The recent edition of COMPASS, THE 3DEXPERIENCE MAGAZINE features a Natural Resources article discussing how mine owners are using technology to control costs. Below is an excerpt.
Today’s economic environment has fundamentally altered commodity demand and prices, making it more difficult for mining companies to predict future patterns. Although long-term demand for natural resources, particularly by industrializing nations, is expected to rise, short-term pressures are forcing companies to examine their operations.
During the mining boom of recent years, mining companies focused on getting as much material out of the ground as quickly as possible; closely monitoring costs and overall productivity was not a priority. The result: the mining industry benefited from rising output, but didn’t reap the marginal profit growth that should have come with it.
“Mining was a low-growth business for much of the 20th century, so we were caught off-guard by the pace of China’s early 21st-century urbanization and industrialization,” Andrew Mackenzie, CEO of global resources company BHP Billiton, said in a June 2013 speech to the Melbourne Mining Club. “Demand was met in part by higher cost – much higher cost – operations. And many invested poorly to the detriment of their owners. Finding five dollars of savings per metric ton did not seem as pressing when prices were skyrocketing. But it really matters now.”
With the “low hanging fruit” of the easiest-to-mine deposits gone, companies are forced to enter more remote and costly-to-develop regions. Labor issues, favorable political environments, financing, and monitoring and safety challenges all become more difficult and expensive in far-flung locations.
Read more to learn how GEOVIA customers are optimising strategies and tackling change with Dassault Systèmes technology.
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