Miners must alter business model to boost productivity: study – BiV

July 24, 2014

Productivity in the mining sector has been steadily declining for a decade, and miners need to make radical changes to their business models to reverse this trend, according to an EY study released July 24.

Mining companies have made a “conscious choice” to pursue growth in headline revenue and volumes during a time of commodity price growth and this has led to an inefficient use of labour and equipment, damaging productivity, said EY Canadian mining and metals leader Bruce Sprague.

Growth was the only goal for many companies since 2000 when it came to developing processes, corporate culture and performance measures, according to the report.

“Behavioural change is critical given that many mine managers, frontline engineers and operations supervisors appointed to these positions during the super cycle have never operated under a marginal environment,” reads the report, entitled Productivity in mining: A case for broad transformation.