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The Mandela Mining Precinct’s Real-Time Information Management Systems (RTIMS) research programme partnered with Digital Twin to establish a business case decision making and validation tool that assist mining companies in adopting digital technologies in their processes.

“The tool is used to compare the value-add of an initiative to a base case,” explains project leader, Matthew Duddy of Digital Twin, adding that the excel based tool allows users to determine the value of implementing a digital initiative by modelling the financial and non-financial benefits of the initiative.

Working closely with the RTIMS Technical Steering Committee, Duddy and his team derived 12 non-financial value drivers, including safety; the environment; security and people. Users can input the value add of each category, as well as rate its associated risks. An ease of implementation rating is also required, as well as the necessary financial data. “The tool does require baseline or steady state mining and financial information reflecting current operations e.g.: gold produced, recovery yield, etc.,” explained Duddy. “Using all this information, the tool provides an overview of where your initiative is breaking even over a five-year period, providing a cash-flow breakdown for the initiative”.

Using the non-financial information provided, the user is able to view the risk exposure plotted on a graph to easily assess the risks. In addition, the report derived allows the user to isolate certain criteria as deemed a priority to the mining house, thereby enhancing decision-making based on that which is deemed important. This important function helps users quickly determine the ease of implementation.

 

Potential users are invited to trial the tool, contact Jean-Jacques Verhaeghe jverhaeghe@mandelaminingprecinct.org.za

 

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