After about 30 years in the gold exploration business, St. Andrew Goldfields Ltd. (www.sasgoldmines.com) has decided to move into a different part of the industry. Like many organizations undertaking substantial changes, the firm also decided it was time to implement a sophisticated ERP system to support the new business. But St. Andrew’s method of technology selection was somewhat unusual for a company of its size.
In October, St. Andrew expanded its operations, moving from exploration-only to exploration plus production. “We anticipate producing approximately 85,000 ounces in 2010,” says Ray Corbeil, St. Andrew’s director of cost management and administration. He adds that the company’s mines near Matheson in north-eastern Ontario are potential money-makers. “The bulk of that will come from our Holloway Mine and part of it from our Hislop open pit mine.”
But moving into production meant that the firm would need a better ERP system. Whereas the existing enterprise resource planning platform performed adequately with respect to financial reporting, it lacked modules for equipment maintenance, human resources and other aspects that the company required.
“When you’re in exploration... you’ll have your corporate expenses, then basically exploration expenses,” Corbeil says, detailing the simple “before” picture of St. Andrew’s ERP criteria. “In the mining environment – in production – you do need to have a lot more detailed information to help you analyze your cost and look for areas of improvement and so on. You also need to capture costs in a variety of different activities. Because you are mining in a live environment, you’ll have mining costs, milling costs, different other types of services – administration, engineering, geology and so on, as well as capital costs.”
