Adopting a Value Mindset to Drive Productivity in Mining ... · SNC-Lavalin Mining & Metallurgy – Sustaining Capital & Consulting Services Adopting a Value Mindset To Drive Productivity

Adopting a Value Mindset to Drive Productivity in Mining and Metallurgy

Tackling the Value Imperative Head-On with Insight and Pragmatism

Sustaining Capital & Consulting Services – Mining & Metallurgy

SNC-Lavalin Mining & Metallurgy – Sustaining Capital & Consulting Services

Adopting a Value Mindset To Drive Productivity in Mining and Metallurgy 2

Contents

The Value Mindset in Mining and Metallurgy 3-4

Developing a Holistic View onto Asset Portfolios and Operations 5

Being Adaptable While Staying True to the Guiding Stars of Value 6

Driving Scalability – Zoning in to Generate Value Quickly 7

Case Study: How Technical Experience and Applied Analytics Helped a Gold Mine Boost Performance 8

Building on Demonstrated Results to Develop a Value Mindset 9

Executive Summary 10

SNC-Lavalin’s Sustaining Capital & Consulting Services Practice 11

Contacts Back



The Value Mindset in Mining and Metallurgy

Overcoming market pressures to achieve performance with speed, agility and scalability.

In today’s market, where commodities are

not only volatile but hitting record lows,

mining and metallurgy companies are

postponing growth capital and are focusing

on getting more out of their existing assets.

These are rigorously managed as owners

are looking at ways to reduce their costs and

drive productivity within their existing capital

portfolio.

With easy savings already harvested in most operations,

owners are looking for incremental improvements – more

difficult to identify and capture. Trade-offs are made on

existing assets, either sacrificing their lifespan for greater

productivity or vice versa. The pressure coming from

investors and stakeholders combined with daily operational

challenges is making it harder than ever to ensure that the

right decisions are being made to favor both short term

efficiency and long term growth.



Honing in on Productivity Amid Growing Pressures

While operations grow bigger and more complex, knowing where and how to act to promote productivity in an

environment with intense scrutiny on spending is challenging. Mining and metallurgy companies don’t have the luxury

of time to be certain in identifying the best improvements before then attempting to implement them. Many end up

skipping the step of considering their integrated portfolio and operations before jumping to specific areas they hope

will yield the best returns. In doing so, they could end up missing significant opportunities that would have been faster

and easier to put in place.

Those that are successful in quickly zoning in on the most impactful productivity plays have an in-depth

understanding of their end-to-end operations value chain as well as their overall asset portfolio. They are adaptable

and quickly able to pinpoint where and how to act to realize value. They promote continuous improvement based on

consistently demonstrating the Return on Investment (ROI) and Return on Assets (ROA) of each initiative

undertaken, building on the value they deliver as they go.

But how to generate productivity quickly and pragmatically?

Developing a Holistic View onto Your Asset Portfolios and

Operations

An end-to-end understanding of the operations value

chain of a project is required before zoning in on

certain areas to drive productivity improvements.

Similarly, an in-depth grasp of your asset portfolio and

how each asset contributes to your overall strategy is

a must to best optimize and manage. Developing this

holistic view doesn’t need to be an overly lengthy

exercise. More and more, mining and metallurgy

companies are able to quickly assess and map out

the relationships and value contributions of each

element of their value chain and global portfolio. This

avoids siloed analyses that can severely limit the

value creation potential of improvement initiatives.



By taking action prior to understanding the big picture,

the integrated nature of operational and strategic

management challenges can be overlooked, resulting

in missing the key enablers to step-change

improvements. For instance, when trying to optimize

bottleneck activities, operational value chain

assessments can capture up to 15% more

productivity gains by taking into account

consequential impacts of up and downstream

processes in addition to the bottlenecks.

“...when trying to optimize bottleneck activities, operational value chain assessments can

capture up to 15% more productivity gains by taking into account consequential impacts of up

and downstream processes in addition to the bottlenecks.”

To be able to quickly make sense of all layers of your business, from overall strategy through to engineering

procedures at one particular site, mining and metallurgy executives are relying on applied analytics infused with

performance accelerators and deep technical expertise. This allows for the data-driven solutions of applied analytics

to be quickly tailored to the engineering and construction realities of mining and metallurgy companies.



Being Adaptable While Staying True to the Guiding Stars of Value

With the rate of change in today’s commodity

markets, adaptability is primordial to quickly respond

to the evolving marketplace and demands of delivery

milestones. While the value levers are limited, the

improvement options are nearly infinite: scale

operations up and down profitably while managing

risks, driving process efficiencies from daily

operations, investing in asset reliability, managing

cost leakages, etc. The best route to take needs to be

chartered according to a cohesive strategy that

articulates the guiding stars of value, those end-goal

objectives that determine whether your business is

performing on track. Staying the course to deliver

objectives while being flexible in defining the best

route to realize them requires the ability to understand

the implications involved in each decision trade-off

and the real-time value realization of improvement

activities.

Often value-driving initiatives are undertaken to drive

improvements in key indicators at the expense of

others down the value chain; by understanding how

decisions impact all your key performance metrics,

you can make better decisions on which initiatives to

pursue.



Driving Scalability – Zoning in to Generate Value Quickly

Once value driving initiatives are identified, acting on

those that are fast to achieve performance targets

allows you to test out and refine an understanding of

your value chain and portfolio. With first wins, you can

then step-correct your approach and tackle even

greater value generating initiatives, scaling as you go.

To obtain those quick wins and drive efficient and

effective value play initiatives, an in-depth

understanding of technical realities is required to best

interpret data-driven insights and define the best

initiatives to implement. Performance accelerators,

such as benchmark repositories and value realization

frameworks, facilitate the rapid deployment of these

initiatives and ensure that they yield the value

targeted. Without real-world technical expertise and

performance accelerators, analytics empowered

insights will fall short of delivering desired results.

It is the combination of applied analytics, technical

expertise and a value-focus enabled by performance

accelerators that can quickly unlock hidden value

from existing capital assets and projects.



How Real-world Technical Expertise Combined with Applied

Analytics Helped a Gold Mine to Boost Performance

› The issue – Based on an additional exploration program, an active open-pit heap-leach gold mine operation was

preparing to expand significantly. At the same time, this mine was looking to revitalize its existing operation to

significantly increase throughput and overall gold recovery.

› The solution - Taking an end-to-end view on operations through the lens of applied analytics enabled the mine to

increase ore processing capacity by a factor of 5, grow recovery by as much as 20%, and reprocess existing heap

leach stockpiles with a more current technology. This project is also expected to extend the life of mine by 10

years.

› The approach - The new exploration campaign information and the existing mine’s operational data, including the

unstructured and unused, were reviewed and analyzed. The resulting insights informed targeted site reviews and

quickly pointed to higher than desired ore being lost in heap leaching residue. New optimized processing technology

was confirmed and modeling conducted to unlock the mine’s new performance levels. Key steps undertaken were:

› Conducted comparative studies and ran ‘what-if’ scenarios to determine the optimal mine production schedule and the

optimal process plant design for the specific ore body, based on results of metallurgical testing taking into account the wide

range of ore properties;

› Modeled social and environmental impacts;

› Designed the processing plant and major infrastructure (tailings storage facility, ore haulage roads, dump facilities, river

diversion and bridge) based on the optimal scenario;

› Estimated the CAPEX and OPEX for the optimal scenario at a bankable pre-feasibility level;

› Combined deep expertise from process plant design, mining, geotechnical and hydro-geological engineering, mining

environment and project planning using analytics technology to define the most effective solution for variable ore body and

heap leaching residue reprocessing.



Building on Demonstrated Results to Develop a Value Mindset, a Constant Engine Moving Your Portfolio Forward

Value campaigns are often initiated but rarely

maintained without massive and continuous

investment. While the intent is for these programs to

continue well beyond the first few initiatives and

become part of the organizational fabric, a lack of

employee buy-in to the changes required can put a

halt to improvement initiatives realizing targeted

benefits.

With today’s intuitive analytics solutions and tools,

campaigns have a much higher rate of success as

employees at all levels can be involved in, not only

implementing initiatives, but identifying them as well.

By empowering your existing talent to understand

vectors of change and even leveraging natural

competition between teams through gamification, new

tools and technologies can drive collaboration and

make your productivity campaign a self-fuelled

success.

Far from being limited only to the ivory tower of mine

management, applied analytics solutions, supported

by visualization tools, can promote continual usage at

all levels and contribute to the type of ongoing

collaboration required for true innovation in

productivity.



Executive Summary

As mining and metallurgy companies focus on driving productivity and overall returns

out of existing assets, rapidity, adaptability and scalability in execution are essential in

today’s volatile environment. The most performant are equipping themselves with the

capabilities and tools to rapidly zone in on the most impactful areas to optimise across

portfolios and end-to-end operations, flexibly adjusting as market demands change and

scaling quickly towards continuous improvement and optimal performance.

1. Developing a Holistic View onto Asset

Portfolios and Operations

Understanding value levers across portfolios and

end-to-end operations is required to hone in on

those areas that will yield the most returns.

To gain these insights quickly, mining and

metallurgy companies are turning to applied

analytics infused with performance accelerators

and deep technical knowledge and expertise.

2. Being Adaptable while staying true to the

Guiding Stars of Value

As market conditions evolve, it is important to

put in place systems and tools that provide an

updated view onto the performance and health

of portfolio and operations to allow for

adjustments in line with overall strategies.

3. Driving Scalability – Zoning in to Generate

Value Quickly

With intense scrutiny on spending that isn’t

strictly required to keep operations moving,

decisions on where to invest need to be oriented

towards rapid value realization.

An in-depth understanding of technical realities

is required to best interpret data-driven insights

and define the best initiatives to implement,

while performance accelerators add a value-lens

and facilitate rapid deployment. Once quick wins

are established, it is important to maintain the

momentum towards continuous improvement.

4. Building on Demonstrated Results to

Develop a Value Mindset, a Constant Engine

Moving Your Portfolio Forward

An ‘all hands on deck’ approach ensures buy-in

and commitment to realizing the changes

intended. By including all levels of your

organization from the C-Suite to the shop floor

in, not only executing improvement programs,

but also identifying the best sources of

improvement, follow-through on initiatives is

much higher. Empowering your workforce to

understand and drive value contributes not only

to a higher rate of adoption but also enhances

the pipeline of strong ideas for value creation.

With the democratization of analytics tools, it is

now easier to empower your people with the

value mindset, harnessing insights towards

greater productivity and performance.

Developing a Value Mindset Towards Productivity in Mining 11

About SNC-Lavalin

Founded in 1911, SNC-Lavalin is one of the leading engineering and construction groups in the world and a major player in the

ownership of infrastructure. From offices in over 50 countries, SNC-Lavalin’s employees provide EPC and EPCM services to

clients in a variety of industry sectors, including mining and metallurgy, oil and gas, environment and water, infrastructure and

clean power. SNC-Lavalin can also combine these services with its financing and operations and maintenance capabilities to

provide complete end-to-end project solutions. snclavalin.com

Our Mining & Metallurgy team combines global-caliber expertise with deep local capabilities to provide tailored solutions for

projects of any size, scope or complexity in the aluminium, gold, copper, iron ore, nickel, fertilizers and sulphur product sectors,

among others. snclavalin.com/en/mining-metallurgy

©2016 SNC-Lavalin Inc. All Rights Reserved. SCCS no. 0001

How SNC-Lavalin’s Sustaining Capital & Consulting Services

Practice Can Help Your Mining and Metallurgy Business With the pressures and constraints that come with operating in today’s mining and metallurgy environment,

companies are focusing on optimizing their existing capital to drive operational productivity as well as capital

efficiency. Mining and metallurgy companies are engaged in a constant balancing act of demonstrating top

performance to investors while maintaining their social licence to operate with key stakeholders and fine-tuning

workforce needs through the ups and downs of asset lifecycles.

SNC-Lavalin’s Sustaining Capital & Consulting Services (SC&CS) helps mining and metallurgy companies attain

higher value creation targets across their end-to-end operations and global portfolios. We deliver results by bringing

together our deep engineering and construction technical expertise with our value oriented consulting approach and

experience.

Our network of skilled advisors and experts empower their clients to make the best decisions at every level of

management across the following services:

› Portfolio Management

Holistic portfolio review to optimize assets

› Applied Analytics

Harvesting, via analytics, modeling, scheduling and simulations, the right data to drive the right decisions and promote the right behavior

› Capability Assessments and Benchmarking

Rapid reviews of portfolio and operations as compared to industry standards and leading practices

› Technical Due Diligence

Review of portfolio and operations

› Operational Readiness

Accelerating gears towards full capacity

› Operational and Asset Excellence

Acting on insight at every level and across operations, from process optimization to asset lifecycle management

› Process Control and Automation

Driving more rigor and efficiency from engineering processes

› Mine and Plant Services

Supporting day-to-day engineering and construction activities

› Mining Environment

Water, air and waste management, mine reclamation and general health and safety

To find out more

Contact our Team in Sustaining

Capital & Consulting Services

Harvey Wilson

+1 480 521 6146

[email protected]

Alex Dassa

+ 1 514 825 8345

[email protected]

Benoit Valiquette

+ 1 514 947 7594

[email protected]

Nathalie Viens

Vice-President, Global Sustaining Capital and Consulting Services

+1 514 984 8721

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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Adopting a Value Mindset to Drive Productivity in Mining ... · SNC-Lavalin Mining & Metallurgy – Sustaining Capital & Consulting Services Adopting a Value Mindset To Drive Productivity