Mining Industry

Productivity down 5 years straight. 83% of projects over budget. And you still can’t find enough people.

Australian mining is sitting on the biggest opportunity in a generation — critical minerals, energy transition, record pipelines. But the operations underneath aren’t keeping up. We help you fix the systems that turn opportunity into output.

56,000

Extra workers needed by 2033

Industry forecast

83%

Of major projects over budget

McKinsey

3.3%

Productivity fell again in 2024–25

ABS

43%

Average cost overrun on capital projects

McKinsey

Sound familiar?

If you’re running a mining operation in Australia right now, you’re probably nodding at most of these.

You can’t fill roles fast enough — and the people you do get take months to be productive

You’re running more trucks and more shifts but moving less material per dollar spent

Your fleet system doesn’t talk to your maintenance system, which doesn’t talk to your planning system

Capital projects keep blowing their budget, and nobody sees it coming until it’s too late

ESG reporting went from a nice-to-have to a compliance requirement and you’re scrambling

Unplanned downtime on critical equipment is eating your production targets

Safety paperwork, contractor compliance, and regulatory reporting consume whole teams

You bought the technology but your people are still running the old way alongside it

It’s not the gear. It’s how the operation runs.

Most mining operations have invested heavily in equipment and technology. But the systems connecting them — how information flows from the pit to the plant to the office — are held together with spreadsheets, radio calls, and people’s heads. When your fleet management, maintenance, planning, safety, and finance systems don’t talk to each other, you’re making million-dollar decisions on partial information. The technology exists to fix this. But 70% of digital transformations in mining fail because nobody changes how the operation actually works around the new tools. That’s the gap we close.

Get more out of every truck, every shift, every tonne

Mining productivity in Australia has fallen for five consecutive years. You’re spending more on labour, fuel, and equipment but producing less per dollar. The gap between what your fleet could do and what it actually does is where the money is.

Fleet sitting idle

Trucks waiting at shovels, queuing at dumps, idling through shift changes. Proper fleet management systems improve productivity 10–34% by eliminating these dead spots.

Can’t see the real picture

Your dispatch system, maintenance logs, and production reports live in different worlds. Connecting them saves roughly 4 extra production hours per week — just from faster decisions.

Breakdowns you didn’t see coming

Unplanned downtime on a haul truck costs $10,000–50,000 per day. Predictive maintenance using sensor data reduces unplanned stops by 25–30%.

Fleet utilisation · Before

Trucks queue at shovels, idle through shift changes, and run sub-optimal routes. You know it’s happening but can’t quantify it.

Fleet utilisation · After

Real-time dispatching, dynamic truck assignment, and shift-change optimisation. Every truck spends more of its shift actually hauling.

Maintenance · Before

You fix things when they break. Critical equipment goes down mid-shift. Spares arrive too late or sit on shelves too long.

Maintenance · After

Sensors flag problems before they become failures. Maintenance shifts from reactive to planned. Downtime drops, availability climbs.

Decision speed · Before

Getting a clear picture of today’s production means chasing data from 3 systems and 2 people. By the time you have it, the shift is over.

Decision speed · After

One dashboard showing fleet position, production vs plan, and equipment health. You make decisions in minutes, not hours.

Deliver capital projects on time and on budget

83% of major mining projects come in late and over budget, with average cost overruns of 43%. For mid-tier miners, a blown capital project doesn’t just hurt the balance sheet — it can sink the company. The fix isn’t more engineers. It’s better project systems.

Budget blowouts found too late

Most overruns are identified in execution, long after the estimates were locked in. EY found that digital strategy needs to be set at the estimation phase — not bolted on later.

Contractors pulling in different directions

Multiple contractors, multiple systems, no single view of progress. The gaps between contracts are where the real risk lives.

Commissioning disasters

Construction finishes on time but the plant doesn’t reach capacity for months. The commissioning team wasn’t consulted early enough, and the build sequence didn’t match startup needs.

Cost visibility · Before

You find out the project is over budget at the next steering committee — weeks or months after the overspend started.

Cost visibility · After

Real-time cost tracking against baseline. Variances surface in days, not months. You can intervene while there’s still room to course-correct.

Contractor coordination · Before

Each contractor reports in their own format, on their own schedule. Integrating across contracts requires heroic manual effort.

Contractor coordination · After

One reporting framework, one set of milestones, one view of progress. Integration risks are visible and managed, not discovered at handover.

Commissioning · Before

Construction and commissioning are treated as sequential. The plant is built but can’t start because the handover sequence doesn’t work.

Commissioning · After

Commissioning requirements shape the construction sequence from day one. The plant starts up as planned because it was built to start up.

Do more with the people you’ve got

The mining industry needs 56,000 extra workers by 2033. You’re not going to find them all. The operations that win will be the ones that get more from every person on site — through better systems, smarter automation, and less time wasted on things that don’t move dirt.

People doing admin, not mining

Shift supervisors spending hours on compliance paperwork, manual reporting, and chasing approvals. Digital safety and compliance platforms cut this dramatically.

Knowledge leaving with every departure

FIFO turnover is 30–40% higher than residential. Every time someone leaves, operational knowledge walks out with them. You need systems, not just people.

Safety systems still paper-based

Fatigue monitoring reduces incidents by up to 90%. Proximity detection prevents collisions. But many mid-tier operators are still running manual safety processes.

Site admin · Before

Supervisors spend 2–3 hours per shift on paperwork, manual logs, and compliance forms. That’s production time you’re not getting back.

Site admin · After

Digital checklists, automated reporting, and compliance platforms. Your supervisors supervise. Your data captures itself.

Safety technology · Before

Fatigue management is self-reporting. Near-miss data is inconsistent. You’re reactive to incidents rather than preventing them.

Safety technology · After

In-cab fatigue monitoring, proximity detection, and real-time incident tracking. You shift from investigating incidents to preventing them.

Workforce capability · Before

New starters take months to be productive. Training is ad-hoc and depends on who’s available to show them the ropes.

Workforce capability · After

Structured onboarding, digital SOPs, and clear competency frameworks. People get productive faster and stay longer.

Make your technology actually work together

63% of mining executives struggle to integrate data across systems. The average operation has dozens of disconnected platforms — fleet, maintenance, planning, safety, finance, ESG. Each one works fine on its own. Together, they’re a mess. There’s a 13-year average lag between a technology being released and mining actually adopting it.

Data in silos, decisions in the dark

Your fleet system knows truck positions. Your maintenance system knows component health. Your planning system knows the schedule. But nobody has the full picture.

Digital projects that don’t stick

You’ve invested in platforms that promised transformation. Twelve months later, half the site is still using the old way. 70% of digital transformations in mining fail.

ESG reporting is a scramble

Mandatory climate reporting is here. Scope 3 from 2026. You need automated data collection and compliant reports, not more spreadsheets.

Connected systems · Before

Getting a complete operational picture means pulling data from 5+ systems, reconciling formats, and hoping nothing was missed.

Connected systems · After

Integrated data architecture where fleet, maintenance, planning, safety, and finance speak the same language. One source of truth.

Digital adoption · Before

You bought the system. The vendor installed it. Six months later, adoption is patchy and the promised benefits haven’t materialised.

Digital adoption · After

Technology implemented around how your people actually work. Change management built in from day one. Adoption sticks because the system makes their job easier.

ESG compliance · Before

Environmental and ESG reporting is manual, inconsistent, and takes weeks to compile. You’re not confident in the numbers.

ESG compliance · After

Automated emissions tracking, water monitoring, and regulatory reporting. Compliant data generated as a byproduct of operations, not a separate exercise.

The numbers don't lie

These aren’t projections. They’re documented results from mining operators who’ve made the shift.

15–32%

Productivity gain from autonomous haulage

BHP / Rio Tinto / FMG

25–30%

Reduction in unplanned downtime with predictive maintenance

Deloitte / Gartner

90%

Reduction in fatigue incidents with in-cab monitoring

Seeing Machines

10–34%

Fleet productivity improvement from management systems

Cat / Wenco / Modular

5.3x

Higher success rate when change management leads the transformation

McKinsey

70%

Of mining digital transformations fail without proper implementation

Industry benchmark

What working with us looks like

We don't hand you a report and walk away. We work alongside you to change how your business runs.

Step 1

We learn your operation

We spend time on your site — in the pit, the control room, the planning office. We look at how information flows from drill to dump, where decisions get delayed, and where systems don’t talk to each other.

Step 2

We show you the picture

You get a clear, straight-talking view of where your operation is strong and where it’s bleeding time, production, and money. No jargon, no 200-slide deck. Just an honest assessment with real numbers.

Step 3

We build the fix — with you

We set up the right systems and processes for your operation. We make sure your people actually use them. We stay until the new way of working sticks — not just until the vendor’s gone.

Step 4

You run it from here

The goal is an operation that runs properly without us. Better visibility, tighter cost control, less firefighting. You manage by dashboard, not by radio and spreadsheet.

Let’s talk about what’s actually slowing you down

No consultancy theatre. No death-by-PowerPoint. We’ll spend time at your operation — on site, in the control room, with your people. You’ll get a clear, honest picture of where your systems are costing you production, money, and time, and a practical plan to fix it. 30 minutes. No pitch. Just a straight conversation.

Book a Conversation

info@xpeditepartners.com.au