Mining & Metals · Asset Performance Management

Reliability at scale.
From single site
to global portfolio.

Optimal delivers RCM-based maintenance strategy, ISO 55001 advisory and structured asset performance programmes for mining operators across open-pit, underground and processing environments — from a single commodity site to multi-country portfolio deployments.

Book a Discovery Call Benchmark with GARPI™™

Multi-site Programme · Africa

15%

Average asset availability uplift across a global mining portfolio spanning diamond, platinum, coal and iron ore operations through the ARaaS® programme.

Commodity Coverage

Commodity types served — diamonds, platinum group metals, gold, coal, iron ore and base metals across open-pit and underground operations.

Governance Standard

ISO 55001

Gap assessments, SAMP development and implementation roadmaps delivered — from site-level baseline to board-level portfolio governance.

Open-Pit Mining

Underground Operations

Processing & Beneficiation

Tailings & Infrastructure

RCM · FMECA · ISO 55001 · SAMP

Africa · Americas · Europe · Australia

The Operating Reality

Mining demands more
from asset management

Mining operations are among the most asset-intensive environments on earth. The equipment base spans primary extraction, haulage, crushing, milling, separation and tailings — each system interdependent, each failure carrying production, safety and environmental consequence.

The challenge is not equipment availability in isolation. It is the integration of maintenance strategy, asset data, workforce capability and operational planning into a coherent system that compounds performance improvements year on year — across multiple sites, commodities and geographies.

How ARaaS® solves this

Reactive maintenance culture entrenched at site levelHigh unplanned downtime driven by time-based PM schedules that don't reflect actual failure modes — particularly on critical haulage, crushing and processing plant.

CMMS populated but not trustedAsset hierarchies built at commissioning and never maintained. Work order quality too poor to support reliability analysis. MTBF trending and failure pattern analysis impossible.

No ISO 55001 governance frameworkCorporate asset management obligations not translating to site-level practice. No structured SAMP, no performance measurement system aligned to business objectives or board commitments.

Multi-site inconsistency undermining portfolio decisionsDifferent sites operating different maintenance philosophies. No common framework for performance comparison, best practice transfer or portfolio-level capital allocation.

Spares estate bloated or mis-specifiedWorking capital tied up in slow-moving and obsolete stock — while critical failure events reveal gaps in fast-moving consumables and insurance spares precisely when they are needed most.

Mining reliability engineering and asset management

The Optimal Approach

Structure first.
Then optimise.

Optimal's approach to mining asset performance is grounded in one principle: you cannot optimise what is not structured. Before predictive analytics, before digital dashboards, before any tooling — asset hierarchies must be right, failure modes must be documented, and maintenance strategies must be defensible at site and portfolio level.

The ARaaS® framework provides exactly that structure — then compounds it. Each engagement builds on the last, progressively improving asset data quality, maintenance strategy precision and portfolio reliability across your operation.

ISO 55001 gap assessment & SAMP development →

ISO 14224-compliant asset register & hierarchy build →

FMECA & RCM across extraction, haulage and process plant →

Criticality analysis and PM schedule optimisation →

Spares strategy and materials management advisory →

Multi-site benchmarking and governance frameworks →

Explore the ARaaS® framework

Services for Mining & Metals

Everything a mining operator
needs — nothing superfluous

Optimal's full mining capability — from strategic asset management planning through to predictive maintenance deployment and spares optimisation.

Strategic Asset Management Plan

ISO 55001 clause-by-clause gap assessment

Asset management policy and objectives framework

SAMP development — site and portfolio level

5-year maturity roadmap and certification pathway

Board-level governance and KPI framework

Maintenance Strategy & RCM

FMECA across extraction, haulage and processing plant

Criticality classification aligned to site risk matrix

RCM task development and PM schedule optimisation

SAP PM / Maximo / Pronto task library integration

Shutdown and turnaround scope rationalisation

Asset Register & CMMS Governance

ISO 14224-compliant equipment hierarchy build

Functional locations, BoMs and equipment tagging

Work order quality improvement programme

CMMS data cleansing, enrichment and governance

Cross-site taxonomy standardisation

Reliability Engineering & FMEA

Root cause analysis for recurring failure events

FMEA development aligned to OEM and field data

Vulnerability identification and mitigation planning

RAM modelling and availability analysis

35,000+ maintainable item library

Spares & Materials Management

Critical spare parts identification and stock optimisation

Insurance spares and long-lead item strategy

Obsolescence management and disposal identification

Warehouse rationalisation and stock health review

Procurement policy and min/max level setting

Predictive & Condition Monitoring

Vibration, thermography and oil analysis programme design

OSIsoft PI and predictive platform integration

Real-time anomaly detection for rotating plant

Optimal360™ digital platform deployment

Shift from reactive to predictive maintenance

Trusted by Mining Operators

Optimal has delivered asset performance programmes for mining operators across Africa, Australia, the Americas and Europe — spanning open-pit and underground operations across multiple commodities and geographies.

Global Mining Group · Multi-commodity · Africa

Major Diamond Producer · Southern Africa

Platinum & Palladium Operations · South Africa

Gold Mining Group · West Africa

Coal Operations · Southern Africa

Iron Ore Producer · Africa

Detailed case studies below are anonymised in line with Optimal's client confidentiality policy. Client consent is required before specific project details are attributed publicly. Contact us to arrange reference calls with relevant operators.

Case Studies — Mining & Metals

Proven delivery across
every mining challenge

All case studies

Mining · South Africa · Multi-site

Global Mining Group — Diamond, Platinum, Coal & Iron Ore

Maintenance Strategy Development & Optimisation

A global mining group required structured maintenance strategy across its full South African commodity portfolio. Excessive unplanned downtime and inconsistent maintenance practices across open-pit and underground operations were driving availability losses and high reactive maintenance cost across every commodity group.

Results delivered

15%

Average asset availability uplift across multiple sites through the ARaaS® programme — sustained improvement validated across each commodity group

Multi-site

ARaaS® embedded across diamond, platinum, coal and iron ore operations — full plant hierarchies, criticality analysis, FMECA and RCM procedures delivered per site

Mining · Open-Pit · ISO 55001

Major Open-Pit Producer — Asset Management System Development

ISO 55001 Gap Assessment & SAMP

Large-scale open-pit mining operation with no formal asset management system in place. Corporate board required ISO 55001 certification within 24 months — no structured baseline existed and site-level maintenance practice was largely reactive and undocumented.

Results delivered

ISO 55001

Full clause-by-clause gap assessment completed. Asset Management Policy, SAMP framework and governance structure defined. 24-month certification roadmap delivered to board

Baseline

Maturity scoring across all ISO 55001 clauses with prioritised action plan, resource requirements and phased implementation schedule

Mining · Multi-site · CMMS

Multi-commodity Mining Group — CMMS Rationalisation Programme

Asset Register Build & CMMS Governance

Mining group operating fragmented CMMS data across multiple SAP PM instances — inconsistent asset tagging, no common functional location structure, and work order quality insufficient for reliability analysis. Cross-site performance benchmarking was entirely unviable.

Results delivered

ISO 14224

Compliant asset hierarchy developed and implemented across all sites. Common equipment taxonomy, functional location standards and BoM structure established as group-wide standard

Unified

Work order quality framework and KPI dashboard deployed — MTBF trending, failure analysis and cross-site benchmarking now operationally viable for the first time

Mining · Underground · Spares

Underground Mining Operation — Spares Optimisation Programme

Spares Optimisation & Inventory Management

Underground operation with a bloated spares inventory — high carrying costs from slow-moving and obsolete stock, while critical spare parts gaps were causing extended MTTR during major equipment failures. No criticality-led procurement policy in place to distinguish between insurance, operational and consumable stock.

Results delivered

Structured

Criticality-aligned spare parts framework developed. Min/max levels set by failure risk and lead time. Insurance spares list formalised and procurement triggers established

Rationalised

Slow-moving and obsolete stock identified for disposal. Working capital released. Fast-moving consumables re-profiled to eliminate stockout risk on critical equipment classes

Mining · Processing Plant · Predictive

Major Processing Plant Operator — Predictive Maintenance Deployment

Condition Monitoring & Predictive Analytics

High-value crushing, milling and conveyor systems with no condition monitoring programme. Recurring unplanned failures on critical rotating equipment were causing significant production losses. Maintenance planning was reactive and calendar-driven with no failure data to support task rationalisation or prediction.

Results delivered

Deployed

Vibration analysis, thermography and oil sampling programme established across critical rotating assets. Condition monitoring schedule and reporting framework delivered with maintenance team

Predictive

Real-time anomaly detection integrated with historian. Failure signatures identified in advance — planned interventions replacing emergency breakdowns on four critical equipment classes

Digital Engineering

Turning operational
data into decisions

Mining operations generate enormous volumes of equipment data — process historians, vibration datasets, oil analysis records, work order histories. The operations that convert this data into production advantage are those with the analytical capability to detect failure signatures before they escalate to shutdowns.

Optimal deploys predictive and prescriptive maintenance programmes across surface and underground mining infrastructure, integrating with OSIsoft PI, SAP PM, Pronto and site-specific CMMS environments to deliver actionable intelligence directly to your maintenance teams.

Real-time anomaly detection and vibration trending →

Oil analysis and wear debris monitoring integration →

Optimal360™ APM platform deployment →

CMMS data cleansing, enrichment and governance →

RAM modelling and production bottleneck identification →

Predictive maintenance services

Digital engineering and predictive maintenance technology

Reliability at scale.
From single site
to global portfolio.

Mining demands more
from asset management

Structure first.
Then optimise.

Not a project.
A programme.

Everything a mining operator
needs — nothing superfluous

Proven delivery across
every mining challenge

Turning operational
data into decisions

How does your mining operation
compare with global peers?

Ready to shift from
reactive to reliable?

Optimal across
asset-intensive sectors

Reliability at scale.From single siteto global portfolio.

Mining demands morefrom asset management

Structure first.Then optimise.

Not a project.A programme.

Everything a mining operatorneeds — nothing superfluous

Proven delivery acrossevery mining challenge

Turning operationaldata into decisions

How does your mining operationcompare with global peers?

Ready to shift fromreactive to reliable?

Optimal acrossasset-intensive sectors

Reliability at scale.
From single site
to global portfolio.

Mining demands more
from asset management

Structure first.
Then optimise.

Not a project.
A programme.

Everything a mining operator
needs — nothing superfluous

Proven delivery across
every mining challenge

Turning operational
data into decisions

How does your mining operation
compare with global peers?

Ready to shift from
reactive to reliable?

Optimal across
asset-intensive sectors