Mining consulting engineers are important cogs in major mining operations. These professionals consult with mine managers, chief planners, and senior engineers, as well as accountants, lawyers, and workers at the heart of your mining operation.
With so many hats to wear, stakeholders to liaise with, and responsibilities to take on, a mining consulting engineer has a unique view of the industry. Material handling manufacturing Is also a rising industry.
In this article, we have compiled 5 key tips you might hear from mining consulting engineers. These tips may be able to assist you with streamlining your processes and planning your projects, and they also give you an insight into the value you should expect to receive when partnering with mining consulting engineers.
Contents
1. The Importance of Communication in Mining Operations
In almost all cases, mining operations are large-scale, high-risk, extremely expensive undertakings. There are schedules to manage, budgets to abide by, and multiple operators completing a range of different tasks across any given shift.
Effective communication is an important element in any workplace, but in the mining industry, its importance simply cannot be understated.
Operational and non-operational staff all need to be on the same page both during a shift and in a broader context. Pre-shift meetings and post-shift debriefs should be held in person and attended by all relevant personnel. This helps to ensure that the requirements of the operation are understood and that all parties know how to meet these requirements.
Regular meetings like this also give operators the opportunity to point out inefficiencies, safety concerns, and alternative ways of doing things in general.
2. Make Accommodations in Your Budget
Buying, selling, negotiating, and budgeting are all in the wheelhouse of an expert mining consulting engineer. These professionals will tell you to allow for variations when determining the value of your mining project. If you do not budget for fluctuations up to 10%, you might feel the sting when something changes.
You should plan for budget variations to account for changes in scope, but you should not tolerate changes caused by a planning error.
3. Risk Management Strategies for Mining Professionals
In the mining industry, a knowledgeable workplace is a safe workplace. Understanding the risks associated with each project and every process is the key to effective risk management. Once you understand all the potential dangers associated with the work, you can formulate action plans and management plans to mitigate risk.
As any mining consulting engineer understands, designs, and plans alone are not enough to mitigate risk. Instead, you need to make sure that every operator is following safe and effective practices when actioning these plans.
Being able to create a collaborative, accountable environment will go a long way in mitigating risk, as it encourages operators to work together and in a consistent manner as they pursue a shared goal.
When taking plans and turning them into instructions, consider the information available to each mining operator and their level of familiarity with each task. Individual mining operators are unlikely to understand designs and plans in the same way as the engineers who developed them. Make sure it is clear to operators why tasks need to be completed in a specific way and a particular order.
Even if all these steps have been followed, misinterpretations can still occur. To effectively mitigate risks, ensure that instructions are crystal clear and that they have not been misunderstood by any party.
4. Bring Your Teams Together (Literally)
To get an idea of how your project is faring, mining consulting engineers look at the big picture while also digging into the nitty gritty. For on-site engineers and managers, it is essential to take the same approach.
When you need to speak with a shift supervisor, equipment operator, or foreman, do not always pull them into an office. Instead, head underground and speak to these professionals where the equipment is running, and the work is happening. This will give you the best possible viewpoint of your mining operations, allowing you to better understand and overcome the real-world obstacles that may be affecting efficiency.
Going to see operators where they are working also promotes a more open and honest dynamic, which may lead you to make discoveries about the progress of your mining operation that would otherwise fly under the radar.
5. Be Realistic About Deadlines
Before your mining operations begin in earnest, you need to plan and present the timeline for your project. When considering timelines and deadlines, remember to plan for all possible eventualities and take these into consideration when presenting to management.
If you are looking for ways to speed up your mining operations mid-project, tread carefully. Something might seem like a good idea at first only to end up slowing down your project in the long term. For example, bringing in new workers might end up being a time drain due to the resources you need to commit to training and bringing these operators up to speed.
Conclusion
There are so many factors to consider when planning and executing a mining project, from pre-planning to the big picture to day-to-day operations. The best mining consulting engineers have experience in all these areas and can help you enhance safety, accuracy, and efficiency.
The 5 tips presented above draw on the experience of mining consulting engineers and are a great first step in streamlining your operations.