Round Mountain’s increased focus on Continuous Improvement (CI) initiatives have led to higher production and lower costs. In 2015, Round Mountain increased production by an impressive 16%, its best performance since 2009.
With the leadership and support of Randy Burggraff, former Vice-President and General Manager and David Hendriks, current Vice-President and General Manager, the site has accomplished many improvement projects resulting in the recovery of more ounces in a cost effective manner.
Recent successful improvements include the ‘Leach Way Forward’ heap leach optimization and payload optimization efforts.
The team credits creating an enhanced culture of CI – an environment with flexibility, adaptability and a place for open dialogue and ideas – for the achievements.
“Just as we do not work safely because we have a safety department, we don’t improve because we have a Continuous Improvement department,” said Frank Wagener, Continuous Improvement Manager. “CI at Round Mountain is more holistic and is part of every department at our site. We are successful because we have good people who believe in the process.”
There has also been a cultural shift over the last couple of years regarding the amount of ideas and involvement that the workforce has contributed. “Sharing the Win” and “Working Together” are Round Mountain’s mottos, along with “It’s Possible”, which means striving for effective, safe production today and in the future. And, last but not least, “My Money”, which, Vicente Ramirez, Lean Facilitator, says means: “We pledge to operate Round Mountain with financial discipline, as if we personally owned the company.”
“We are grateful to be recognized for our team’s effort and look forward to sharing our accomplishments and best practices with others,” said Deanna Hall, Process Training Supervisor. “The best result is that every employee feels empowered by knowing they can lead and directly contribute to improving our operations.”
Round Mountain’s success is getting recognized. In March, Frank, Vicente, and Deanna, will be traveling to Las Vegas, Nevada to present efforts of the RM workforce to industry experts at the 2016 Lean Transformation Summit, a well-known conference for manufacturing innovation and business improvement.
By the heap leach pad at Round Mountain
