Effective financial planning in the mining industry requires balancing operational complexity, cost control, and strategic decision-making. However, mining companies face significant hurdles in achieving standardization and efficiency across multiple sites, each with unique geological, operational, and regulatory challenges. Our client’s ability to forecast costs and align financial strategies with real-world operations was hindered by numerous obstacles, including the following:

• Planners were all performing recurring ABB (Activity Based Budgeting) tasks in disparate spreadsheets, wasting hundreds of hours each month.
• Siloed Planning & Forecasting: Finance and operations worked in isolation, leading to inefficiencies and misalignment.
• Volatile Commodity Pricing: Market swings made it difficult to project cash flow and manage cost variances.
• Complex Capital Expenditures: Long-term mine investments lacked a streamlined budgeting and approval framework.
• Regulatory & ESG Compliance: Reporting obligations required more transparency and agility.
• Diverse Site Operations: With eight sites across North and South America operating in three different languages and using different source systems, standardization and governance were challenging.
• Varying Mining Methods & Engineering Activities: Different mining techniques and site-specific engineering activities led to inconsistencies in planning and operational requirements.
• Ore Body Variability: Engineering activities had to account for differences in bench, lithology, and ore body characteristics, complicating accurate equipment and consumable cost forecasting.
• Processing Complexity: Fluctuations in ore quality and type impacted processing efficiency, reagent costs, fixed maintenance costs, stockpiles, and recovered ounces, adding further complexity to financial planning.

Keyrus employed a phased approach to modernize and standardize financial planning across the client’s mining operations, ensuring alignment between financial and operational data:

• Proof of Concept (POC) & Phased Implementation: Keyrus initiated a POC, followed by a phased rollout based on functional areas, allowing for a structured examination and standardization of data and planning methods across all eight sites.
• Activity-Based Budgeting: A standardized global financial planning process was implemented, accommodating different mining methods and engineering activities such as drill & blast, stoping, backfill, load & haul, and underground development.
• Flexible Cost Driver Framework: Keyrus established a process to generate cost drivers specific to pits, benches, lithology, or other geological characteristics, enabling precise planning of consumable costs, equipment hours, and other operational expenses.
• Processing & Forecasting Optimization: The model accounted for variations in ore processing methods, including run-of-mine (ROM) heap leach, crushed heap leach, and plant operations, allowing financial forecasts to integrate tonnage, recovery, and grade metrics to predict costs related to maintenance, reagents, and consumables.
• Technology Integration: The solution unified data from Deswik (mine planning software), multiple ERP systems, and fleet management software, ensuring seamless integration between operational and financial planning.