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The South African mining industry has a history of a range of major challenges, including high operating costs that have had a negative impact on mines' profitability and financial sustainability. The advent of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies has opened up new opportunities for the mining industry, among other things, to improve its cost-effectiveness and future competitiveness. Most South African mining companies have begun to adopt Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies; however, quite a large number of their projects have not been successful. The main objective of the paper is to conduct an integrative literature review to determine why some of the companies in the minerals, mining, and processing industry have not been successful in implementing Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies. The findings of the study outline areas of organisational and technological capability on which the industry could focus when developing future innovation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental reporting is a realistic alternative for mines to prioritise operational changes in crucial environmental areas. Gold mines report to multiple platforms - i.e., integrated reporting. All these platforms have created the need for effective environmental data management. A methodology was developed in which the environmental performance data for numerous operations is centralised. A standardised reporting procedure was developed for each environmental data category that includes the different stakeholders' needs. Focus was also placed on reducing the data transfer errors due to the importance of data accuracy. The methodology is based on the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle and was implemented at a gold mining company. After implementation, the rate of transfer error that would have been recorded in the data was reduced from 20 percent to four percent. This error rate was recorded before an external audit took place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although project scope definition is regarded as a key element in successful project management, research on the subject is sparse. This paper investigates the relationship between project scope readiness and project performance in the Namibian mining industry. A survey was done on ten projects from seven Namibian mining companies, using the project definition readiness index (PDRI) tool as a scope definition indicator, while cost and schedule performance were used as performance indicators. Support was found for the proposition that readiness of project scope definition improves schedule performance, but the relationship between the PDRI score and cost performance was less conclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The measurement of performance is an essential part of the management process. The planning function usually defines the goals and objectives for the business enterprise or division of the enterprise. The control function should monitor the performance measures and establish corrective action if actual performance deviates significantly from planned performance. Maintenance performance measurement is therefore essential to ensure that maintenance objectives are achieved, and that maintenance adds value for the company. The objective of this paper is to discuss the findings of a project that investigated aspects of the maintenance performance system of a number of mining companies in South Africa. The findings of a survey indicated that maintenance performance management is not yet used to its full potential in the mining industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]