Resolved a major reporting and governance issue

Prior to implementing Metallurgical Intelligence®, the Katanga copper-cobalt operation was overstating its financial performance by over US$41.9m, which led to an investigation by the Ontario Securities Commission. Since implementing MI Core® and a digital twin, the plant now has a highly accurate and centralised source of data.

Challenges

In 2017, Katanga Mine released the findings of an investigation into their production accounting which found that copper cathode production for a previous year was overstated by 6,650 tonnes – equivalent to overstating financial performance by US$41.9 million. This announcement led to the company’s share price dropping 56%, and an investigation by the Ontario Securities Commission. Prior to the investigation, reporting was based in Excel spreadsheets. Data had little traceability and transparency, and was difficult to determine and analyse.

Solution

Our team was brought in to deploy MI Core® in order to radically improve the plant’s compliance. Introducing MI Core® and implementing a digital twin means the site’s authorised personnel now have a transparent, centralised and accurate source of information. Now, all data can be traced back to its original source, so if any outliers or discrepancies are found in the data, engineers can easily investigate and uncover the reason for the unusual data.

Results

Thanks to this shortcut to digital transformation, Katanga Mine can now much more easily monitor and validate data that it reports on, as it can all be accessed through the MI Core® system and is traceable back to the source. Intermediate process inventories and streams that weren’t recorded previously are now calculated using the digital twin dynamic model to an hourly increment.