There is nothing small about a greenfield mining company’s transition from the mining exploration phase to becoming an owner operator for the mining operations. The costs, resources and effort required to support such a transition are extensive and, if not adequately planned for, can have an adverse impact on the overall project.
Mining projects typically consist of five phases:
- Establish
- Execution
- Commissioning
- Production
- Closure
The first three phases relate to getting the project to a point where it is set-up and ready to operate while the last 2 phases relate to the project’s operations.
This article will share an Operational Readiness Planning (ORP) framework which has been applied to greenfield mining companies to ensure their capital projects are achieved on time and within budget.
What makes a planning framework robust is one that addresses all aspects of a project ensuring its foundations are solid so that the project can operate smoothly. In this case, the ORP framework focuses on:
- People – including the company’s organisational design, team’s capability and their level of engagement
- Technology – the platforms required for the company to operate efficiently, including application integration
- Process – the work and the deliverables that a company needs to do to meet its business objectives and putting accountability in place for each
It applies these 3 aspects to both the core functional areas as well as supporting functional areas of the project with the fundamental aim of ensuring progressive and just-in-time ramp-up of capability as the project moves from construction through to commissioning and operations.
Cubility’s Operational Readiness Planning Framework
This also includes an HR focus on recruitment, training and culture as the company moves from being an exploration company towards commissioning and operations. These people-specifics are shown in the diagram below.
As mentioned in our previous article “Operations Readiness and why planning upfront is essential to project success”, the best way to mitigate risk within a project is to implement a structured plan from the onset combined with regular check-ins to keep a project on track as far as possible.
When working with capital projects of this nature, a robust operations plan makes all the difference in ensuring business objectives are achieved on time and within budget.
At Cubility we assist clients in this regard by utilising our in-house developed “Mine-in-a-box” solution incorporating a framework, best-practice models and roadmap to deliver an Operational Readiness Plan (ORP) that is aligned to their business objectives.
Cubility is a management and technology consultancy that works with businesses to solve operational problems, improve compliance and manage change well. To speak to one of our consultants about Operations Readiness for your business please get in touch with us, we would love to hear from you.
