11 Mar 2020

Acting Debswana managing director says there is need to make right decisions in order to sustain the company after 50 years of existence.

Speaking at Debswana 2024 strategy launch in Jwaneng on March 10, Ms Lynette Armstrong said the company was at crossroads because its business environment was volatile.

That, she said, brought the aspect of geo-political tensions, market volatility and some headwinds, particularly the current global outbreak of the coronavirus.

Ms Armstrong said such was coupled with exponential technological developments that disrupted businesses and exacerbated the level of risk, hence the need for organisations to be agile and creative to enable continuous adaptation.

Other challenges, she said, included increasing operational cost because the mine pits got deeper against ageing plants as well as the need to finance large scale mine life extension projects.

Ms Armstrong also indicated that because Debswana intended to change from pit to underground mining, that in itself also posed a new complexity.

“Because the county depended much on Debswana’s success, it requires the company to reinvent and write the story of 2020 and beyond without basking much on the success of the past 50 years, which therefore calls for the need to innovate,” she said.

Jwaneng mine general manager, Mr Koolatotse Koolatotse, said the fourth industrial revolution called for digital transformation and embracing aspects such as artificial intelligence and robotics.

That, he said, was more so that research had indicated that such new technologies and innovations also had potential to create employment, which could come in handy for Botswana.

“As Jwaneng Mine, we continuously accept the necessity to embrace change, unleash creativity and muster courage to improve life through innovation and digital transformation,” he said.

Their approach, he said, was to invest in new technologies that delivered smarter safety solutions with reduction in injuries and fatalities.

He also said the company desired to break new ground by embracing smart mining and employed technology to carry out autonomous haulage, automated drilling and host virtual mine tours. ends