Snowden Optiro Podcasts & News, Tech talk

30 Seconds of Reconciliation info: The frequency of reconciliation

September 10, 2019

This week’s 30 Seconds of Reconciliation Info is from Ian Glacken our Geology Director.

The frequency of reconciliation: This is an area where practice varies enormously; some organisations believe that reconciliation on anything less than a three-month increment is meaningless and subject to unimportant fluctuations; others studiously crunch the mine call factors each week and pay considerable attention to divergences from target. So which is correct? As in most areas, it depends: upon the size of the mine and the plant, the residence time of a tonne of ore from crusher to product, the inherent ‘nuggetness’ of the mineralisation, and the sensitivity of profit or cashflow to grade. In reality, there are very few mines which would not benefit from at least a monthly reconciliation of the as-mined tonnage and grade against the product (the F2 factor of Parker), and very few mines where a weekly reconciliation is actually meaningful. Certainly there are certain quantities, such as the reserve depletion, which are better looked at over a longer time-frame (say three months). A good policy, reasonably widely practiced, is to examine reconciliation metrics over a range of time-frames, with the triggers for action becoming tighter over the longer period; for instance, a three-month metal variability of 10% may trigger action, whereas a one-month variability of 15% in the same metric may not.

Ian Glacken – Director of Geology
BSc (Hons) (Geology), MSc(Mining Geology), DIC, MSc(Geostatistics), Grad Dip Computing, FAusIMM(CP), FAIG, MIMMM, CEng

Ian is a geologist with postgraduate qualifications in geostatistics, mining geology and computing who has more than 35 years’ worldwide experience in the mining industry.

Ian’s skills are in resource evaluation and due diligence reviews, public reporting, training and mentoring, quantitative risk assessment, strategic advice, geostatistics, reconciliation, project management, statutory and competent persons’ reporting and mining geology studies.

Ian has a strong mining production background and is a regular auditor for the world’s largest mining companies.

Ian is the presenter of our 1-day Reconciliation course. If you’d like to view the course content, please use this LINK.
Ian also offers half-day onsite audits of reconciliation processes for mining companies, followed by a 1-day reconciliation training course.
Please contact either Ian or Diana to discuss these in more detail.