In 2014-15, EMI was commissioned to review the maintenance operations and implement ZoneMaintenance at a large underground gold mine in central China.
The site was struggling to achieve its targets, and maintenance costs were increasing dramatically every month. The company’s Australian Asset Manager needed support from someone he could trust and depend on.
It was EMI’s first exposure to this incredible country, and we were thrilled with the opportunity.
We found the Chinese locals friendly and just as interested in our culture and lifestyles as we were in theirs.
They had a very good understanding of what’s happening in Australia. And they were even familiar with my home state of Tasmania, which was a big surprise to me as I was quite ignorant of where I was in China and what was happening locally.
However, at the site, conditions were rough and dated.
My initial impression was that I’d walked back in time to the late ‘80s or early ‘90s - to the goldfields where safety and contamination control were not a high priority.
Not only that, but adding the obvious language barriers and cultural differences, and we found ourselves with a challenging situation to deal with.
Maintenance practices were noticeably poor and inefficient. But some very experienced and knowledgeable individuals were keen to learn more and improve their processes.
These workers saw the opportunity to learn from an external source they would never have had access to within their own networks.
In fact, this project was not about showing them what was wrong.
It was about helping the team learn and apply changes to make their work-life easier, safer, and more efficient.
We became well aware of the growth and resource demands due to the sheer amount of in-progress and completed projects in the areas we visited.
![IMG_4188[1].JPG](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57bd1b23d1758e6b2bb51a5f/1472532981835-CPZ48J79L44Z2AG6L6E0/IMG_4188%5B1%5D.JPG)
