Customer Success Story: Evolution Mining & Reconcilor

Utilising best practice with Reconcilor enabled Evolution Mining to improve operational outcomes, meaning reduced processing time, improved data validation and accuracy, significantly improved stockpile balancing and easy comparison between variables.

THE CUSTOMER

Evolution Mining is a global gold mining business with operations in Australia and Canada.

Location

Within its Australian assets is the Cowal Gold Operation (Cowal), located 350km west of Sydney, New South Wales.

Evolution’s core asset

Cowal is a world class, open pit and underground gold operation with a long mine life and a low cost asset that will be the cornerstone of the Evolution story for many years to come.

CHALLENGES

Like many operations, Cowal’s team recognized that with the right tools and systems, they could resolve challenges such as:

the onerous monthly reconciliation reporting
the excessive time spent maintaining daily, weekly, and monthly Excel spreadsheets through manual data entry from multiple data sources.

Having exposure to the success of Reconcilor at other sites, the Cowal team called for a change, seeking digital transformation to deliver a more efficient and accurate system for their data collection, assessment and reconciliation.

THE SOLUTION

Cowal made the decision in 2019 to implement Reconcilor and together with the team at Snowden have streamlined their data capture, data quality control, analysis and reporting from the Resource model to the Cowal processing plant.

They now have:

Visibility of all surface material movements
Up to date stockpile balances
Compare data and identify trends
Model depletions

All of that without any manual data entry,

the removal of excess spreadsheets and confidence that the data they are using has passed through a rigorous data health engine.

Reconcilor offers an operation the transparency it needs to track metal movement from start to finish and to mine with confidence.

Metal loss linked to poor mine reconciliation is an industry wide problem in the resources sector. This process is meant to identify differences between estimates, plans and actual mine production. Only once they are properly quantified and understood can steps can be taken improve metal balance.

Unfortunately, some mine sites lack the skills, manpower or even confidence to undertake this analysis. Reconcilor empowers its users to take the next step by:

Automatically consolidating and validating the data as well as offering spreadsheet free analysis.
Regular data imports allow early detection of data issues well before end of month.

THE PLAN

After identifying the need for a digital solution to their manual processes and recognising Snowden’s Reconcilor as a well-established solution for this — Cowal reviewed their options and engaged with the Snowden team to implement Reconcilor across the operation. 

Implementation through on-site data source mapping and form building allowed:

A solid working relationship to develop between site and Reconcilor implementation/support teams.
Aiding the development of future modifications and enhancements.

Integrated Teamwork
Good balance of Operational Mine Geology and Software/ Database/Technical in implementation and support team made it easy to come up with solutions to site-specific problems/intricacies.

Fast Implementation
The Reconcilor implementation was performed within 8 weeks with Reconcilor being used in a production environment after a successful test phase.

“Implementation through onsite data source mapping and form building allowed a solid working relationship to develop between the site and the Reconcilor implementation support teams, aiding development of future modification and enhancements.”

Alex Moffitt, Senior Mine Geologists at Evolution Mining

THE TRIGGER

Triggers that prompted the search for a more sustainable solution:

A long mine life
Reporting through excel
Stockpile management
Manual data entry quality

Management and Geologists at Cowal had prior experience with Reconcilor, knowing the value it held for other operations. Their experience and insights into the benefits of the tool was a key driver in the pathway Cowal took in digital transformation using Reconcilor.

THE WINS

The impact of utilising a solution such as Reconcilor with scope across the entire mine value chain is significant – and one that is often difficult to define, and put a cost on benefit, in its entirety.

Processing speed
Reduced daily report processing time from over an hour to less than 30 minutes per day, saving time that quickly accumulates over a long period.

Accuracy of data
The team can spend more time on data verification, improving the accuracy of data in production reporting (raw material supply to the mine and plant).

Fast information retrieval
Quick access to real-time reports and easy search for information over any time periods (i.e., yearly, monthly, weekly, shift).

Easy stockpiles management
Additions, depletions and balances readily available for any stockpile or stockpile group.

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Ease of comparison
Reconcilor easily compares Mine Call vs Mill Call at the crusher and the comparison of the planned, surveyed and hauled tonnes to quantify over and undermining blocks.