Australia’s Longwalls: Three years ago, respondents remarked on the growing role of consultants in strategic decisions in Australia's underground coal mining industry. How has the role / use of consultants changed over the last three years with the mining sector consolidation? How do you see roles developing in the future?
Our role has not changed dramatically over the last three years in that a variety of services have been provided ranging from assisting with strategic decision making to straight forward problem solving. The request for strategic advice seems to depend on the client.
How do you see roles developing in the future? I do not foresee a distinct change. Good consultants tend to build rapport and trust with clients and as such will continue to be invited to participate in decision making.
How competitive do you see consultancy rates vs costs for permanent employees? What are the key factors determining why consultants are used and how do you expect these factors to change in the future? How will these changes impact the way consultants do business and the nature of consulting?
I believe the majority of Australian consultants rates are competitive. The cost of overheads for permanent employees is often hidden (recruitment, travel, office expense, etc) and consequently not well understood.
The key factors affecting us are the shortage of mining professionals (planned and unplanned) on sites and in corporate offices, the transient nature of mining professionals and the consequent lack of advanced inhouse technical skills.
I do not foresee any changes in the near future.
AL: An emerging issue is the impact of increased professional indemnity insurance premiums on consultant’s ‘license to operate’. Some smaller companies have chosen to operate with no cover. What is your company position on this issue and how has it affected your company?
Due to rising premiums we subjected our PI policy to a legal opinion. In summary the opinion was that the policy was of no value what so ever. There were numerous clauses whereby the insurance company could choose not to pay for a claim. Interestingly enough the insurance company did not dispute our findings.
AL: What has been your experience with regards to international vs Australian work? How do you see this trend going into the future?
The majority of our work is Australian. We are too busy servicing local demand so I do not see much change in the near future.
AL: Three years ago consultants expressed concerns about the industry’s ability to adequately replace the aging experience base. How has the industry shortage of experienced personnel impacted your business?
We have expanded due to demand.
8AL: As in corporate mining offices, many consultants active in the industry have not been operators for quite some time. What are the key measures available to consultants to remain current in industry? How do you view looming professional engineer registration impacting this?
Our method is to retain close contact with operators, take an active interest in the actual operations and get to various mine sites as often as possible.
AL: On the question of productivity gains, a recurrent theme in 2001 was regular shortfalls in longwall mine output compared with nameplate capacity. Today poor utilisation still dogs the industry: consulting company McAlpine B calculated a 9% drop in average utilization in 2003, to around 41%. In your opinion what, if anything, has changed? And where could mines better channel energy/resources?
All mines are different so it is difficult to determine if there is a single or common cause. MineCraft advise their clients to firstly understand their process in terms of productivity (tph) and operating statistics (hours per week), then apply benchmarking to determine which aspects are lower than other peers. While this sounds simple (and the concept is), some mines do not properly collect and record their production statistics in a manner that is useful for improvement.
