INSIGHTS PRESENTED BY
Controlling Rising Costs
MiTRAQ is a platform designed for the mining industry, offerring global benchmarking and data analysis tools to help mining companies assess and improve their operational performance.
A gold miner had consistently increasing All-in Sustaining Cost (AISC) at one of its African mines.
Over a three-year period, AISC had risen by 17%.
The company was looking
for opportunities to understand why their costs were trending up and how the management could combat the problem.
Using MiTRAQ, the mining company analyzed the cost trend of three KPIs in particular:
- Total Site-Wide Cost / Tonnes Moved
- Mining Cost / Tonnes Mined
- Processing Cost / Tonnes Processed
The data showed that their costs on a per-tonne basis were actually improving compared to its peers in Africa.
The company was able to objectively assess performance and identify the real issue behind the growth of costs: it was an ore grade issue, as opposed to an efficiency issue.
The company began Reverse Circulation drilling and improved its ore identification process.
Gold output increased by 8%, overall costs stayed the same, whereas costs per ounce decreased by 7.4%.
