By:Arjen de Bruin - Group CEO at OIM Consulting

Every day in a mine begins with precision. Targets are set, crews are briefed and plans are mapped down to the minute: how many tonnes to move, which sectionsto drill or blast, which machines to deploy. Yet by the end of the day, the numbers don’t always match the plan. A few late starts, a slow equipment change-out, a meeting that drags on…These small losses seem insignificant in isolation but add up over time, and could end up costing millions of rands.

At OIM, we’ve spent more than a decade studying operational performance across mines in sub-Saharan Africa, both open pit and underground. By analysing more than 10 years of production data, we’ve traced the patterns that quietly drain output. The finding is clear: Africa’s mines are not held back by geology or technology, but by how time is managed, prioritised and used. In that space between intention and execution, as much as 10% of planned output can disappear in a single shift. 

The real losses happen between plan and pit

What’s striking is that most of these losses are human, not mechanical. Supervisors and frontline leaders often spend more than half their day in meetings or dealing with unexpected problems, rather than leading their teams in the field. Time that should be spent planning, checking progress or coaching is swallowed by administrative tasks. Meanwhile, contractors and site managers may be working to different priorities, pulling effort in conflicting directions.

In one operation we studied, crews were achieving less than 90% of planned tonnes even though there were no breakdowns or shortages. The issue wasn’t equipment – it was leadership time. Once supervisors were coached to plan their day differently, set clearer priorities and spend more time with their teams, output jumped by double digits within weeks.

Stronger leadership habits can recover what systems can’t

Across the continent, mines invest heavily in advanced systems but often overlook the management practices that make those systems effective. That principle underpins OIM’s Coaching to Performance™ methodology: drawing on insights from more than 80 operations, we have developed an operational playbook that pinpoints the moments where leadership has the greatest impact – the pre-shift briefing, the in-shift follow-up and the post-shift review – and by refining these routines and reinforcing them through structured coaching, mines can reclaim the 5 to 10% of output that typically vanishes during execution. 

We’ve seen the proof on site. In one large open pit mine, a daily control process reduced plan variance by 7% in just two months. In another underground operation, aligning contractor KPIs with mine priorities improved tonnage consistency by more than 12%. These gains didn’t come from new machines or extra headcount. They came from sharper focus, better structure and leadership time spent where it matters most.

The data tells a clear story: Africa’s mines have the capability to match and even surpass their global peers. What often holds them back isn’t skill or technology but the consistency of daily execution. As we refine our operational playbook, one lesson becomes clear across every site we work with: lasting improvement comes from sharper management focus, not bigger systems. The next leap in African mining will come from the shift itself – from how leaders spend their time, guide their teams and turn daily plans into real results.