Ever since the recession of 1981/82, the phrase “lean and mean” has been bandied about by managers like an incantation against evil spirits. And if the mine managers weren’t working at becoming lean and mean, they were busy “rationalizing” operations or trimming fat.
Recently, I discovered a part of the reality behind the buzzwords. In the one instance, I was trying to reach by telephone an engineer at one of the country’s richest mines. He wasn’t in, so I asked the receptionist to put my call through to his secretary or the department’s secretary. “Oh, you won’t find many of those around here anymore,” the receptionist replied.
My second brush with the changed climate of corporate Canada came when I asked the public relations department of a major mining company whether they might have photographs of a particular piece of equipment in use at one of their operations. Their reply was that at one time they could have supplied me with reams of material. But not today.
Such is the reality of the mining industry as we approach the end of the decade. As you’ll read in this issue, managers were more than simply mouthing buzzwords when they talked about rationalizing operations. Engineers at Kidd Creek, for example, are trying to become more productive by collecting underground survey data electronically. Fording Coal can state with a measure of pride that productivity levels today are twice what they were when the recession began.
The overriding theme in all this has been that Canada’s mines and mills must be made more productive to survive in a fiercely competitive world. If there is a subtext, it is this: where cost savings accrue, use microchips to help people do their jobs more efficiently.
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