DEVELOPMENT OF A HOLISTIC DIESEL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TO REDUCE WASTAGE IN OPEN-CAST GOLD MINING

Fuel prices in South Africa are variable and steadily rising. Diesel accounts for a large portion of operational expenditures in open-cast mining, placing pressure on fleet managers to address fuel theft and wastage. Raw data is often obtained in a variety of formats (handwritten or digital) in this environment. A need therefore exists to capture, interpret, and utilise raw diesel data to gain insights for decision-making. It is critical to develop a diesel management system that can monitor and track fuel usage to increase performance, lower operational and maintenance costs, and eliminate misappropriation. Mining companies could benefit from a comprehensive diesel management system that enabled them to control, report, and track usage. The 'data-information-knowledge-wisdom' hierarchy is used in this study to capture and utilise raw diesel data for wastage reduction, business intelligence insights, and data visualisation to assist with faster decision-making.