For more than 15 years after the Northparkes orebodies were first
discovered in 1976, the project was delayed by the need to find an
economic way of mining the low-grade E26 deposit. The decision to use
a low-cost block caving method to mine the orebody was made in the
early-1990s; but the project's future did not solidify until 1993 when a
radical new approach was adopted which sought to integrate business
imperatives with technology and organisation strategies. The approach
led to the establishment of a strategic vision which tied together all the
components that could have a major impact on the project, to provide a
framework for guiding strategic choices. The strategic vision strived to
break away from the old rules of how mines are organised and operated;
and involved finding imaginative new ways to radically redesign mining
processes to achieve quantum leaps in performance.