DIGGING INTO DATA

A LEADING PHOSPHATE PRODUCER SAW REVIVING A MINE AS A LOST CAUSE, BUT MINITAB'S STATISTICAL SOFTWARE HELPED SHINE A NEW LIGHT.

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In the phosphate-rich fields of Florida, the Wingate Creek mine was on borrowed time.

Once shuttered and long considered an underperformer, the site was reopened by Mosaic Corporation, the world's leading phosphate and potash nutrients producer.

However, with a rock recovery rate of 47 per cent — well below the industry standard of 85-90 per cent — its future was anything but secure.

Expectations were modest when Mosaic reopened Wingate Creek, as even the most optimistic managers hoped for a minimal increase in recovery.

"Managers hoped for a two or three per cent increase in recovery rates," Joe Gliksman, black belt of data-driven process improvement methodology Six Sigma, said.

"They told us that sustained 70 per cent recoveries at this mine would be a miracle."

But Gliksman and fellow Six Sigma black belt John Whitley were undeterred. The pair were armed with deep expertise in process improvement and Minitab's Statistical Software.

Gliksman and Whitley led a project that eventually lifted recovery rates to over 80 per cent and delivered $12 million in annual financial benefits.