Mining processes have remained fundamentally unchanged for decades, which has put the industry years behind the manufacturing sector, says new Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani, who also wants mining to catch up commercially and logistically.

Cutifani wants his new charge to think far more like an industrial company in the way it runs it processes, and also learn to sell and deliver better.

“We’ve got to get both of those right,” he said in his maiden results presentation, which was made to rave reviews, like the ‘Cutifani cuts the mustard’ accolade from critical London analyst Liberum Capital.

The Australian, who is also president of the Chamber of Mines of South Africa, also appealed for a reversion to balancing references to strengths with full transparency on risks.

Cutifani told Mining Weekly after reporting 15%-lower underlying operating profit of $3.3-billion in the half year, that at the very top of his to-do list is to lift Anglo’s low success rate on delivery of operational targets.

The operations have delivered on their budgets only 11% of the time over eight quarters and the company is now looking to a 75%-plus success rate on a quarter-by-quarter basis.

The company is returning only 8% on capital employed while 15% is break-even, which means it needs to find $3.5-billion in the business.

Savings of $1.3-billion in non-operational areas have been outlined and now the search is on for similar savings from the operations by 2016.

He is prepared to be held to account on saving $500-million from commercial activities, $500-million from organisational efficiencies and $300-million from capital allocation.

Viewed as having badly lagged the manufacturing industry, the mining industry, in the main, stands accused of failing to introduce well-proven statistical process control techniques.

Orebodies are starting to look very similar, says Cutifani, and the big difference that mining will see in value generation in the years to come are mining businesses that are run like modern industrial businesses.