Greenbushes Mine: From Truck Utilisation to Full LOM Optimisation

Discover how eXcellerate worked with Talison Lithium to lift fleet productivity at Greenbushes Mine through a “boots on the ground” review to optimise LOM and achieve targeted operational improvements.

In early 2025, Talison Lithium engaged eXcellerate to review and optimise mining productivity at Greenbushes, the world’s largest hard‑rock lithium mine. The engagement initially focused on lifting effective truck utilisation, targeting immediate operational improvements across the load‑and‑haul fleet.

As the diagnostic phase progressed, it became clear that several of the underlying constraints to fleet performance were rooted in longer‑term planning and mine design. As a result, the program naturally expanded to include a Life‑of‑Mine (LOM) optimisation, ensuring that short‑term operational gains were reinforced by structural, long‑term improvements.

The program began in April 2025 and finished in February 2026. eXcellerate delivered a structured, two‑phase approach that identified constraints, confirmed improvement levers and supported Talison’s long‑term operational strategy, addressing challenges with a unified productivity program.

Mining Productivity Challenges at Greenbushes

The initial diagnostic run from April until July 2025 identified several improvement opportunities could lift the mine’s ability to consistently reach target fleet utilisation. The recommendations were grouped under three themes:

Reduce variability in short-, medium- and long-term planning processes
Simplify mining workflows to reduce operational friction
Reduce operational delays to increase effective truck hours

Greenbushes operates at high intensity, so even small inefficiencies had compounding impacts on fleet productivity.

Boots on the Ground Diagnostic

For all diagnostics, eXcellerate takes a “boots on the ground” approach to ensure insights reflect the true operating reality of our clients. In the case of the Greenbushes mine, this included:

Pre site analysis of mine data, dispatch outputs and planning assumptions to prepare initial hypotheses.
On site observations across day and night shifts, including operator shadowing, workflow mapping and real time engagement with supervisors and crews.
Interviews and workshops with planning, operations and technical services to validate findings and align priorities.
An early launch of Phase 2 planning review when the value tied to long-term planning improvements became clear.

This ground truth approach ensured that the recommendations were practical, targeted and immediately implementable.

Key Actions Taken to Improve Productivity

1. Life of Mine Optimisation and Planning Improvements

Planning optimisation formed one of the highest value improvement categories. This included:

A full LOM optimisation that updated the pit shell and aligned haulage and dig and dump designs to reduce waste movement and simplify future stages.
Revised haul road layouts, out of pit dump designs and potential in pit dump options to reduce operating costs.
Strategic studies to increase dump room, build straighter and flatter haul roads and expand ROM storage.

2. Mine Simplification Initiatives

Mine design and equipment simplification helped reduce congestion and increase productive hours:

Realigning and optimising the mining and drill‑and‑blast fleets to ensure operational execution matched the updated LOM plan.
Simplified blasting approach by replacing trim blasts with optimised perimeter designs to reduce bench turnover.

Expansion of ROM storage to support continuous mining independent of ore presentation/grades.

3. Reducing Operational Delays

Several delay categories were addressed to improve fleet utilisation:

Revised shift change approach using in-pit prestart facilities and buses directly to facility from camp to reduce travel time.
Reorganised crib breaks supported by recruiting a relief workforce to ensure continuous coverage and minimise disruptions.
A resourcing uplift to reduce human-factor delays and periods of high truck availability.
Improved blasted stocks to ensure dig units remained productive in alignment with LOM optimisation.
Additional pit truck park up bays to reduce off cycle travel.

Haulage optimisation that improved average speeds and reduced queue time.

Outcome and Expected Benefits

By applying a “boots on the ground” diagnostic, long‑term planning optimisation and targeted operational improvements, Talison achieved a 35 percent uplift in effective truck utilisation.

In parallel, the Life‑of‑Mine optimisation already delivered a more practical mine design with a 30% lower strip ratio and no requirement to move key surface infrastructure to access material, a major structural improvement that further strengthens long‑term productivity and cost efficiency.

Together, these outcomes support long‑term production growth, reduce operational complexity, and strengthen the overall performance of the Greenbushes mine.