Building value through a GIM strategy

As thermal and coking coal prices continue their downward trend, many coal mining organisations are focusing on building value through process improvements to increase efficiencies. By improving processes, productivity is impacted, projects are de-risked and opportunities uncovered. This strengthens the value of potential projects.

Geoscientific information is a virtual asset which underpins the value building process. It is the life-blood of exploration, planning, engineering and production. It is vital for decision making and required when reporting and communicating with external stakeholders. It is also a key driver of the value potential of the organisation.

Poor performance in Geoscientific Information Management leads to inefficient process, a lack of internal and external confidence and an overall high risk of major business problems. From over 10 years geoscientific information management in the coal industry globally, we have seen poor performance in GIM lead to:

• Lower than expected recovery
• Information loss resulting in significant devaluation of assets
• Major disruption and dupolication datasets because of information ‘silos’
• Expensive re-logging , re-sampling and re-drilling of projects
• Lack of faith in resource estimates
• Significant wasted resources from digging in the wrong place
• Inconsistent and inaccurate production forcasts
• Redeuce confidence in project valuations

acQuire Technology Solutions has worked in the industry to develop a practical guide for assessing the maturity of an organisation Geoscientific Information Management process.

Armstrong, J, 2015. Building Value Through a GIM Strategy in Bowen Basin Symposium 2015: Bowen Basin and Beyond, Bowen Basin Geologists Group, Brisbane, October 2015, pp51-58.