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Productivity taxes costing millions
Most mining losses don’ t come from commodity prices; they come from operational friction that compounds across every shift, writes Arjen de Bruin, Group CEO at OIM Consulting.
Mining companies can tell you exactly what they spend on diesel, explosives, or labour. They can quantify the cost of downtime, track commodity price fluctuations by the hour, and model production scenarios years into the future. Yet across many mines, some of the industry’ s biggest losses still go largely unmeasured, because they are embedded in the way shifts roll out, day after day.
At OIM Consulting, our research across mining operations in sub-Saharan Africa suggests that as much as 10 % to 20 % of operational output can disappear between plan and execution. In some cases, mines are operating at just 42 % role execution effectiveness at supervisory level, while a typical 12-hour shift delivers only 5.5 hours of effective production time.
When taken at current commodity prices, this translates into tens and sometimes hundreds of millions of rands lost annually at a single operation. These are operational productivity taxes: recurring losses created by slow decisions, disconnected teams, reactive leadership, and frontline capability gaps. But – unlike commodity cycles – these issues are largely controllable and resolvable with the right interventions.
" In some cases, mines are operating at just 42 % role execution effectiveness at supervisory level, while a typical 12-hour shift delivers only 5.5 hours of effective production time."
68 sabusinessintegrator. co. za