Interview with Simon Waghorn, M.Eng (Hons)
Asia Operations Director, Gemcom Software Australia Pty Ltd
What kinds of operations Gemcom is involved in Mongolian mining sector? Gemcom entered the Mongolian mining market in 2005. In 2010 it was decided that Gemcom would make direct investment and open its Mongolian operation. In February 2011, Gemcom opened its office formally. At that point Gemcom engaged 4 Mongolian mining professionals: including 3 mining engineers, and our Country head, Mr.Dagva. Gemcom is here to support the Mongolian mining industry through the provision of software solutions that cover mine planning and operational management requirements. We bring benefits to our clients through the provision of our world class software solutions, along with the provision of professional services of our technical staff that work for us. Through the provision of technical services and software solutions we achieve for our clients improvements in their operational efficiencies, operational profits and reduction of their costs.
We believe that Mongolian mining sector is in its way of rapid development with mixed expectations of positive and negative results. What kind of expectations do you have about the current and future of the mining sector?
I can’t comment to any negative aspects of mining industry in Mongolia. From Gemcom’s perspective, we see very positive outcome for the Mongolian mining sector. Over the past few years, it has grown substantially, there has been significant investment both from Mongolian and international mining companies. The decision for us to invest directly in 2010 was made upon the evidence that the market was in self sustaining mode, so it was no longer requiring for our business to support Gemcom Mongolia business. Since 2010 we have seen the Mongolian business of Gemcom self sustaining and what that really indicates is that the entire mining industry has become more mature with significant investment that has been put not just in equipment and software solutions, but also into the people. This is enabling Mongolian mining and exploration professionals to build a sustainable mining sector for the future.
I heard that your company was introducing sponsorship program in Mongolia. I believe it is a significant investment for young generation particularly for mining students it is a investment for their education. Could you give more details on this program?
In late 2010 Gemcom decided we would commence with a sponsorship program, which will sponsor two students at any one time e.g. one student for their third year and one student for their fourth year. The objective of the sponsorship program is purely to give something back to the mining community of Mongolia and specifically assist young students to do their best within their academic careers. Hence, we remove their financial burden from the student so that they don’t have to worry about paying their school fees, living expenses, books etc. We cover all their financial aspects in that regard, so that they can concentrate their entire efforts on their studies enabling the student to achieve the absolute best results possible. The objective of the program is really to enable them to give something back to mining community in Mongolia by potentially exceeding what they could have achieved by themselves. The objective of the program is not only to assist the mining community just from financial perspective, but from technical perspective as well. So Gemcom offer them a mentor from our company, so whilst they are studying if they find a problem that they struggle with, then one of our geological or mining professionals can provide assistance.
How does your company help your clients and cooperate with related government organizations of Mongolia?
Our objective in Mongolia is to enhance the positions of our clients and ensure that they get the best possible mining outcome they can through the provision of our world class software and services. We also provide assistance to the Mongolian University of Science and Technology outside of our sponsorship program, by providing them free copies of our software, which go to their labs so that they can use them in their engineering and geology schools. We also assist their lecturers and professionals in building their training courses and provide direct training so they operate in a level that when students leave their university they will be instantly available to be employed.
Who was your first client in Mongolia? In my understanding Baganuur coal mine was first.
Around 1998, Mongolian energy sector was in a very difficult situation. Mongolian government received international assistance to renovate state owned enterprises such as Baganuur and Shivee Ovoo. They took some steps that enabled the mines to renovate their machinery, equipment and use world class software solution, through which they could do planning, designing and estimating their resources. Minex, Gemcom’s solution specifically designed for the Coal sector was the one that Baganuur and Shivee Ovoo used for the first time in Mongolia.
Who is your most recent client?
One of the largest clients that we engaged with most recently was Energy Resources. Energy Resources and Leighton have been using Gemcom’s Minex, a mining platform, which has been specifically designed for stratified deposits. It has specialized functionality on coal. Minex is the only platform available to coal mining companies that cover the entire mine planning value chain from geological modeling, pit optimization, mine design, scheduling and rehabilitation. It covers the entire value chain in one platform, which enables mining companies to gain even greater benefits than can be achieved through the use of a combination of different pieces of software. We have been working with Energy Resources over the last 5 months now and worked on the program with their mining professionals so that we train them in basic skills of the software solution followed by mentoring. Through this combination, we help them not just use the software, but actually to achieve an outstanding mining outcome, which is directly related to the outcomes that the companies are strategically trying to achieve. We then go through that process multiple times on different aspects of mine planning whether that is geological modeling or optimization so that they get the best long term use of coal deposit. I think that is an outstanding model not just for Energy Resources, we will be rolling this model out across all of the other coal mining companies of Mongolia. We are also looking at taking this model out of Mongolia because it has been so successful and using it throughout Asia, where we are deploying Minex at multiple coal mining companies currently.
Please update on your plan to train geologists in capacity building. What was the purpose of your visit to Mongolia this time and whether your mission was been achieved?
We are planning to hold an advanced geological training course at the end of November or beginning of December. The advantage of this advanced geological course is to expand the capability of geologists in Mongolia through resource estimation. We have already covered a lot of geological training with a lot of Mongolian clients to produce geological models, block models and now we will be covering how to do resource estimation to international standards. We will be looking at international standards of JORC. Also aligning that to the standards and reporting code that the Mongolian Government is looking at establishing through the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012. We are excited to be coming with Gemcom’s most senior principal consultant for geology to hold the training so that he can provide not only training in resource estimation, but answer questions and engage with geological community in Mongolia.
My visit was a regular one as I come to Mongolia about every 2 months. It is one of the countries that I manage. It is important that I see and understand what our clients are experiencing and customer requirements. Customer relationship is very important for Gemcom and I come to engage with our client base and local staff. Gauge how the organization is progressing. Every time I come to Mongolia, I’m always exceedingly pleased and excited about the progress that our staff is making both in terms of the way our business is growing and it is growing at pleasing rates. I am always encouraged and pleased by the reception I get by our clients and future opportunities for us to engage with other mining companies. I’m always pleased to get feedback from our clients, who tell me how they are getting benefits from our solutions and getting benefit from their engagement that they have with our local staff.