Growth/Smart Mining
ERG’s operations in the DRC are among the highest-profile and largest scale in the country. Recognising the responsibility it has not only in the DRC but in securing the world’s natural resources, the Group maintains strong ethical standards in all aspects of its operations. It has an active social investment programme spanning education, healthcare and training for local employees and it takes active steps to ensure the integrity of its supply chain.
ERG Africa believes that it is vital that despite economic conditions, we recognise the importance of Africa as a region and continue investing not only in our own businesses, but in fuelling infrastructure growth and improving the health, wealth and well-being of the communities where we operate.
Historical issue
ERG Africa inherited finances that were in a terrible state. By 2014 we required a Group injection of just under $200m to stay afloat.
Key achievement
An aggressive Business Improvement and Procurement programme was undertaken and by 2016 our operations had made an EBITDA of $7m.
Historical issue
Our operations and centre had never focused on accurate work cycle management and role definitions. By 2014 ERG Africa had over 10,000 employees and copper cathode per person sat at 1.5 tons*
Key achievement
We embarked on an organisation design programme and reduced our total headcount to 8,000 employees and drove up our copper cathode per person to over 2 tons
Historical issue
Our senior managers at the operations and Centre were tired and devoid of new ideas and self-motivation. There were also no clear senior management structures.
Key achievement
We developed the concept of a Management Committee (MANCOM, comprising of our top 20 managers), revitalised our operations management and filled key vacancies that had been left open.
Historical issue
ERG had numerous systems that were old and decoupled from each other. Our reporting was also not reliable and there were multiple versions of the truth.
Key achievement
IT has driven a systems architecture, landscape and security simplification process including the introduction of a business warehouse. BI is driving the predictive analytics component as well as wider adoption of operations technology innovations.
Historical issue
A belief audit was conducted in 2015 which identified deficiencies between the working processes, systems, tools and culture of the Centre and Operations.
Key achievement
In 2017, ERG Africa launched Project Baobab to strengthen our core departments and ways of working and to better integrate the Centre and Operations.
Historical issue
ERG had never focused on growth given our financials and market concerns and this resulted in low LOMs and unfinanced long-term plans.
Key achievement
With a better handle on our core operations, ERG Africa has now embarked on a structured growth strategy. This was initiated by the launch of Boss 50 and will see us grow our DRC operations significantly.