At a Glance
An Australian gold mining company undertook a project with Renoir with two key focus areas:
- To define and develop a Business Improvement (BI) framework that enables potential business initiatives to be assessed and developed, utilising a standardised process framework.
- To refine and implement a Short-Term Planning System (STP)
Key Results
A new framework has been developed to ensure that all potential improvement initiatives are systematically analysed against standardised criteria, and a business improvement (BI) framework to govern the success of future initiatives.
Increased camp utilisation from 77 to 94%
A new Short Term Mine Planning System linking production plans to budgeted outputs
Stope notes and concise pre-planning have resulted in fewer stope failures
Background
The client is an Australian gold producer and mineral explorer whose key assets are in Western Australia. It has significant mineral resources including ore reserves as well as an extensive landholding comprising granted tenements and tenement applications of approximately 4,800 square kilometres.
The Challenge
Santa Barbara management decided that Renoir’s more ‘hands on’ and collaborative implementation approach would be best suited to their needs and were invited to commence work with them.
A project was undertaken with Renoir with two key focus areas:
- To define and develop a Business Improvement (BI) framework that enables potential business initiatives to be assessed and developed, utilising a standardised process framework.
- To refine and implement a Short-Term Planning System (STP)
How a mining company boosts value chain through process improvement
Mine productivity soars with improved training programs
How a mining company boosts value chain through process improvement
Mine productivity soars with improved training programs
What We Did
Three Management Action Teams (MATs) were formed – Business Improvement, BI Camp Accommodation Utilisation (BICAU), and Short-Term Planning (STP) – and who each met weekly.
During the Initiation phase of the project, the task force members were trained on the Renoir Approach, Focus Process™ and methodology. Project Charters, Project Milestones and Steps to Milestones were refined and agreed on for each project.
The Steering Committee (Senior client management, MAT chairs and Renoir) also met weekly to provide support, decision-making and direction towards each of the MAT’s milestones. The committee also provided the necessary governance for the project.
The BI MAT developed a framework to evaluate all initiatives in a structured and systemic way, providing clear guidelines as to whether or not to scrap, proceed or hold each initiative.
The BICAU MAT was a 12-week project that tested the robustness of the new BI framework process and secondly, yielded favourable results through increasing Camp Utilisation from 77% to 94% and resulting in the annualised reduction of external accommodation costs by AU$900,000.
The STP MAT was an 18-week project, the results of which were measured against a base of three Key Performance Indicators: Plan on Plan Conformance %, Plan Completeness and Tonnes Mined.
Results
The project succeeded in streamlining and linking the planning process, implementing more complete planning through check listing and stope notes, and giving management a mechanism to address downtime through effective short-interval controls.
Streamline the mine planning processes for greater efficiency.
