Mining projects risk losing millions of dollars before producing their first tonne of ore because of poor decisions made during exploration, feasibility studies, engineering and plant design, mining expert Omberai Mandingaisa has warned.
By Rudairo Mapuranga
Mandingaisa, Mining Manager at Valterra Platinum and President of the Zimbabwe National Institute of Rock Engineering (ZINIRE), told delegates at the Association of Mine Managers of Zimbabwe (AMMZ) 54th Annual Conference and AGM in Nyanga that the success of a mining operation is largely determined long before production begins.
He argued that mining companies often focus on correcting operational inefficiencies after commissioning, when many of the problems affecting production could have been prevented through better planning and decision-making at the project’s inception.
Citing quality management expert W. Edwards Deming, Mandingaisa said: “You cannot inspect quality into a product.”
He explained that a mine’s eventual production performance is shaped by the quality of information gathered about its orebody, the assumptions used in project development, engineering decisions and the quality of construction and commissioning.
“The quality of what comes out of that plant was already decided at the start,” he said. “It’s determined by what was known about the ore body when you were doing your project, by your design assumptions, by what you built, and by how it was commissioned.”
Mandingaisa warned that companies that underestimate the importance of early-stage project decisions often end up spending more money correcting problems during operations than they would have spent preventing them during development.
Poor Exploration Decisions Destroy Value
He singled out exploration drilling as one area where mining companies can lose value by prioritising the immediate cost of drilling over the quality of information obtained.
Mandingaisa said drilling programmes must be designed around clearly defined geological and technical objectives, with appropriate geotechnical investigations, testing and quality control to ensure that each hole contributes meaningful information to the project.
“If you just decide to drill a hole and you don’t ascertain what you want to gain out of that hole, if you’re not going to spend the money doing the geotechnical work and all the test work that is required, that hole is a useless hole,” he said.
“If you decide to drill it just to see the rust, then you have drilled the cheapest hole in exploration.”
His argument was that cutting costs during exploration can compromise the geological understanding needed to develop reliable mining plans and processing facilities, potentially creating more expensive problems later in the project lifecycle.
Mines Must Design for Operators, Not Consultants
Mandingaisa also challenged mining companies to take greater ownership of their projects instead of leaving critical decisions entirely to consultants, project engineers and contractors.
He said mine managers, general managers and project owners must remain actively involved in project development, ensuring that the assumptions used in feasibility studies reflect actual operating conditions.
“Your assumption set has to mimic reality. You can’t have an assumption set that’s divorced from reality,” he said.
He questioned the tendency to rely excessively on external consultants without adequately incorporating the knowledge of local operating teams, arguing that experienced personnel often understand site-specific conditions and operational challenges that may not be apparent during external assessments.
“A consultant coming from Australia is not going to tell you anything about a Zimbabwean opportunity that the locals don’t know. They’ll keep quiet, they’ll not tell you, and you’ll lose value,” Mandingaisa warned.
He urged companies to engage the people who will eventually operate their mines and processing plants during the design stage, rather than presenting them with completed projects that may be difficult or expensive to operate.
“Build for the people that are going to operate this thing. Talk to them. Engage,” he said.
“This is where we normally lose the biggest value.”
He added that project ownership should extend beyond the project engineering team to the senior management responsible for the eventual performance of the operation.
Ramp-Up Planning Determines Production Performance
The mining expert identified the ramp-up period following commissioning as another major area where mining projects lose value.
He questioned how companies expect to achieve their designed processing capacities without developing credible plans showing how production will progressively increase towards targeted throughput.
“Half of the time, people say they’re going to do a 210-kiloton plant. How are they going to get to 210? No one knows,” he said.
Mandingaisa argued that ramp-up planning must begin during feasibility studies, with realistic production assumptions, operational readiness requirements and input from experienced personnel.
He said companies should not treat nameplate plant capacity as an automatic indication of what an operation will achieve immediately after commissioning.
He also called for a systematic approach to identifying and resolving operational constraints, advising engineers to address the biggest bottleneck before moving to the next.
“You need to identify your biggest constraint first. Then you run with it. Fix it. Once you have fixed it, move on to the next constraint,” he said.
Using the relationship between underground load-haul-dump (LHD) equipment and conveyor belts, he explained that operational performance must be assessed across interconnected systems rather than individual machines.
“If you have an LHD and it’s tipping on your belt, don’t look for the LHD’s availability. Look for the LHD availability times the belt availability,” he said.
His point was that production depends on the combined reliability of equipment and infrastructure, meaning that the availability of one machine cannot compensate for the failure of another critical component in the production chain.
Power Constraints Must Shape Plant Design
Mandingaisa further highlighted electricity supply as a major constraint that must be considered during mining project development, particularly in Southern Africa, where power availability remains a challenge for energy-intensive operations.
He challenged mining companies to consider alternative energy sources, including solar and wind, when developing their energy strategies.
“We have a national shortfall of power. What are we going to do?” he asked.
“Plenty of sunshine in Southern Africa. Plenty of wind in Southern Africa. Let’s try and harness it.”
He also cautioned against selecting plant designs primarily on the basis of initial capital costs, arguing that engineering decisions must account for long-term energy consumption and operating expenditure.
He said advances in engineering and technology should be reflected in plant designs to improve energy efficiency and reduce the cost of running mining operations.
Mandingaisa also presented a comparison of effectiveness levels in Chile, citing mining operations at approximately 29%, against 88–92% in processing industries such as oil and gas.
He attributed the disparity largely to differences in project development and execution, arguing that mining companies need to improve how they plan, design and deliver projects.
Mine Closure Must Be Considered From Day One
Beyond production and operational efficiency, Mandingaisa urged mining companies to incorporate closure considerations into project design from the beginning.
He warned that postponing closure planning creates difficulties when operations eventually reach the end of their productive lives.
“A project cannot be closed efficiently if it was never efficient. If you don’t provide for it on day one, you’re not going to be able to provide for it on design,” he said.
He said the decisions made during project development must account for the entire mining lifecycle rather than concentrating exclusively on getting a mine into production.
In his concluding remarks, Mandingaisa returned to the importance of management involvement, arguing that human decision-making remains one of the most significant factors determining whether mining projects deliver their intended value.
“The real constraint is basically our decisions,” he said, urging mining professionals to become involved in projects from the outset rather than waiting until operational problems emerge.
His presentation placed greater emphasis on preventing value loss during project development, highlighting the need for realistic assumptions, informed engineering, operator participation, effective ramp-up planning and long-term operational considerations.
