William Pollard, a lecturer in the 1800s, recognised that “Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organised, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.” This statement is probably more relevant now than then. Vast amounts of data are produced every second at a mine site. Without a way to organise this data, and present it in an easily accessible, timely and accurate manner, decisions regarding the daily operations and long term viability of a mine site become very difficult. If you can’t measure it accurately, how can you improve it? In a booming market, cost consolidation was less of an issue. Large production costs were incurred, but high commodity prices had the effect of masking cost inefficiencies. Not so any more. Yet the hard question for a mine site to answer is, how can they reduce production cost blowouts if the right people are unaware of them in the first place? It could be days, weeks or even months before a crisis or production anomaly is investigated. By this time it is too late to respond with a cost mitigation strategy.

Adding to the problem is that many financial decision-makers at mine sites rely on cost-accounting results rather than economic-accounting indicators on which to base their decisions. Identifying and analysing economic costs, or opportunity costs, gives mine sites opportunities to create significant savings. For example, the annual cost of the railing contract would be a known accounting fixed cost. If the mine site is not measuring empty, partially loaded or overloaded wagons, then variable economic costs become hidden and opportunities are lost on every shift. By accessing train loading performance data in-shift, a mine site can save millions of dollars each year in just this one area of the operation. But again, how can they improve train loading performance if

a) they are not measuring it, and
b) they cannot access the performance data in a timely manner to make the necessary adjustments to increase train utilisation?

This idea of accessing and organising production data across the production supply chain is a seemingly difficult task when we consider the sheer volume of information produced in any given shift. Traditionally, mine sites rely on spreadsheet programs to manage production data. The problem with relying on complex spreadsheets to manage important and sensitive data is the huge risk of data errors. Especially when you consider that “80 percent of spreadsheets contain significant errors which means that for every five spreadsheets, at most, only one will give the correct results”1. That’s a significant error rate, and a significant business risk. Yet most mine sites continue to use spreadsheets as the principal production data management system.

The alternative to spreadsheet solutions is a properly targeted software innovation which would deliver measureable value. Corvus, the software developed by business intelligence specialists Intov8, connects all existing systems at a site and collects the data centrally in a relational database management system, eliminating the need to rely on spreadsheets. This data is then combined, compared and displayed in real-time reports and dashboards with built-in notifications via email, desktop alerts and SMS.

Corvus gives mining personnel access to the vital information that is necessary to

a) identify costs activities as they occur,
b) empower personnel to react to the activity in-shift, and
c) to track and report production data from across the entire site for short and long term analysis to highlight significant production efficiency opportunities.

Whether it is a dragline monitoring system, one of the many fleet management systems, on-board blast truck systems, rail consignment details, laboratory results, third party B2B and most other facets of mine production activities - Corvus connects to it all. Corvus also facilitates data integrity checking through embedded reporting, shift signoff and data adjustments based on volumetric survey, to give Corvus users, from the COO/GM to the shift supervisor, confidence that the reported data is accurate and verified. The power of accessing verified, accurate and timely data in-shift lies in the significant cost improvements for those mining companies that utilise the innovation that Corvus offers. As a multi-site solution, Corvus can combine, compare and analyse the performance of multiple mines across any geographical area for corporate decision making. And significantly, off-site corporate managers can also view the product pipeline of every mine site in real-time. There has been no better time, given global market conditions, for mine sites to invest in innovative technologies that drive cost reductions. With over 2000 mining professionals accessing Corvus Australia-wide, production cost consolidation is now the “way they do business”, not a knee-jerk response to fluctuating commodity prices.
“Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity - not a threat” ~ William Pollard.