idoba's fresh thinking finds a $1 billion boost to throughput, quality and income

One of the world’s largest and lowest cost producers of iron ore challenges idoba to uncover unseen opportunities to improve throughput and product quality.

The General Manager of Integrated Planning had a problem. Her company was already one of the world’s largest and lowest cost iron ore producers and she had been tasked with increasing production from one of its largest facilities by nearly 8%. Without any additional investment.

The potential advantages were clear. Without investment, production could only be increased by improving throughput and/or ore quality. Both paths would mean producing more product from the same cost base, improving net income. And, producing a given quantity of ore at lower cost or in less time, would mean greater energy efficiency, contributing to the mining company’s carbon neutrality goals.

The challenge was how to achieve this:

“If you follow the same path, you’ll only see the same things.”

Finding opportunities for process improvement would require a lot of detailed analysis and, like most mining and ore processing operations, the GM didn’t have a spare team of analysts that she could devote to the project. Even if she had, she recognised that, “If you follow the same processes and the same thinking, if you follow the same frameworks that everyone follows, you're going to find the same things that everyone finds ... and nothing else.”

The answer: fresh thinking, cool science, hybrid teams and co-creation

The manager partnered with idoba specifically for its diversity of thought.

Our diverse and neurodiverse team thinks differently and approaches problems differently, so the likelihood of finding alternative solutions or understanding the problem from a fresh perspective is higher.

idoba also brings its advanced data science technology in DiiMOS™. We formed hybrid teams of our industry specialists and data scientists with the company’s internal experts and used modelling capabilities to pinpoint opportunities for improvement. The teams analysed every aspect of ore processing, rail and port operations. Combining idoba’s data science and minerals expertise with our client’s deep understanding of their own processes helped to challenge assumptions from different viewpoints.

Every area of the value chain needed to be “de-bottlenecked” to enable an improvement in overall throughput.

Removing minutes of delay means millions of dollars

From improving the load accuracy of rail cars to addressing issues of drift and miscalibration on weigh scales (which alone contributed an additional 80kT of rail capacity); and from improving unload efficiency to re-thinking strategy for the size of stockpiles, idoba found data-driven opportunities at every stage of the operation.

In a process carrying millions of tonnes of ore per year, eliminating just minutes of delay meant millions of dollars in additional income (with no additional investment).

Improving control over the scrubber process dramatically improved the quality of iron ore being shipped while also removing a recurring issue with moisture content. Reducing clay content in the final ore product by just 2.5% yielded $30 million in additional revenue.

In total, idoba identified $1 billion in additional income from previously unseen opportunities to improve throughput and ore quality.

Implementing these meant the General Manager met her new targets while also taking a sizeable step towards the company’s green transition.

Overall, the mining business gains a $1 billion dollar boost to income with no additional investment required – a major contribution to its overall organisational goals.

How can idoba’s fresh thinking and cool data science help you find unseen opportunities in your own operations? Chat with us to see how we can help.