“Our association with the mining industry began somewhat fortuitously, in 1992-1993, with a trial strategy development session for one of the mines then owned by the U.S. coal mining giant, now Peabody Energy”, says Benoit Trudeau, Managing Director, adding: “We haven’t looked back since, in what has been one of the most positive and rewarding industry associations we have had in our years in business.”

Strategy Development

We have assisted individual mines, mining companies and some of their business partners in articulating and refining their suite of business plans, from ten-year horizons to annual ones, in profitable times as well as in economically constrained circumstances.

In participating in the development of their strategies, the Firm has assisted its clients to derive better performance, year-on-year, from their operations. Discussions have encompassed not only long-standing preoccupations such as costs and operational efficiency levels, labour relations and safety, but also the exploration of different markets for their products as well as extensions of their traditional business into coal trading and energy generation.

The Firm currently assists a number of mining clients in Australia and in the U.S. on strategy and business development matters.

Diagnostics

“Our mining clients typically have known us as strategists in the first instance. Then, as they have come to trust our appreciation of their business intent and our understanding of their operations, they have allowed us to assist in the assessment of a range of operational and organisational matters”, reflects Benoit on the evolution of the Firm’s relationship with its mining clients.

In that respect, the Firm has, over recent times:

• Assisted two Australian mines with the analysis of their coal recovery performance, including the provision of better conceptual frameworks for such analyses.

• Performed a detailed analysis of the coal scheduling process in another Australian surface coal mine, from overburden to ship loading.

• Conducted an extensive diagnostic study of avoidable accidents and machine damage in a Queensland mine, developing in the process causal analysis maps and a framework enabling the true costing of such incidents.

• Analysed performance in a U.S. operation over a five-month period using an integrated, whole-of-mine approach that provided the basis for the development of a substantial performance improvement programme. And,

• Led performance analyses of the rail transport system, rail-port interfaces and port operations in respect of export coal shipping, as well as with an analysis of environmental impacts associated with the expansion of the coal mining industry in the Hunter Valley (Australia).

The last two or three years in particular have seen Trudeau & Associates involved in lengthier, more complex assignments clearly focused on performance improvement at an operational level. “We have found there is a fertile ground for the application of our integrated process analysis tools, used successfully in other areas of our practice,” says Benoit.

The Firm has, in that respect, shaped whole-of-mine and function-specific performance enhancement programmes, often in the wake of comprehensive and insightful diagnostic assessments.

It continues to conduct assignments of this type both in Australia and the United States.

The Firm also has relationships with a range of industry associations, tertiary education bodies and regulators within the mining industry.

“I think the mining industry is often misunderstood and under-serviced for what it does and contributes to our economy, our way of life and the quality of that way of life. As a Firm, we have worked and are proud to continue to work with some of the best and most responsible performers in that industry, in respect of safety, environmental management and financial success”, comments Benoit.