In the face of volatile commodities prices, climbing labour and power costs, and growing regulatory scrutiny, South African mines are taking the knife to their operating expenditure. In addition to paring headcount, many mines are looking to trim discretionary spending on IT as part of their cost reduction strategies.

But at the same time, mining operations are being forced to use technology in a far more strategic manner than they have in the past. “The oil and gas sector uses technology with finesse, where the mining industry has always used it with brute force,” says AccTech sales director Marc Gower. That picture is changing as mining companies start to embrace technologies such as big data to improve management of their resources.