In the mining industry, operational challenges are rarely isolated. Inefficiencies in mine planning, processing, maintenance, or commercial oversight can ripple across the business, impacting production, costs, and ultimately profitability.

For executives, the question isn’t whether these challenges exist, but how to uncover them systematically act decisively.

At Xenco, our structured diagnostic approach delivers exactly that: a rapid, holistic assessment of operations that identifies opportunities, prioritises actions, and ensures alignment between strategy and execution.

Fast, Targeted, Multi-Stage Assessments

Xenco’s diagnostics begin with a remote analysis, rapidly analysing operational data and highlighting key themes. It can be focused on a particular area or the whole of operation, and the data is reviewed by operational experts with experience managing the departments they are reviewing. The key tenet is that this is based on the client data as opposed to opinion.

These insights are then validated on-site through observations and engagement with stakeholders, ensuring recommendations are grounded in reality and fully contextualised.

This is then summarised into a report and provides a prioritised list of improvement opportunities.

Alignment Across All Levels of the Business

A common challenge in large operations is ensuring that strategic objectives translate into meaningful actions at the site and departmental levels. Xenco bridges this gap by aligning:

• Corporate priorities – the high-level business goals that drive overall strategy
• Site-level objectives – operational targets specific to each mine or plant
• Department-specific goals – actionable initiatives for teams in mining, processing, and maintenance

This multi-level alignment ensures that improvement initiatives are strategically relevant, executable, and measurable, giving leadership confidence that their teams are working toward the right outcomes.

Key Success Factors

1. A Holistic, Cross-Functional Lens

Xenco takes a cross-functional perspective, evaluating how planning, processing, asset management, and commercial practices interact. By understanding these interdependencies, we identify root causes of inefficiency, rather than simply addressing symptoms, which drives measurable, sustained improvement.

2. Data-Driven, Experience-Guided Prioritisation

Xenco takes a cross-functional perspective, evaluating how planning, processing, asset management, and commercial practices interact. By understanding these interdependencies, we identify root causes of inefficiency, rather than simply addressing symptoms, which drives measurable, sustained improvement.

3. Practical, Implementable Recommendations

The strength of the diagnostic process lies in its ability to turn insights into results. Our assessments generate recommendations that are immediately actionable, covering areas such as:

• Mining optimisation: drill and blast strategies, ore selectivity, and mine planning improvements
• Processing enhancements: increased milling uptime, feed strategy adjustments, and throughput optimisation
• Business management systems: reconciliation frameworks, contractor oversight, and asset management improvements

4. Experienced Delivery Support

Insight alone does not deliver outcomes, execution does. Beyond identifying improvement opportunities, we provide experienced operational and technical resources to directly support the implementation of agreed initiatives.

Our teams embed alongside site leadership and functional teams to help translate recommendations into measurable results, including:

• On-site and embedded specialists: mining, processing, maintenance, and project delivery professionals with real-world operational credibility
• Initiative ownership and governance: clear accountabilities, prioritisation, and progress tracking to maintain momentum
• Hands-on execution support: assisting with work-pack development, contractor alignment, and change implementation
• Capability uplift: coaching and knowledge transfer to ensure improvements are sustained beyond the engagement sustained beyond the engagement

This approach reduces execution risk, accelerates value realisation, and ensures improvement initiatives are delivered with discipline, practicality, and lasting impact

Tangible Business Impact

The value of a structured diagnostic isn’t theoretical. In one recent engagement at a large gold mine in the EMEA region, Xenco’s approach unlocked:

• > $20M in annual cost reductions through optimised contractor management, processing strategies, and production reconciliation
• Up to 43,000 oz/year in additional production through mining process improvements and bottleneck reduction
• 10% productivity uplift via structured maintenance planning and streamlined shutdown execution
• 15.8% reduction in All-in Sustaining Cost (AISC) per ounce, improving profitability and sustainability

This combination of strategic oversight and tactical execution ensures that asset management delivers tangible value across all layers of the operation.

Turning Insight into Action for Your Operation

These outcomes are not unique to a single site. By applying our framework, and cross-functional expertise, Xenco can help your operations uncover hidden opportunities, streamline performance, and deliver measurable business impact.

Discover how a diagnostic assessment could deliver meaningful value in your operations.