Cases
Situation, what we did, result.
Eight cases from operating roles and consulting engagements in mining, metals and chemicals. Clients of consulting engagements are described by industry and country only; employers are named.
Selected cases
Four gold assets to stable cash flow
Nordgold — Deputy COO
- Situation
- Four gold assets in Russia, Kazakhstan, Guinea and Burkina Faso had to reach stable cash flow and competitive costs.
- What we did
- Bottleneck removal, recovery improvement, a new incentive system and a flatter management structure; the savings were reinvested.
- Result
- All four turned FCF-positive (+USD 2M to +54M), top-quartile costs (–USD 98/oz); bottleneck removal +USD 45M a year OCF; recovery 68% → 74% (~USD 6M); labor productivity +22%; a new mine built from the savings.
Fleet availability to industry benchmark
Nordgold — maintenance & spares
- Situation
- No working spares system at the mines: parts were ordered after a failure, with unplanned downtime and excess stock at the same time.
- What we did
- Min/max levels for critical parts, consignment stock with the equipment makers on site, a repair vs. replace vs. outsource model, in-house component rebuilds.
- Result
- 85–87% availability for haul trucks, 85% for excavators — the industry benchmark.
Business system across four sites
EuroChem — Head of the Business System, mining division
- Situation
- A mining division with four sites needed throughput and cost results, not another methodology.
- What we did
- Four navigator teams; mine and beneficiation-plant debottlenecking; cost dialogues and delegated budgets; visual management, motivation system and KPI cascade; an ideas factory and training academy.
- Result
- ~USD 30M impact in the first year (300 kt of KCl).
Maintenance program for 41,900 equipment units
SUEK — acting Head of Operations Improvement
- Situation
- No standard material norms for repairs; development at two Kuzbass coal mines needed to speed up.
- What we did
- Three teams on two pilot projects; standard material norms, prioritization of repairs, repair vs. replace analysis.
- Result
- Development rate +15–22% at both mines in 4 weeks; maintenance program for 41,900 units (RUB 15.4B budget) approved by the Strategic Committee.
Pump reliability at an alumina refinery
RUSAL — project manager, repair optimization
- Situation
- Frequent unplanned pump repairs and poor coordination between the warehouse and maintenance.
- What we did
- A kaizen team, a rotating pool of rebuilt units, statistical failure tracking with root-cause analysis, an alternative pump design.
- Result
- MTBF +211%, repair time –12%; about 30% of unplanned repairs removed.
Underground mine planning
Nickel producer (Partners in Performance)
- Situation
- Underground mines were meeting their plans about half the time.
- What we did
- An IT-based underground planning system across three mines.
- Result
- Plan adherence 50% → 88%.
Ferroalloy smelting and underground mining
Ferroalloy producer, Kazakhstan (McKinsey)
- Situation
- Smelting furnaces and an underground ferrochrome mine running below potential.
- What we did
- Short-interval control of process modes and charge feeding at the smelter; an operational improvement program in the mine.
- Result
- +15% smelting productivity in 3.5 months; +25% daily productivity in underground mining.
Operating model for 40,000+ employees
EVRAZ — Head of the Target Operating Model Program
- Situation
- A metallurgical and mining holding with 6 assets in 3 geographies needed one operating model.
- What we did
- Three functional management contours with re-allocated roles and decision rights; a catalog of key processes with target KPIs per owner; focused projects in maintenance, HSE and logistics; a transformation office of 18+ people.
- Result
- Holding-wide operating-model transformation launched for 40,000+ employees across 6 assets.
Want to compare your numbers with these?
Twenty minutes is usually enough to tell whether I can help. If I can't, I'll say so.