Restoring Underground Mine Performance
Gold production increased by 11% through higher ore volumes, despite declining grades
- 4 minutes read
Our client is an ASX-listed gold producer operating multiple mines across Australia and Canada. Its Kalgoorlie-region operation in Western Australia combines open-pit and underground mining with a central processing mill. The underground mine at the heart of this engagement uses long-hole open stoping with paste fill to extract steeply plunging lodes, with ore trucked to the central mill for processing.
The underground mine was struggling to maintain plan compliance, putting the H2 forecast at risk. Recent changes to the mining process were identified as a major contributor, with operations still adjusting and yet to reach a stable operating rhythm.
Mining out of sequence had also led to a series of seismic events that posed a significant risk to the mine’s ongoing operations, further reinforcing the importance of maintaining plan compliance.
ORBIZ was engaged to diagnose the underlying causes and implement improvements to the management system. The objective was to stabilise performance, strengthen adherence to the mine plan, and support delivery of the H2 forecast.
ORBIZ helped the workforce to not only understand the process of lifting the performance of the mine to its full potential, but also how to continue running the mine in a way to maintain this standard.
AM, General Manager, ASX-Listed Gold Producer
11%
38%
25% to 63% in 6 weeks
The approach
An earlier engagement had deployed a tiered Visual Performance Centres (VPCs) across the open pit, underground, and processing plant. Data from the new underground VPC exposed significant underperformance in plan adherence, confirming the need for targeted management system improvements.
An assessment of current management practices confirmed that the program should target two critical elements of the underground production planning and control system:
- Design and implement a Short Interval Control (SIC) process to strengthen the execution of daily plans by enabling closer monitoring and faster response to delays and issues in real time.
- Review and improve the weekly mine planning process to streamline workflows across cross-functional teams and produce a realistic plan that supports the Short-Range Forecast (SRF) and can be delivered consistently in practice.
The solutions
ORBIZ designed and implemented two complementary improvements to the underground production management system:
Developing and implementing a Short Interval Control process:
The new SIC process was designed to build on the existing management system, using the weekly mine plan as its foundation — minimising disruption and avoiding unnecessary complexity.
Working with the underground mining manager and local leadership team, ORBIZ introduced regular 15-minute shift progress reviews using real-time data to assess performance. This created a structured cadence for rapid decision-making, enabling delays to be resolved and lost time recovered before they compounded.
The cross-functional visibility created by the SIC process surfaced improvement opportunities that would otherwise have gone unaddressed, forming the foundation of a new continuous improvement framework.
The transparency built into the SIC cadence also improved shift changeover communication, strengthening working relationships and accountability across teams.
Streamlining the weekly mine planning process:
Planning, engineering, and operational stakeholders collaborated to map the current process end-to-end and identify improvement opportunities across the planning cycle.
- Input and output timing, SRF interfaces, and cross-functional handoffs were defined and formalised into a refined weekly cycle that became the backbone of the new process.
- A daily process confirmation protocol was embedded in the VPC to hold each step accountable — right inputs, right outputs, on time.
- Daily compliance with plan KPI was visualised in the VPC, creating real-time accountability and surfacing issues before they affected delivery.
- Formal review meetings were introduced to anchor the weekly cycle and ensure cross-functional alignment at each stage of the planning process.
- The refined process was fully documented, and each stakeholder was coached through the transition, replacing old practices with new behaviours embedded in the daily routine.
Together, these improvements delivered rapid and sustained results. Plan compliance improved from 25% to 63% within six weeks, and the site subsequently achieved its SRF targets for three consecutive months.
Over the full year, ore mined rose 21%, and gold production lifted 11% — despite an 18% decline in grades — confirming that the new processes drove sustained performance well beyond the initial engagement period.
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