The Exploration and Mining Business Reference Model (EM model) aimed at assisting companies in aligning their business and technical services, was approved as an Open Group technical standard last month – a decision which provides an official endorsement for an open and global industry standard that defines the business activities for organisations operating in the exploration and mining industries.

The EM Model was developed by the Exploration, Mining, Metals and Minerals (EMMM) Forum, operating under the auspices of the Open Group, a vendor- and technology-neutral consortium, which is represented locally by enterprise architecture specialist company Real IRM.

“This model is the first to gain such industrywide endorsement and acceptance for various reasons – it springs forth from work done in South Africa and elsewhere, it builds on decades of knowledge and experience, and EMMM Forum members can participate in driving the body of knowledge around relevant to this model, ensuring its constant development and evolution,” Real IRM MD Stuart Macgregor explains.

He adds that, while suppliers benefit from exposure to best thinking, industry peers and customers, as well as having a model against which to reference their solutions, customers benefit from closer fusion between business and information technology (IT), reduced operational costs, a sus- tained competitive advantage, embedded organisational knowledge and shorter mine-to-market times.

“Most importantly, neither suppliers nor customers need to reinvent the wheel, as EMMM Forum builds on the efforts of many before them.”

Macgregor points out that the lack of agreement about the processes and activities that comprise the business of mining has long been a major cause of interdisciplinary discussions about information management in the mining industry breaking down, and that the EM Model aims to address this.

“Since the model first went public, I have not used anything else as a basis for discussion because using the EM model as a reference allows us to engage with any client and in any mining method,” says IT systems supplier to the mining industry and EMMM Forum member company MineRP VP Mike Woodhall.

“The EM process model captures the mining business generically and enables us and the clients to discuss further levels of detail based on understanding the specifics of the mining method.

“This is one of the two most significant parts of the exercise – having a multiparty definition, as no one person could have produced the model,” he adds.

The model covers the core mining business processes of discovery, establishment, exploitation, beneficiation, sales and rehabilitation in detail, says Macgregor.

He adds that, while it also covers the support processes of logistics and materials management, enterprise strategy, assets, finance, human resources, risks, IT, corporate relations as well as safety health and the environ- ment, these are currently not dealt with in any depth, as they are considered generic and not industry specific.

The EM model differs from traditional single mining company-developed models in some important respects, including its breadth and scale-independence. The extended and extensible model is also product and mining-method neutral.

In terms of breadth, it covers all aspects of mining and mining-related activities, from the initial conceptual ideas about identifying an exploitable resource to the processes of developing, mining and processing material for sale and transporting the finished product to the customer. This process concludes with the rehabilitation of the environment, as opposed to most mining company-developed models that focus solely on the scope of business relevant to that single company, Macgregor explains.

The model’s scale-independence makes it suitable for the largest of enterprise corporations and, through selective filtering, it also fully supports smaller mining companies and even companies that undertake only part of the process, such as exploration or beneficiation.

The model is also designed to support all products and mining methods. Product types include base metals, precious metals, precious stones, iron-ore and coal.

“Depending on the type of occurrence, the orebody may be near the surface, leading to opencast mining, or deep below the surface, leading to underground mining. Also, depending on the dispersion of the ore, it may be a massive deposit or distributed in seams, and it may be hard or soft rock. All these aspects lead to variations in business processes that are incorporated into the models,” he says.

The model can be used in greenfield or brownfield operations, as it encompasses all the varying business processes, roleplayers and deliverables associated with the various stages of a mining project, adds Macgregor.

There is also a series of explicitly identified strategic and operational standard business-management processes, which, together with planning, measuring, control and reporting, are considered as essential for a comprehensive business reference model.

The model provides a generic level of process detail. Beyond this, it can be extended by organisations to incorporate a specific activity or task level when required.