Rethinking Dewatering: A Mining Executive’s Story

Mat Harding, a senior mining executive in the United States, was battling constant dewatering problems. Here he shares how a different approach to those challenges transformed not just pump performance but eased the load on other parts of the operation. It’s the story of how that change was trialed and rolled out through PumpEng’s hire and continuous improvement strategy, and the results that flowed on from that.

The Site and the Role

You’ve recently implemented a new strategy for managing underground dewatering pumps. Can you describe the site where this took place and what your role was there?

At the time we implemented the initiative, I was General Manager of Operations as well as Vice President of Regional Operations. It was a large underground mining complex made up of four mines, pumping around 10 million gallons of water a day out of the operations.

What Drove the Change

In the past, the site purchased pumps and handled servicing off-site, but recently you switched to the PumpEng hire model, combined with The PumpEng Way of continuous improvement. What were the factors that led you to make that change?

At the time, we had a longstanding relationship with the incumbent vendors providing dewatering solutions. However, over three to four years, mitigation of premature pump failure and general improvements to pumping costs had become a critical component of our unit cost reduction strategy, and of our internal continuous improvement strategy to keep the operation globally competitive on cost.

Improvement studies identified that we lacked a detailed understanding of key pumping cost drivers, particularly regarding root cause analysis on what was driving pump failures and data driven defect analysis to prevent reoccurrence of the same failure modes. We found that the pumping system wasn’t optimised to handle the volume and quality of water, or the forecast inflows into the operation. We also knew we didn’t have the experience or expertise in-house, both to diagnose the root cause and identify the right actions to improve pumping costs and overall pump reliability, and to optimise the pumping system itself.

Continuous Improvement Done Properly

Was the PumpEng continuous improvement methodology a factor in your decision making?

Yes, absolutely. This was done quite responsibly. There is often a tendency to jump straight into improvement of perceived problems without really stepping back to understand the true root causes and real value drivers associated with challenges in mining operations.

PumpEng were quite responsible in their approach. It started with them coming in and getting to know the operation, understanding the current state and future requirements of the pumping system. They didn’t just look at the infrastructure side, they took the time to understand the people and the culture of the operational environment too.

The First Results

What form did the changes take as they started to roll through?

The first change that was immediately evident was a substantial increase in pump reliability and lifespan. The engagement started with a trial of the JetGuard product, and we didn’t make it easy for PumpEng. We were quite transparent about giving them a challenge upfront, putting their product in one of the most difficult areas in the operation. It was an area with high solids content, mud inflow and undersized dewatering infrastructure. PumpEng, from the get-go, were extremely confident in their product.

The first benefit we really noticed was in those particularly harsh operating conditions. The product showed substantial improvements in reliability, as well as the capability to handle very challenging water and environments, and to keep up with inflows in one of the toughest areas in the operation.

There were also positive effects downstream. We saw improvements in procurement, logistics and supply chain. The previous product, and the failure rate that came with it, put a significant burden on procurement because of the volume and frequency of replacements. By getting the more reliable, robust PumpEng product in there, we found downstream improvements on the logistics and procurement side of the organisation. That freed us up to focus that human capital and time on additional business improvements.

Overcoming The Resistance

Were there any other obstacles you had to overcome to take the hiring approach inside your business?

Yes. Initially, the concept of hiring pumps and dewatering infrastructure was a difficult one to fathom. In most operations, and I think this was the culture at the time, because they’re relatively low cost and they’re a cyclical, repairable and reloadable product, it didn’t quite make sense to hire them. From a procurement perspective, we didn’t have the internal systems set up to do it, so it was quite a foreign concept for us.

The PumpEng team made it extremely simple. They did a lot of heavy lifting side by side with our engineering and procurement teams to make that process easy. The proof of concept, through what was an extremely successful trial, helped build credibility going into larger scale commercial engagements. From a cultural perspective, we had a longstanding relationship with our prior vendor, and that’s always difficult, migrating from a longstanding commercial relationship to a product that doesn’t have an equivalent presence, particularly in the United States.

There was absolutely cultural pushback that came with that, from management level all the way down to operational execution. Justin, from PumpEng, backed their product from day one. They spent a significant amount of contact time, not just with the leaders driving the change but with the workers executing it, and with the engineering teams doing the planning behind the product to make sure it was successful. A combination of being there shoulder to shoulder in the field, demonstrated success through early pilot trials, and backing their product through continued wins was how we got the project off the ground quite quickly.

Lessons Learned

What lessons have been learned from this hiring approach as part of The PumpEng Way methodology?

It challenged my thinking. At senior management and executive levels, we tend to focus on the Pareto concept, on the big ticket cost blowouts and the big ticket improvements. It’s very easy to lose sight of the smaller stuff, the cumulative effect of some of those 1% issues. When we stood back and looked at the full scope and cost impact of dewatering, we realised we’d overlooked exactly that.

The other lesson was not to assume you understand the root cause of a problem just because you’re familiar with the operational history. One of the things the PumpEng team did extremely well was come in and establish a baseline assessment of the operation, the infrastructure and the dewatering capability. Through that assessment, we were able to determine that regardless of which product we used, we’d be unsuccessful, because we didn’t have the supporting infrastructure. That also speaks to PumpEng’s pride and confidence in their product, that the initial work was done to make sure both their product and their organisation were set up for success.

For me, that was the biggest lesson. Not just assuming a new product or vendor is going to fix things, but taking the time to step back, understand the root cause and set the change up for success from the get-go.

The Unexpected Benefits

Were there any other advantages you weren’t expecting?

Going back to the comment about the initial site assessments, by standing back, understanding the true systems view and looking at the infrastructure required to set the PumpEng product up for success, we were able to take those lessons and apply them elsewhere. We actually achieved similar success with some of the legacy products and legacy pumping infrastructure, even ahead of changing over to the PumpEng product. So there were short-term incremental benefits in replicating that across the rest of the organisation.

The other one we spoke about earlier is that by adopting a stable, reliable product and a reliable service, we were only then able to realise just how much of a burden the prior system had been, particularly from an administrative perspective. Implementing those changes frees up a considerable amount of people power to redirect towards improving the business in other areas, rather than constantly reacting.

What the Team Said

What type of feedback are you getting from your team on the site about the pumps and their performance?

Look, pumping, particularly at the time, was a very hot topic. A lot of the news that got to my desk, unfortunately, wasn’t good news. It was critical infrastructure failure, constant production delays, constant firefighting. Post-implementation was the first time in my relatively long tenure with that organisation where I didn’t get any feedback on pumping. At that point, no news was absolutely good news.

As the resistance to change and the fear of the unknown subsided, and people realised the change was there to stay, there was a lot of open praise, and not just for the product, but for the level of service. It was an area of the organisation subject to a large amount of scrutiny, and a difficult one to succeed in. Justin and his team did a fantastic job from day one, building those relationships and supporting both their product and the team for success. So very, very positive feedback, on both the product and the service side.

Looking Ahead

Are there any plans to expand the hire fleet at that site?

Yeah, I think so. There’s significant potential to scale that model, particularly as we see the efficiencies that come with economies of scale and longer-term stability. I also see a huge amount of opportunity for PumpEng to expand their business model, product and service offerings into their primary pumping market. They’ve done an extremely good job establishing a local presence and getting out ahead of scaling the solution, both in the southern region of the US and more broadly across the country. So I see real opportunity at that complex, but not just there, right across the United States and potentially globally from there too.

Advice to Other Sites

If you’re talking to someone on another mine site who hadn’t tried this kind of dewatering pump hire approach, what would you say to them?

Yeah, it’s a good question. It is a common problem, and the initial resistance is probably typical too, particularly with the hiring model. Where I’d start is to lean on the fact that PumpEng weren’t willing to put their product somewhere they knew it would fail. They believed in their product and backed it from the start. They backed the model from the outset, and they were highly flexible in developing a solution that let us try it before we fully committed, to demonstrate the benefit. Not just that, they were relentless in building relationships and removing roadblocks ahead of deployment to make sure their product was successful. The amount of work that goes into that is typically a major administrative burden on an organisation that has a vast array of other, potentially more important, problems to solve.

So my encouragement to other operations is that you’re in good hands with the PumpEng team. They’ll partner with you, they’ll support you, and they’ll take that burden on to make sure their product is set up for success. There’s a significant amount of flexibility to demonstrate the benefit quickly before a full commitment, and once that benefit is realised, they’re very efficient at scaling the solution to suit the full size of the organisation.

The major benefit with the PumpEng solution is that it’s not just a good product, it’s a great service. It’s the full ecosystem, and that’s what’s typically lacking. That’s where I was really impressed.