The report said operational intelligence, which provided workers and managers with real-time analysis, was key to gaining improvements onsite.

“It is the companies that enable their operators and management to respond in a timely way to operational variances and market volatility that will be better placed to minimise any adverse impacts and take advantage of productivity opportunities,” Deloitte partner Links Chithiray said.

Chithiray said that as connectivity to remote sites increased, a new landscape of reporting and analysis was emerging that enabled more real-time monitoring of performance.

He said the new conditions were enabling all parts of the workforce to make more responsive and fact-based decisions.

“It is no coincidence that despite the tougher market conditions, global mining leaders are making big data investments in operational intelligence, remote operations centres, automation, analytics and mobility,” he said.

“Operational intelligence is driving fundamental changes in the way information is exploited in mining.

“These solutions are delivering new insights to mine site executives, management teams and operations staff that reflects their environment and empowers them to make data-driven decisions on performance and costs.”

The report said it was important to measure data in a way that showed end-to-end insights and worked with findings from other parts of the business.

This approach aims at being able to look at the whole supply chain in real-time and from one place.

“The default state for large, geographically dispersed organisations tends to be different reporting and analytic solutions, working off different data sources often with subtly different data definitions,” it said.

“However, for operational intelligence to be a true lever of operational efficiency, management teams and operators should be working off the same underlying information and consistent data definitions.”