tasks directly correlates to the golden rule: more productive tonnes safely – every day. OIM CEO, Arjen De Bruin says OIM’s SDP encompasses baseline competency and role assessments, following interactive classroom learning, and finally, extensive measurable onthe- floor coaching. It is this coaching, says De Bruin, which is the key differentiator.
“You cannot only go broad in your approach – you need to go deep as well. Coaching offers the necessary ‘depth’ for operational excellence. By reinforcing the real-life application of the principles learned in the classroom and introducing customised tools for the environment, we can embed new habits and practices into the supervisor’s day, ensuring they are consistently applied. Thus, our intervention is predominantly focused on this type of operational coaching to unlock productivity benefits.”
De Bruin adds that OIM believes in establishing long-term partnerships with clients, as evidenced by its ongoing involvement with them over the years, further building business capacity. “It is equally vital that the mine’s leadership is committed to driving this change, as their buy-in is key to sustainability and the kind of change that lasts.”
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