Sustainability - the key to success

2013 was a challenging year for Australia’s mining industry as companies faced volatile commodity prices, increasing global supply coming online and shareholders with limited appetite for risk. Australia’s miners are under increased pressure to ensure more sustainable operations through increased productivity and better cost management. The sprint for production expansion at any cost is very much changing into a sustainable production at manageable cost marathon.

While most of the market fundamentals driving increased global demand are still prevalent, it is clear that only the companies which are able to manage cost along their entire supply chain, and manage production and scheduling based on better demand forecasting, will have the sustainable business model to thrive.

Australian miners face some of the highest costs on the planet. As such, the focus on automation as a key to improving productivity levels, and information availability to aid better real-time decision making, are non-negotiable. Vendors able to provide their customers with solutions that aid decision making in all aspects - from energy utilisation, production and asset management, through to supply chain optimisation - hold the key to facing some of the industry’s biggest challenges.

Reducing costs needs to be undertaken as a journey, not a knee-jerk reaction to market fluctuations. One of the key enablers of this is an understanding of costs with context - for example, energy costs in the context of production, and in the context of supply constraints and demand requirements. Every component in the plant that provides information makes up a piece of this puzzle and can ultimately aid in an intelligent decision-making process about where to optimise, gain efficiencies or reduce costs.

Increasingly, there is a need to provide these solutions within the context of real-time supply and demand forces and constraints. Vendors that provide these integrated solutions are conscious of the need for open integration. Customers using a single vendor solution have an expectation there will be added value such as out-of-the-box integration, better diagnostics, more context to data, better support, etc. However, this still needs to be based on open technologies and industry standards to allow easy integration of third-party systems and allow customers best-of-breed choice.

Investment into new and current mining operations has to be made with these fundamentals in mind to ensure the long-term sustainability of the operation. For new projects, this approach will ultimately ensure the creation of integrated intelligent operations, enabling optimum productivity and controlled quality. For existing operations, the ability to sweat your assets by extending their life through better asset management and increasing the value of their input to decision-making toolsets will ensure the best possible return on investment.

Mining companies cannot change market conditions or global trends; however, they can change the way they operate and base their decision-making on sound contextual data, leading to sustainable operations in any market environment.

*Rocco de Villiers has been involved in the automation and optimisation industry for 25 years. Currently General Manager Marketing and Operations, Industry Business at Schneider Electric and based in Sydney, he has been with the company for approximately five years. Prior to this role, he was based in Adelaide and then Brisbane as the industry sales manager for SA/NT and then Queensland.