The Mine That Knew Too Much and Decided Too Little

In 2003, I was part of the PwC team deployed to Industrias Peñoles at Mina Proaño — one of the deepest silver mines in the world, operating since 1554. Silver was under pressure. Costs were rising. And nobody could tell management which parts of the mountain were worth digging. This is the story of how PeopleSoft ABM and Metify Predictive Planning built the first zone-level profitability map in the mine's 450-year history — and forced the hardest operational decision I've seen in twenty years of EPM work.