How do we reduce capital spending and operating costs - Mining Question

Hello All,

I was reading a Reuters article about how mining companies would be hedging precious metal shipments after surprise Q2 losses. This loss was mainly due to developments in the economy and the mining industry over the past 6 – 8 months. As you may know mining companies around the world are under intense pressure to reduce capital spending and operating costs due to volatile commodity prices and lower-grade ores. With the next 12 to 18 months predicted to be much of the same, I would like to get some opinions on how we help reduce the time lag between shipping the concentrates for processing and actual sale of the metal and improve efficiency and cost effectiveness.

I read that it takes about 4-6 weeks for (concentrates) to get processed. Do we have a solution to help with the time lag? The question of course is; What is the time lag due to?

– is it because they aren’t efficient

– do they have business processes that we could streamline and make faster.

If it’s because they can’t get ships sooner or some structural thing that we can’t change, then we can’t help. But, I think the best way to put it is we have an integrated system that can make them more efficient. Allowing information to flow faster and throughout the system.

I was thinking SAP Commodity Management. This is a relatively new solution called that helps companies with hedging – to keep track of their hedges and to see their risk position. Or I was thinking mobility to help with Asset Management

.....Thoughts and Comments are appriciated.

Jared Donner