Skills, tighter controls brought about change
Rigorous monitoring and auditing system have added to improved operations
The turnaround in performance at Lonmin’s processing division, particularly its smelter, is nothing less than remarkable, and Johan Janssen puts it down to vigilance on what goes into the furnaces, combined with the skills levels of an experienced management team.
A big change, too, has been the focus on security, with far tighter controls kept over metals. Tighter plant security, higher levels of automation and a rigorous monitoring and auditing system have resolved problems in this area.
Janssen, Lonmin vice president: processing, arrived in June 2008, just months before the crash of global markets and the start of a decade-long downturn and stagnant platinum prices. This forced fresh thinking around innovation, with management continuously reviewing existing practices and having employees as highly trained and motivated as possible.
“It’s easy to boast about equipment but it’s actually all about our people,” he says.
The division retains people for 14 years on average, meaning the skills learnt are kept within the company. At a higher level, the silo-thinking of the past has been removed, with managers of shafts and the processing business, along with group services, meeting every Friday to talk about their performance, meaning vital information is shared and quickly disseminated, says Janssen.
Bringing decades-long experience from Denel and Arcelormittal, he has a passion for housekeeping. It was through this that Lonmin recovered an unexpected windfall of 140,000 platinum ounces, cleaning up its plants.
Over the past decade, Lonmin’s margins were squeezed and its balance sheet came under pressure, to a point that the company has been closing mining capacity, making life difficult for processing, which has a sweet spot of
850,000 platinum ounces a year.
The company's new target has been set at an average of around 650,000 ounces, so the division has been actively hunting thirdparty concentrate, albeit lower grade, to fill the smelter and precious and base metal refineries.
The Lonmin team has successfully landed concentrate agreements with third parties over the past two years. “We always have to think how we get one step ahead,” Janssen says.