Exxaro’s Tshikondeni Coal has implemented Gemcom InSite^TM as its mine production management solution. Exxaro Resource is a South African based mining group with operations in Namibia, Australia, China and South Africa. InSite will provides operational data management and simplified monthly reconciliation for this underground coal operation. Located in South Africa’s Limpopo province, Tshikondeni Coal is an underground coal mining operation employing over 750 people and producing over 400,000 t/y of coking coal. Implementing InSite has provided a single, integrated solution for the operation’s data management requirements, eliminating the need for time consuming manual data entry and simplifying the monthly reconciliation process.Additionally, InSite’s Standard Reports provides a real-time view of production and coal quality, ensuring the mine can respond quickly to any issues that arise.

“Consolidating all of the operational mining data previously involved numerous spreadsheets and was time consuming and costly” said Lou Möller, Senior Solution Specialist, Exxaro. “After working closely with Gemcom’s services team to implement InSite into our operations, we have not only gained confidence in our data, but we have real-time access to production information, enabling fast response to business issues.”

End-of-month processes, including reconciliation, are an important part of Tshikondeni Coal’s business. The previous system used numerous spreadsheets that were time intensive to manage and prone to errors. InSite captures underground production data, surface material movements and plant production data, and where possible, captures it automatically. This provides an integrated method to perform fast and accurate end-of-month reconciliation.

Summary of benefits delivered by InSite to Tshikondeni Coal:

• Spreadsheets replaced by a single, integrated solution which provides validated and audible data
• Surface material movements are gathered through automated integration with the mine’s weighbridge
• Plant production data is captured through automated integration with the mine’s WonderWare Industrial SQL historian
• InSite’s Stockpile Management module records daily weighted average grades and collects survey adjustments, greatly simplifying monthly reconciliation
• Underground mining data is captured in InSite’s control room data entry screen.

“Tshikondeni Coal turned to Gemcom to assist with their production and data management issues”, said Allen Vaughn, Executive VP of Gemcom’s enterprise business unit. “Our partnership approach to working with and understanding our customer’s business has given Tshikondeni Coal the ability to accurately consolidate all of their mining and processing production data and meet their reconciliation goals.”

InSite records and evaluates data for service, support and production activities from the mine through to saleable product. Organisations are provided with confidence in data accuracy which results in cost savings and visibility into all areas of production which allows mine and plant operations to rapidly respond to changing conditions.