Cradle to grave
Flexible drill unleashed
Left: Caterpillar has released its new MD6200 rotary blasthole drill.
Above: The operator can adjust the mast angle in increments of five degrees from the
touch screen in the cab, with no special set-up required.
O
riginal equipment manufacturer
Caterpillar has released its new
MD6200 rotary blasthole drill.
According to the company, the MD6200
is designed as a production drill with the
flexibility to do pre-split drilling. The
drill is able to perform rotary or DTH
drilling in single-pass or multi-pass
modes and can drill holes of 127–200mm
(5.0–7.87 inches) in diameter. It can
drill at a negative angle up to 15 degrees,
which enables matching the slope of
the highwall for pre-split drilling. The
result is cleaner highwalls with less waste
material going to downstream operations.
For traditional production drilling, the
mast can tilt from vertical out to 30
degrees. The operator can adjust the
mast angle in increments of five degrees
from the touch screen in the cab, with no
special set-up required.
Managing the risk of procurement fraud
F
or businesses serious about
managing the risk of procurement
fraud and preventing the impact
of fraudulent transactions on operations,
understanding the indicators, which
most often involve inappropriate
employee–supplier relations, is the best
place to start.
According to Rudi Kruger, general
manager at LexisNexis Data Services,
common red flags include: employee
conflicts of interest; procurement
employees failing to keep good
transactional records or requiring
time to prepare for audits; low-quality
goods sourced from suppliers at higher
rates/prices; unauthorised social
interactions or excessive entertaining
of procurement staff by suppliers; and
unprofessional communication, such as
after-hours calls, texts, and social media
exchanges between employees and
suppliers.
www.miningmirror.co.za
Best practice for managing the risk
of procurement fraud include the
following measures:
•
•
Culture: Instil a culture of honesty and
ethical behaviour within the company
and communicate it to employees
regularly in an easily understandable
and accessible manner. “An integrity-
driven culture promotes the adherence
to rules of supplier–employee
engagement. It is important to appeal
to the ethical side of an employee’s
character, as it would encourage
them to refrain from participating in
fraudulent activities,” says Kruger.
Internal controls: Ensure adequate
internal controls are in place to
investigate, manage, monitor, and
audit the procurement process.
“Appoint credible employees to
oversee the procurement function
and apply strict policies and
procedures to the goods-and-service
sourcing process,” said Kruger. “It is
also wise to keep a list of preferred
suppliers that is sorted by industry,
capacity, quality, and so on.”
•
Stay informed: Know your suppliers
and employees better by regularly
vetting them as part of the policy.
The ability to identify procurement
fraud within a business is enhanced
with technology-enabled solutions, like
Lexis’s ProcureCheck, which assists
with procurement vetting and vendor
management. ProcureCheck is an easy to
use web-based system that is extremely
useful in the procurement process, as it
facilitates the verification of various data
sets, providing linkage to identify possible
conflicts of interest, pass-through
schemes, and shell companies.
JANUARY 2019 MINING MIRROR
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