Deloitte: Canada’s mining companies can take steps now to improve their prospects

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

Canadian mining companies should be investing now to ensure they can fulfill future global demand for commodities even as they face a series of immediate challenges affecting the global mining sector, according to a new report from Deloitte that was released recently. The report, Tracking the trends 2013, provides commentary and analysis of the top 10 issues most likely to impact the mining sector in 2013 and provides a range of responses that companies can adopt to prepare for shifting industry dynamics.

According to the Deloitte report, these are the top 10 issues for the mining sector in 2013, along with some of the things companies can do to mitigate them:

• Higher costs: This remains the number one trend for the second year in a row. Currency volatility, high operating costs, and lower grades are affecting decisions around continued production, expansions and the delinking of corporate equity from commodity prices. To get costs under control, mining companies must pinpoint their cost drivers, automate, improve asset efficiency with analytics, improve their operating model and streamline the supply chain initiatives.
• Demand uncertainty: China’s deceleration of growth, combined with the widening gap between its official global demand data and observable reality, has adversely affected commodity prices and investment decisions. Rather than halting production and risking an inability to meet future demand, mining companies should consider applying game theory to enhance their scenario planning to guide their capital project decisions.

The Deloitte report concludes that mining companies that proactively resolve these endemic issues will be better able to meet future commodity requirements despite today’s volatile conditions and are likely to increase their role in the advancement of local communities, support of undeveloped economies and growth of jobs and skilled talent around the world.