Insight
The mine
of the future
Advanced technologies are changing
the mining industry as we know it,
writes Gys Kappers.
N
ew products and services
require different materials,
which affects demand
for traditional minerals and
commodities. This will influence
demand for primary resources in
the long term. For the foreseeable
future, this state is the ‘new
normal’. The mining industry will
have to embrace this disruption,
both as a constraint and as an
enabler, to cope with this trend.
So, what will the mine of the
future look like? Change, in every
respect, is needed for survival.
At the heart of this change, is
people. If mining companies
are to succeed, they will require
a deeper understanding of the
shifting community to improve
the social divide. Furthermore,
increased demand for transparency
and accountability in business
transactions globally, is forcing
the sector to relook how people
and the industry are managed.
Innovative thinking needs
to influence the way mining
companies engage with workers
and surrounding communities.
New technologies and ways of
connecting have the potential
to influence a different outcome
for the broader community; one
that makes the mining house and
community share the responsibility
for a changing landscape with
divergent future scenarios.
Management in the digital age
should be concerned with the
deployment and coordination of
[48] MINING MIRROR FEBRUARY 2018
people and resources at various
levels of the organisation, to
steer a new course to realising
strategies. The difference here is
that the organisation and its key
resources will be digitally enabled
with a view to become far more
efficient. Structures and jobs will
be fluid and permeable, merging
into value ecosystems rather than
value chains. People will work
in virtual teams and disband as
needs change. The management
challenge will lie in data analysis,
and deploying and coordinating
people and digital resources in
ways that will enable people to do
what they do best and leave digital
technology to do what it does best.
Innovation should drive more
than cost reduction — it can
help mitigate and manage risk,
strengthen business models, and
foster more effective relations.
Mining companies need to prepare
to shift traditional entrenched
models, plan for future scenarios
where collaboration is at the
centre of a lean operation, and
use digitalisation to enable and
drive the industry forward. b
About the author
Gys Kappers is the CEO of
Wyzetalk, a South Africa-based
digital engagement company.