Anglo American Annual Report 2012

OPERATING AND FINANCIAL REVIEW RESOURCES AND TECHNOLOGYINNOVATION TODELIVER VALUEOUR RESOURCESThe resources Anglo Americanconsiders critical to achievingits strategic aims include:• Knowledge and expertise.• Proved and Probable Reserves(a summary is contained onpages 192–193).Full details of the Group’s OreReserves and Mineral Resourcesestimates are found on pages191–230.TECHNOLOGYOur strong in-house technologycapability provides world classsolutions to Anglo American andits global operations. Miningand Technology, which comprisesseven highly specialisedtechnical groups that concentratetheir expertise in specific valueaddingareas, made a significantcontribution to the Group onseveral fronts.In collaboration with the business units,the heads of the Mining, Metallurgy,Geosciences and Engineeringdisciplines have finalised a global setof Group Technical Standards andassociated guidelines aimed atenhancing project delivery, sharingbest practice, optimising value addedto operations and mitigating technicalrisks. Gap analyses are conductedby business units and operations todetermine compliance with thestandards, and plans are being put inplace to address any gaps that havebeen identified. The discipline headswith their team of experts continueto provide technical assurance toprojects and support the identificationof significant asset optimisationopportunities at the operations.The effective development andmanagement of technical talent withinthe Group has also been a focal point.Our Technical Solutions divisionsupports business units, operationsand project teams as well as thevarious Group functions across theentire mining value chain, fromexploration to mine closure. Thedivision provides fundamentalresearch as well as development andpiloting services. Multi-disciplinaryteams are made up of in-houseexperts from all the traditionalengineering disciplines, as well asmining, metallurgy, geometallurgy,process and chemistry, industrialengineering, materials handling,safety, occupational health,sustainable development, geophysics,hydrogeology, and quality andcompliance. In addition, projectengineering and change managementspecialists provide consulting servicesto our operations. The teams alsodevelop and implement or assistoperations with the implementationof techno-economic solutions. TheField Services section provideshands-on machine health monitoringexpertise to operations.Technical Solutions recentlydeveloped and is now implementingan integrated drill and blast solution forsurface operations comprising mineplanning, drill and hole monitoring,on-bench explosive quality testingas well as on-bench blast monitoringand analysis. The solution providesoperations with the capability toreconcile actual performance withdesigned performance, in real time,which increases the visibility of actualbottlenecks and allows enhanceddecision making at the mine site. TheEquipment Monitoring System (EMS),aimed at identifying equipmentcondition remotely, has successfullybeen rolled out to sites in Australia,South America and South Africa andhas been expanded from haul truckmonitoring to monitoring other criticalequipment. An integrated watermanagement solution has beendeveloped to meet the growing needsof the Group’s operations in this area.On the fundamental research side,Technical Solutions has successfullycombined molecular modelling withfast track chemical effectivenessevaluation to quickly identify non-toxicand more effective reagents withouthaving to rely on traditional trial anderror experimentation.Our Technology Development unitmanages, coordinates and integratestechnology development acrossthe Group. Progress continues onrealising Anglo American’s long termtechnology vision and is concentratedon laying the platform for a radicalchange in technology over the comingyears. The work focuses on long term,high value projects in undergroundmining, metal recovery and energyefficiency, as well as the shorterterm demonstration of automationtechnologies to improve safety andadd value.A concertedsystemsapproachhas now beenadopted inorder tofacilitatemining’stransition to amore modern,automated andtechnologicallymature era.38 Anglo American plc Annual Report 2012