WHAT IS TOR

We put together a diagram which shows the BENEFIT, CAPITAL COST and the size of the circle is the TIME TO IMPLEMENT. You end up with a diagram, where you want low capital, big return, little tiny circle. They are the winners. Big capital costs, small benefit and a long time to implement - that’s the other extreme. That’s very presentable because then we can give you a report in a power point presentation, which you can take back to your board or you can deliver to your management team.

We have all the technology ideas but when you actually go and look at your business and what does it mean to them it might be big capital, too long to implement. No good. You will get a report about what technology can be implemented to your business. Low capital, quick return. You will get a picture of what all these technologies mean to you.

Clients pay me for two weeks to interview all their people. Some of them will say, look we know about it we just haven’t got the funding. So let’s classify that:

  • Small expense, medium, big. Small is less than a $1m, medium is $1-5m and large is $5-10m.

  • And return $0-10m, $10-50m, $50-100m.

  • Time to implement: 1y, 3y, 5y.

So of all the technologies that I see available, these are the 3.

THE PROCESS

  • Meeting with a sponsor

  • Kick off meeting

  • Key personnel interviews and discussions

  • Consolidation workshop

  • Sponsor feedback presentation

  • Assessment and ranking with key people

  • Draft presentation report

PRACTICAL APPROACH

As a result of years of experience, we have formed a process where we analyze each company, it’s stage of development, assets and what are the right solutions for them at the time. It’s important that greenfield companies consider what type of production companies they want to be. They shouldn’t be afraid to stand out by using cool innovative solutions. It will improve their valuation and image in the broader investment community. People don’t like change and a lot of companies are in the business of designing things, and optimizing things, and optimizing the optimizations. Wouldn’t it be easier to consider all your options right from the start really….

Here are some of the comments in this discussion on previous projects:

“Just because a company doesn’t have a lot of new technology, doesn’t mean they are a bad company. Because if you are buying old assets it’s very difficult to introduce technology to them. You have to differentiate technology and innovation. You can actually without spending a cent on new technology, be very innovative and have great improvement. For example. where you add the reagents in a tank can actually make a lot of difference. You are relying on an individual to experiment. It doesn’t cost any money but he’s just taking care and taking responsibility.

Or process control. It would be really nice to have a fancy process control. When you are building a new mine you can have a really fancy, modern process control system for no extra cost. If you’ve got an existing operation to put a new control system it’s a big deal, it’s like doing a brain surgery while you’re walking. So you sit there and say, yeh look it would be fantastic to have a modern process control system that did this and this, and this. Unless you do a major shut down you won’t.” - D.E.