Modern Mining August 2019

feature MINE AUTOMATION Pleasure Mnisi, Exxaro’s Business Optimisation Manager, pictured at Exxaro’s ‘Digital@Exxaro Show & Tell’ event, held at Kyalami in late June.

EXXARO goes digital Exxaro, South Africa’s biggest producer of thermal coal, is making huge strides in the digitalisation of every aspect of its business and will soon be commissioning its Belfast mine, which promises to be one of the most digitally enabled mining operations in South Africa. Modern Mining’s Arthur Tassell recently attended the group’s lat- est ‘Digital@Exxaro Show & Tell’ event, held at Kyalami in late June, and later spoke to Pleasure Mnisi, Exxaro’s Business Optimisation Manager, who elaborated on the group’s digital journey.

E xxaro, which has a portfolio of six producing coal mines – led by its flagship Grootegeluk operation – produced a record 47,8 Mt of coal in 2018 and is targeting 60 Mt/a by 2022. One of the keys to achieving this will be the on-going digital transformation of the business, which has already had a significant impact on managing costs and improving productivity and which promises further gains in the future. Says Mnisi: “Mining has fallen behind other industries in terms of adopting digital technology and, as a result, its productivity has also lagged. If you look at retail and agriculture, the productivity gains achieved since the mid-1990s, largely on the back of new

technology, have been phenomenal. Mining, by con- trast, has actually seen a sharp drop in productivity. As an industry, we need to bridge this productivity gap and this is exactly what Exxaro is doing through its digitalisa- tion initiatives.” He adds that around 84 % of companies, according to at least one estimate, fail at digital transformation. “To be successful you need to understand the desired end result, the required sub-steps to achieve it, the risks and how to mitigate them,” he says. “There also needs to be a change from a traditional mindset to a startup mindset, which is characterised by high energy, a belief in tech- nology and innovation, and a willingness to challenge the ‘norms’ that are embedded within most businesses. Norms are the accepted way of doing things in an organ- isation which worked in the past but which, all too often, are no longer effective and which tend to standardise inefficiencies.” He notes that in 2018 the entire senior leader- ship of Exxaro’s coal business and the group’s CEO, Mxolisi Mgojo, visited San Francisco to spend time with the author of ‘The Startup Way’, Eric Ries. “This was a game-changer. Our executives were already receptive to change but this experience really cemented their commitment.” According to Mnisi, Exxaro’s digital journey really began in earnest in 2016. “There was a vision within the group that digital transformation could unlock a lot of value and that we could lift our productivity by about 25 %,” he relates. “The decision was taken to devise a coherent, workable digital strategy. In 2017 we conducted

28  MODERN MINING  August 2019