South Africa: Inefficiencies have an outsized impact on mining operations

Zawya

24-06-2025

Reportedly, only 40% of an average mineworker's 12-hour shift is spent productively, suggesting that five hours out of every shift moves the needle on blasting, drilling, hauling and loading. The rest is swallowed up by delays, inefficiencies and missed opportunities.
While some inefficiencies are unavoidable – travel time, safety declarations and equipment checks – many are not. And they tend to show up in the same places: delayed startup meetings, poor handovers, unplanned maintenance or simply teams waiting on instruction. These seemingly small breakdowns have an outsized impact. They create a ripple effect that slows down every stage of the mining cycle.
This is why every shift needs to count. Not just because margins are under pressure, but because inconsistent production leads to compounding setbacks. The solution isn't about working harder. It's about working smarter, with supervisors leading the charge.
The mining cycle
The mining cycle runs from the moment a shift begins until it ends. Within that cycle are blocks of time dedicated to preparation, safety, travel, blasting, maintenance and production. It's a rhythm that requires structure, and that structure depends on the supervisor.
Supervisors shape how the day unfolds, from timekeeping and decision-making to managing people and pressure. When the start of the day runs late or plans fall through, it's often because supervisors haven't been equipped to manage time, people and pressure effectively.
But when are they? The results speak for themselves. We've seen operations increase productive time from 40% to over 60%, simply by tightening up planning, execution and accountability.
Coaching supervisors
Too often, supervisors operate in firefighting mode, reacting to issues rather than preventing them. Coaching helps shift this mindset. Instead of putting out fires, supervisors learn to anticipate issues, plan contingencies and engage their teams to solve problems together. This improves not only productivity but also builds a culture of trust and strong team morale.
Through this kind of real-time coaching, we've seen dramatic shifts in outcomes: better machine availability, reduced lost time, higher-quality blasts and more consistent performance. Because when you reduce variability, you increase predictability – and, in mining, predictability is gold.
A successful shift isn't just about hitting targets; it's about doing so safely, efficiently and with consistency. And that consistency is what keeps operations steady, production flowing and planning on track. While every shift runs on the same number of hours, the difference lies in how well those hours are managed. When supervisors approach each time block with the same focus they bring to production goals, everything starts to move in sync: meetings stay on schedule, equipment is ready when needed and teams are in position without delay. Often, it's not the big setbacks that throw a day off course, but the small, unnoticed delays that quietly pile up and take the shift with them.
Especially in a commodity downturn, the pressure is on to do more with less. But too often, cost-cutting targets frontline resources: reducing people and machinery while expecting higher output. That's a recipe for burnout, not better results.
If a supervisor couldn't meet targets with full capacity, asking them to deliver more with less won't fix the problem. Instead, invest in making supervisors more capable, because they're the ones driving performance. They're the ones managing the cycle. And they're the ones who can turn a shift from average to exceptional.
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