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performance horizon:
Capturing productivity
gains from innovation
Metals and Mining September 2015
Hugh Durrant-Whyte
Ryan Geraghty
Ferran Pujol
Richard Sellschop
Contents
Sidebar: How a mine cut maintenance costs and improved equipment availability using advanced analytics9
Sidebar: Mining the unmineable: How digitization is paving the way for a mining company to move far beyond
historical frontiers10
The global mining industry is under pressure. In the The productivity imperative
short term, falling commodity prices are squeezing Our analysis shows that global mining productivity
cash flow. Looking ahead, many existing mines are has declined 3.5 percent a year over the past decade
maturing, resulting in the extraction of lower ore (Exhibit 1). This trend is evident across commodities,
grades and longer haul distances from the mine face; geographies, and most mining companies.
ore-body-replacement rates are in decline; and new-
mine-development times are increasing. On top of While there is debate about the cause of the
this, worldwide mining operations are as much as decline, there is universal agreement that this
28 percent less productive today than a decade ago performance is untenable. As the industry outlook
and thats after adjusting for declining ore grades.1 has deteriorated, most mining companies have
shelved or trimmed expansion plans and refocused
The industry has shifted its focus to improving on doing more with less. The result has been that
productivity by sweating existing assets, but this mining productivity has leveled off and even started
strategy will go only so far. Despite the industrys booms to recover in some locations and commodities.
and busts, the nature of mining has stayed the same
for decades. Achieving a breakthrough on productivity But there remains significant untapped potential for
performance demands rethinking how mining works. productivity improvement. One way to understand
the order of magnitude is to compare mining to
The potential to achieve such a breakthrough is now other industries such as upstream oil and gas,
coming within the industrys reach through digital steel, and oil refining. Based on our benchmarking,
and technology innovations that could transform we observe a global average overall equipment
key aspects of mining. In this article, we describe a effectiveness (OEE) performance of 27 percent
number of digital technologies that have long been for underground mining, 39 percent for open-pit
in the works and are now available and affordable mining, and 69 percent for crushing and grinding
enough to become operational at scale across compared with 88 percent for upstream oil and gas,
the mining industry. Their applications include 90 percent for steel, and 92 percent for oil refining.
building a more comprehensive understanding
of the resource base, optimizing material and Of course, mining differs from other industries
equipment flow, improving anticipation of failures, in many ways. It is highly variable, starting with
increasing mechanization through automation, and uncertainty about the nature of the resource being
monitoring performance in real time. mined. Mining operations often take place in
extreme environments and in far-flung locations.
Alone, each of these opportunities has real potential; Moving operators to the work site (whether by flying
together, they represent a fundamental shift in both them in, moving them underground, or from shaft
potential safety outcomes and how value can be to face) can consume valuable time in itself. And the
captured in the mining sector. We outline these opp- strains and stresses placed upon mining equipment
ortunities and raise several key questions that miners by rocks of unpredictable size and hardness result in
should ask themselves as they navigate the journey. frequent breakdowns.
Exhibit 1 There has been a global decline in mining productivity over the past decade.
100
85
75
70
0
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
But this is exactly the point. Smart planning and enabling communications among machinesis
coordination of activities are required to mitigate increasingly affordable and accessible. Smart
variability caused by external forces; disciplined grids can report power usage across millions
execution is needed to eliminate variability that of homes; sensors on remote deep-sea oil wells
miners create themselves. The path to a step change cause warning signs to flash at the central control
in mining productivity will come through reducing center when problems arise. In 2015, more data
and, where possible, eliminating the variability that are generated every day than existed in total
has made mining unique. through 2003. Miners already produce huge
amounts of sensor data, potentially enabling
An inflection point for the mining industry them to obtain a more accurate and consistent
We believe that the mining industry is at an picture of reality at the rock face than ever.
inflection point, in which digital technologies have
the potential to unlock new ways of managing Analytics and intelligence. Advances in
variability and enhancing productivity. The analytics, from machine learning to improved
large-scale adoption of four different clusters of statistical techniques for integrating data,
technologies is accelerating2: help turn vast data sets into insight about the
probability of future events. Telecommunication
Data, computational power, and companies, for example, use smart algorithms to
connectivity. Embedding vast numbers predict customer churn; retailers employ them
of sensors in physical objectschurning to aim offers at customers. Complex mining
out large volumes of data for analysis and tasks such as geological modeling, on-the-day
Continuous improvement
and blast maintenance
Optimized pit to port
Continuous learning
Exhibit 3 Significant potential comes from better understanding the resource base.
Rock recognition
Real-time assay
Optimized blast
Stockpile model Stockpile
Automated
Automated face Automated haul surveying
inspection trucks
Reduced
uncertainty Ore in ground Ore out of ground
Source: Rise of the machines, Hugh Durrant-Whyte, Maurice Lubbock Memorial Lecture, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom, May 14, 2015.
<1%
Data Infra- Data Analytics and Visual-
capture structure manage- automation ization
ment
Execution
Operational
information
Data not used
Data not in decision
Data not communi- making
Data not analyzed cated
Data not accessible
Failure Data not streamed
points captured or stored
(see sidebar How a mine cut maintenance costs Monitoring of real-time performance
and improved equipment availability using versus plan. One benefit of real-time data
advanced analytics). is knowing the state and location of every
piece of equipment in a mining operation at
Increased mechanization through every secondand, in particular, whether it is
automation. Automation offers the potential operating according to or outside of the plan.
to reduce operating costs, improve operating This real-time insight gives new meaning to
discipline, and take people out of harms operations performance management, taking the
way. Some technologies, notably automated conversation from one about monthly output to
haulage and drilling, have moved into full- one that focuses on variability and compliance
scale commercialization, while others, to plan. Furthermore, connecting this real-time
particularly automated blasting and shoveling, feed to a central operating center not only makes
are in testing. Our analysis suggests that the possible a real-time response but also moves
economics of haulage are soundreducing control to a more sophisticated decision-making
total cost of ownership by between 15 and capability at the center that can take actions to
40 percent, depending on the cost of labor optimize operations across the whole supply
although miners must manage several design chain, rather than local silos. This capability can
choices around pit configuration, equipment be deployed both to improve safety outcomes by
configuration, and operational transitions. detecting deviations from expected operating
Furthermore, our work on developing conditions and to maintain high equipment
automated mining operations has identified utilization and low operating cost consistent
opportunities to reduce the number of people with operating plans.
working in areas considered most dangerous
by more than 50 percent (see sidebar Mining Each opportunity is significant in itself, but
the unmineable: How digitization is paving achieving the full potential of all opportunities is
the way for a mining company to move far possible only if they are pursued in an integrated
beyond historical frontiers). fashion. We see three reasons for this.
First, the physical technology required for Second, in time, these decisions will be fed back to
automation provides the real-time flow of autonomous machines, not to human operators.
information that forms the foundation for The real value of completing this loop will be in
better insights. Investments in automation the learning it providesconsistently recorded
are best done alongside investments in systems decisions and actions that, working with machine
and tools that build a foundation for better learning algorithms, will be continuously refined to
decision making. get better with every iteration.
Lastly, once part of the system exists on a become valuable data in and of themselves; and
digitized platform, there are real benefits, or the broader the scope of the decision-making
network effects, to extending it across the supply algorithms, the more they reflect the best whole-
chain. The more data that are accessible to of-business outcomes for the operation.
decision-making algorithms, the more effective
they become; the more operational activities A fully integrated and automated mining supply
are systematized and recorded, the more they chain may not be universally realized in the near
Human
Augmented reality (built on better human-
machine interaction) 5
productivity Task-based activity monitoring
Total 370
1Estimates based on high-adoption-rates case (80% in operations management and 100% in equipment maintenance).
2Sized applications are those applications for which the economic value has been analyzed.
Source: McKinsey Global Institute
September 2015
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