Same Shift, More Tonnes: Short-Interval Control for South African Open Pits
Same Shift, More Tonnes: Short-Interval Control for South African Open Pits
South Africa’s biggest open pits already move world-scale volumes: iron ore at Sishen/Kolomela, coal at Grootgeluk, and PGMs at Mogalakwena. Kumba Iron Ore, for example, produced 35.7 Mt in 2023. In coal, Grootegeluk remains one of the world’s largest opencast complexes, producing roughly 26 Mt/year and feeding Eskom’s Medupi/Matimba power stations directly – another context where dispatch flow and queue losses can quickly compound. And the Waterberg Coalfield, home to Grootegeluk, contains roughly 40% of SA’s coal resources, with a significant open-pit component, emphasising how much of our near-term output depends on all the elements of a surface operation working together as one.
Where value leaks in real time
In open-pit environments, most losses aren’t geological – they’re much more difficult to pinpoint. Most often the issue is small time leaks that silently chip away at shift targets, as follows:
- Truck queues at shovels or dumps,
- Shovel hang-ups around blast tie-ins,
- Payload variance only discovered after shift,
- Survey lag that delays plan updates and reconciliations.
By the time end-of-shift reports land, the tonnes are gone. Short-Interval Control (SIC) addresses the gaps that arise by compressing the review cadence so supervisors can act while tonnes are still moving.
Turning logs into decisions inside the shift
Mineware Consulting’s Syncromine Production module is built for this exact control loop, within South African open-pit conditions. The production modules features:
- Live SIC dashboards: Dispatch, payload and stand-time streams feed a single view: cycle-time spikes, queue buildup and under-loading are auto-flagged for action.
- In-shift alerts & actions: Supervisors are alerted to rebalance trucks, change shovel priorities or route around a temporary bottleneck, during the window, not after it.
- Digital hand-backs: Shift-change notes and exception close-outs are captured and visible pit-wide for accountability and continuity.
- Plan-vs-Actual by bench/phase/fleet: Variances are pinned to a location and equipment set, so you fix root causes – not react to outcomes.
For high-volume pits like Sishen/Kolomela and Grootgeluk, even a small reduction in idle minutes per truck or a few percentage points of payload conformance can translate into thousands of additional tonnes per month.
Locking in survey and compliance, so SIC works
SIC delivers best when production, survey and compliance data live in one loop. Mineware’s Syncromine software suite offers an ecosystem where this is possible:
- Syncromine Survey: Stockpile movements and digital sign-off flow straight into production KPIs, tightening reconciliation.
- Syncromine Safety & Risk: Pre-starts, permit to work, ground-condition checks and traffic-management forms are scanned and verified instantly. Mapped questions trigger actions to close the loop.
- Ore Accounting: Source-to-stockpile traceability and variance tools link geology, loading and plant feed, that are critical for grade management.
Why this matters in South Africa right now
When national output is shaped by rail/port constraints and power variability, mines can’t afford to leave recoverable tonnes on the table. Tight SIC helps offset external bottlenecks by lifting actual pit productivity – tonnes you own, every shift. With Syncromine already driving results at sites like Harmony’s Kalgold open pit, South African mines have a proven path to scale efficiently without sacrificing control.
Book a demo with our team of developers today.