Anglo American Platinum Overview
Anglo American Platinum (AAP) stands as the world’s foremost primary producer of Platinum Group Metals (PGMs). The company provides a comprehensive resource-to-market service, delivering a range of mined, recycled, and traded products to its extensive global customer network. Rooted deeply within the broader South African economic and social landscape, AAP is dedicated to building a safe, sustainable, competitive, and profitable business that delivers benefits for the country, local communities, employees, and shareholders alike. Operating across the entire value chain, AAP produces the complete spectrum of PGMs, including platinum, palladium, and rhodium.
AAP is a major employer, with a workforce of 30,000 individuals, and generates revenue of R26 billion. The company operates numerous mines and processing facilities throughout South Africa, with the Bushveld Complex being a particularly significant source of its platinum group metals. Its operations encompass both open-pit and underground mining, complemented by concentrators, smelters, and refineries that process the ore into finished consumer electronics. Key mining assets include the Mogalakwena, Amandelbult, and Mototolo mines.
Anglo American Platinum has demonstrated significant progress in enhancing its operational performance. This has involved a concentrated focus on several core areas aimed at boosting efficiency, reducing costs, and increasing productivity. Operational efficiency improvements have been particularly notable at the Mogalakwena mine, recognised as the world’s largest open-pit platinum mine. Investments in mechanization and automation here, including the deployment of larger, more efficient equipment and advanced mining techniques, have been key to increasing productivity and lowering operational costs. The company has also streamlined its underground operations, notably at the Tumela and Dishaba mines, by optimizing mining layouts and improving ore-handling systems, leading to enhanced ore recovery rates and reduced dilution. Furthermore, AAP has prioritized debottlenecking its processing plants to improve throughput and recovery rates. This involves upgrading concentrators and smelters and adopting advanced metallurgical processes to enhance metal extraction efficiency.
Innovation and Technology have played a crucial role, particularly through digital transformation initiatives. AAP has leveraged digital technologies such as data analytics, automation, and remote monitoring systems to improve decision-making, reduce downtime, and optimize resource allocation across operations.
A critical focus area has been Safety and Sustainability. By implementing more rigorous safety protocols, enhancing employee training, and strengthening monitoring systems, the company has achieved a significant reduction in incidents and injuries. AAP has also made considerable strides in reducing its environmental footprint through the adoption of sustainable mining practices, including initiatives focused on reducing water and energy consumption, managing waste effectively, and rehabilitating mined land.
Workforce Optimization has also been a key element of performance improvement. The company has invested in upskilling its workforce to adapt to new technologies and operational changes, resulting in a more productive and efficient team. Improved labour relations, fostered through better communication and negotiation with unions, have contributed to reduced strike action and more stable operations.
CCI-GrowthCon as a strategic partner to Anglo American Platinum
The pursuit of operational excellence at Anglo American Platinum involved key strategic partnerships. CCI-GrowthCon provided strategic asset management guidance aimed at driving performance improvement, optimising costs, and empowering teams through leadership development and capability building.
The collaboration stemmed from a realization in 2000 that the return on investment from a recently deployed SAP ERP system was heavily dependent on the operational excellence maturity within the mines and processing divisions, and their interconnectedness within the internal value chain. CCI-GrowthCon engaged with AAP to address this, focusing on improving performance and assisting with their asset management strategy.
Initial performance improvements were quickly demonstrated across three concentrators and one open-cast mine. These included significant improvements in Crusher and mill availability, increasing from 70% to 93% and 87% to 93% respectively. Stoppages due to chokes to mill infeed were reduced by 30%. Through focused condition monitoring, pipe leak stoppages, which previously accounted for 15,000 tons lost due to unplanned stoppages, were eliminated, resulting in zero unplanned stoppages. Mills achieved runs with zero stoppages between monthly shuts, ensuring 90% availability. Dump truck availability also increased following the elimination of hydraulic hose failures.
Building on these early successes, an operational excellence programme was deployed throughout the group between 2000 and 2008. This initiative specifically targeted maintenance improvement through assessments, planning, and the training and development of technical personnel.
By 2016, various ongoing initiatives were integrated, leading to the development of a comprehensive Asset Management Framework. This framework provided a holistic assessment approach, incorporating not just maintenance, but also production, human resources, quality, safety, health, and environment. The maintenance module was expanded to encompass the full operational excellence requirement, internal standards and examples were integrated into improvement plan templates, and key performance indicators were standardised, with a significantly greater focus on leading and managing change.
In 2017, the Base Metal Refinery initiated a focused improvement approach aligned with the new framework. This resulted in a dramatic shift from 20% planned work to 80% planned work per week over a 14-week period, integrating both production and maintenance activities within the plan and achieving a preventive maintenance schedule compliance of 90%. Production stability emerged as a key benefit for the business, showing significant improvement in delivery to promise.
From 2019 onwards, AAP has concentrated on mine mechanisation, restructuring operations, and embedding their operating model. Throughout this period, CCI-GrowthCon has continued to provide technical training to engineering teams, offering ongoing support for this transformative process.