Whether it's reporting to the corporate board or to the operations manager, production data must be reliable.  Once production data is reported, it is usually treated as immutable.  But how reliable are your production accounts?

The infamous corporate collapses in the USA that lead to the Sarbanes Oxley legislation have reminded the international minerals industry of the importance of reporting reliable production data.

The questions to be asked of your system are:

• Can the system report a measure of data reliability?
• Are data adjustments made with a systematic and statistically correct approach?
• Can the system be audited?
• What are the data sources and how are they verified?
• Can measured data be manually changed, and if so, are these changes auditable?

The industry need for such a business system was recognised by the internationally renowned Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC) in the early 1990's when researchers developed statistical algorithms and approaches specifically for production accounting.  These include robust data validation and adjustment techniques.

With support from major mining companies, the framework for the business system was specified.  Key specifications included:

• To be a configurable system
• To be applicable for mineral processing, hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical operations
• To enable third-party systems integration
• To provide system flexibility for future features

JKTech implements and supports the production accounting and reporting system (PARS) which has a modular architecture designed for large multi-site operations to small independent operations.  Our people are specialists from the mineral industry who understand the challenges specific to the minerals industry.

Key contact: Michael Dunglison, Manager Production Accounting

Refer to the JKTech Software section for specific information on the PARS module JKMetAccount, the multi-phase mass balancing and reconciliation program.