Ramp-up · Maintenance · Mining & process plants
Get your plant to nameplate — and keep it there.
Independent operations advisor for owners of mining, metals and process plants. I work as your external VP Operations on retainer, or start with a fixed-scope two-week diagnostic.
20 years in heavy-industry operations: McKinsey, Partners in Performance, Deputy COO at Nordgold. First measurable result in 4–8 weeks — without a 20-person team or a permanent hire.
What usually goes wrong
In every ramp-up and turnaround I've worked on, the same five things break first
The maintenance plan exists, but nobody manages plan-vs-actual.
Emergency work crowds out planned work, and availability leaks away week by week.
The spares are wrong.
Too much of what doesn't fail, not enough of what does — and no criticality classes to tell them apart.
KPIs stop at the general manager's desk.
The shift supervisor doesn't know which number decides whether today was a good day.
Operating roles are filled late.
The plant is commissioned before the people who will run it know how it is meant to run.
Nobody trusts the data.
Every meeting starts with an argument about whose numbers are right.
None of this is solved by a thick report. It is solved by putting a few management routines in place and running them until they stick.
How we can work together
Every engagement starts small and fixed-scope
A retainer comes only after you've seen how I work.
Ramp-up Readiness Review
- For
- CEO / COO of an asset in construction or ramp-up
- What you get
- Operational readiness review — people, processes, maintenance, KPI cascade, data — and a 100-day plan
- Duration
- 2–3 weeks
- Then
- Retainer for the ramp-up period
Maintenance System Diagnostic
- For
- VP Maintenance & Reliability, Technical Director, Plant Manager
- What you get
- Schedule adherence, criticality, spares, failure history, availability losses; an effect estimate in money
- Duration
- 2 weeks
- Then
- Implementation support, then a retainer
First 100 Days
- For
- Newly appointed COO, GM or VP Operations
- What you get
- A structured plan for the first 100 days, plus weekly sparring sessions
- Duration
- 1 month
- Then
- Ongoing advisory
The retainer: an external VP Operations
A fixed monthly fee for access to judgment, not hours:
- a response within 24 hours;
- 2–4 working sessions a month with your operations team;
- a monthly operating review with you;
- a quarterly on-site deep dive;
- one scope only: the ramp-up or maintenance plan we agreed actually gets executed;
- 30 days' notice either way.
Track record
From operating roles and consulting engagements
| Where | What changed |
|---|---|
| Nordgold — Deputy COO; acting COO for 8 months (9 assets, 9,000 people) | Bottleneck removal worth +USD 45M a year in operating cash flow; all four managed assets turned FCF-positive, top-quartile all-in cost (–USD 98/oz); recovery 68% → 74% |
| Nordgold — maintenance & spares | Fleet availability brought to the industry benchmark: 85–87% for haul trucks, 85% for excavators |
| Gold mine, Ghana (Partners in Performance) | +56% productivity |
| Underground mine, nickel producer (Partners in Performance) | Plan adherence 50% → 88% with an IT-based planning system across 3 mines |
| Ferroalloy producer, Kazakhstan (McKinsey) | +15% smelting productivity in 3.5 months; +25% daily productivity in underground mining |
| EuroChem — Head of the Business System, mining division | ~USD 30M impact in the first year across 4 sites |
| SUEK — maintenance program | Program for 41,900 equipment units approved by the Strategic Committee; development rate +15–22% in 4 weeks |
| RUSAL — maintenance kaizen | MTBF +211%, repair time –12% |
| EVRAZ — Head of the Target Operating Model Program | Operating-model transformation for 40,000+ employees across 6 assets |
Saudi Arabia and the Gulf
Working in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf
Since May 2026 I've worked with international consulting firms on engagements in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, including on-site work in the Kingdom.
- In 2026, led a four-month project at Ma'aden as part of a consulting team.
- On site for the diagnostic and key reviews; remote between visits.
- English-language contracts, signed and invoiced directly with me as a sole proprietor.
- Experience running operations with mixed expatriate and local teams, from West Africa to Central Asia.
- I'll be in Riyadh for the Future Minerals Forum in January.
FAQ
Why not a large consulting firm?
Large firms are the right choice for a 6-month, 15-person program. If what you need is a senior practitioner who has run mines and maintenance systems himself, working alongside your team for a fraction of that cost, that's what I do.
Do you work remotely?
Mostly, yes. Diagnostics and quarterly reviews happen on site; the rest is remote.
How is the fee set?
Diagnostics have a fixed price, quoted after the first call. The retainer is a fixed monthly fee, agreed once the diagnostic is done.
Confidentiality?
An NDA before any data changes hands. I don't share client material, and the cases on this page are described without client data.
Is your asset where you expected it to be on the ramp-up curve?
Twenty minutes is usually enough to tell whether I can help. If I can't, I'll say so.