Underground Gold Mining Production Uplift
Short-Interval Control process accelerates underground mining production
- 4 minutes read
Our client is a South African-headquartered global gold producer with a significant Australian presence. ORBIZ was engaged to support a mine in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields that operates an underground complex, extracting high-grade ore via long-hole sub-level stoping with cemented paste fill, which is processed through an on-site 1.3Mtpa plant.
This mature underground mine is accessed via a decline extending approximately 850 metres below surface. The mine was consistently missing its weekly operational targets, placing increasing commercial pressure on the senior leadership team.
After 12 years of operation, many believed the mine’s depth was an insurmountable barrier to better performance, and missed targets were becoming accepted as normal. In response, the senior leadership team decided to trial a new approach that had delivered results in comparable underground mining operations across Western Australia.
ORBIZ was engaged to diagnose operational issues and support the local team in designing and implementing a solution tailored to the underground operation’s specific needs.
June has by far been the best month’s performance this year, with the standout being the ore tonnes of 70,291 mined for the month – the highest in the past two years. Additionally, it was the second-highest month in the past 5 years, which is especially impressive given that the mine is significantly deeper and more difficult to mine.
DT, Mining Manager, Underground Gold Mine
21%
13,000 oz
The approach
A thorough review of the existing management systems and practices was undertaken to identify what was working well and where improvements could streamline operations. Once this baseline was established, the most appropriate solutions could be developed.
The review found that the mining, engineering, and planning teams lacked a robust process for effective collaboration and coordination across the operation to support the weekly mine plan. Communication was often weak between teams and across shifts, resulting in plans that could not be executed due to poor design or ineffective handovers.
ORBIZ recommended developing a local Management Operating System (MOS) to strengthen communication, coordination, and collaboration across the underground mining operation and improve execution of the weekly mine plan.
The solutions
The MOS targeted the improvement of three critical elements of the existing management system:
Operational coordination: A Visual Performance Centre (VPC) was established as a central forum where mining teams and support functions could align on planning, review progress, and manage performance. These meetings coordinated and monitored the delivery of the weekly mine plan across each shift.
Short-interval control: The weekly mine plan with a two-week look-ahead was displayed on the VPC, with targets defined in 12-hour single shift intervals across all work fronts to create a detailed execution schedule. Progress was reviewed every three hours to identify delays or operational issues early and resolve them in real time, helping keep planned work on schedule.
Leadership routines and management practices: Daily and weekly routines across leadership, engineering, and planning teams were standardised so each person could fulfil their role consistently and sustain the MOS effectively. These routines and practices were documented to formalise them and enable auditing by each leadership layer to ensure compliance.
ORBIZ facilitated the improvement project and co-designed the solutions with local teams, building the ownership needed for long-term sustainability. This was supported by formal training in the new tools and practices, followed by extensive on-the-job coaching to embed them into daily routines and business-as-usual.
Several leaders adopted a more collaborative approach as traditional barriers between teams and departments broke down, and the workforce recognised that consistently meeting daily and weekly targets depended on collective success.
The improvement activity was completed over a 12-week period during the June quarter.
During the June quarter, ore mined from underground increased by 12% from 266,300 tonnes in the March quarter to 298,800 tonnes. Gold production also increased 11% from 59,200 oz to 66,000 oz.
In the September quarter, ore mined from underground increased by a further 8% to 322,700 tonnes. Gold production also increased by a further 9% to 72,200 oz.
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