During the year, we launched a remote monitoring and decision support hub in Brisbane, enabling our operational teams to make better decisions, faster, and save money across the business.

The hub went live for Telfer in January 2019 and for Cadia and Lihir in March. It enables us to maximise cashflow by providing the advanced analytics our operations need to quickly identify and make improvements, reducing the improvement cycle time from weeks to days.

A productivity supervisor staffs the hub each weekday from 5am to 8pm, monitoring performance and providing decision support. The sites and the hub catch up daily, with ongoing ad-hoc communication.

Improvement opportunities are captured as ‘decision support records’ and high-value improvements are programmed into the remote monitoring system, to automate the response to reoccurring events.

Following the first deep-dive analysis, Telfer modified its reagent addition rates to improve recovery in the flotation circuit. The team is tracking the results and will lock the new tactics into the remote monitoring system, as required.

The additional analytical support the hub provides allows site teams to investigate and quantify a number of opportunities quicker than would have been possible without the analytics and insights from the hub.