Embracing digital technology will help revive mining sector
Smart data analysis and workers armed with communication tools will boost output
The SA delegation led by President Cyril Ramaphosa returned from Davos with fresh commitment to attract investment, unlock growth and build the skills needed to accelerate job creation in a technologically changing world.
Employment in the mining sector, historically the bedrock of SA’s economy, has fallen by a 10th in the past 10 years. At the same time, McKinsey research indicates that the productivity of many SA mining operations has declined, even as mining companies in other regions have rapidly improved productivity.
The result is that much of the SA mining industry is losing global competitiveness. When we assessed SA mines in four major commodities gold, platinum group metals, coal and iron ore we found that 47% of jobs, along with 42% of revenues, were in the bottom quartile of global cost competitiveness. That means many mines are less profitable than their global peers and more vulnerable to cost or pricing changes.
The industry needs to harness the transformative potential of digital technologies, which could improve the margins of SA mining companies by as much as 15 percentage points, according to our analysis. Digital could also bring about a stepchange in workers’ skill sets, experience and wellbeing.
There are two big digital opportunities SA mining companies can embrace: enabling the front line with technology, and improving performance through extracting value from data. Let’s explore each in turn.
To enable front-line workers and supervisors to thrive in SA’s tough mining conditions, companies can deploy technologies that improve employee safety, performance management and visibility particularly underground. For example, companies can provide connected devices, managed by workers, that communicate real-time data on tasks, work plans and progress reports.
One global precious metals mining company issued connected tablets to its underground workforce to foster realtime communication, collaboration and sharing of best practices underground. That greatly improved working conditions and boosted productivity by 10%. SA mining firms can do the same, and use such technologies to help shape a more motivated, collaborative culture.
Companies can also improve their performance through datadriven insights. They already generate swathes of data across their operations, but few use it to generate real value. The pioneers are showing the way. For example, an SA gold-processing plant applied advanced analytics across the key processing steps in a 30-year-old plant and improved recovery by up to 2% while reducing costs.
Elsewhere in Africa, a precious metals miner consolidated data from disparate sources into a data lake, then used advanced data analytics to identify improvements it could implement in a few months. It boosted recovery in its plant by 4%, even while grades were declining.
A North American base metals mining company harnessed advanced analytics to increase the tons produced per day by more than 10%, from both throughput and recovery improvements. It created an artificial intelligence “adviser” that makes recommendations twice a day to optimise settings on controllable variables.
To achieve similar gains, SA mining companies will need to overcome challenges such as connectivity in deep underground mines and a lack of digital skills. But with effective design thinking they can take advantage of technologies that allow more frequent underground connectivity and tailor their digital solutions to the specific skill levels of each mine.
Indeed, companies can embrace digital to enhance the skills of the entire workforce and shape new ways of working across their organisations. That matters. McKinsey’s organisational health index, which measures dimensions such as leadership, employee motivation and the work environment, shows there is an eight percentage point difference in operational effectiveness between mines with top-quartile organisational health and those in the bottom quartile.
We should emphasise that in the drive for digitisation there is plenty of room for collaboration.
For example, companies can create joint digital mining innovation hubs and incubators, and co-develop infrastructure and technology to lower capital costs and reduce any investment risks.
Of course, digital initiatives are not the only part of the puzzle: other key steps are needed to restore the competitiveness and growth of SA mining.
For example, SA can unlock its high-potential mining assets in regions such as the Northern Cape, which is rich in quality iron ore and manganese reserves. Doing so could create tens of thousands of jobs in the Northern Cape.
It’s time to recast the story of SA mining, which has recently been dominated by headlines about conflict and stagnation. By embracing technology-enabled mining, SA can realise major improvements in productivity and worker wellbeing and revitalise the industry as an engine of value creation, employment and growth.
SA COMPANIES WILL NEED TO OVERCOME CHALLENGES SUCH AS CONNECTIVITY IN DEEP UNDERGROUND MINES
WE SHOULD EMPHASISE THAT IN THE DRIVE FOR DIGITISATION THERE IS PLENTY OF ROOM FOR COLLABORATION