Client
97%
3
3x
Faster room turnover
Gold Producer Streamlines Logistics and Camp Management with Integrated Solution
About The Client
Meet Pretivm: One of Canada’s premier low-cost gold producers
Pretivm Exploration is a Canada-based exploration and development company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of precious metal resource properties in the Americas. Pretivm’s premier property, Brucejack Mine, has established the company as an impressive intermediate producer of high grade gold Brucejack Mine has an expected lifespan of fourteen years. As a low-cost gold producer, Pretivm remains focused on mitigating operational costs to maximize returns for investors.
About the Operation
1,000 crew workers make their way to remote Kitimat as operations at Brucejack scale
After Pretivm received approval to increase production by 40% in December 2018, the once noble operation of 30 people quickly scaled to a workforce of over 1,000. Situated 65 miles north of Stewart, British Columbia, the location of the Kitimat-based mine required Pretivm to tightly coordinate transportation and on-site lodge accommodations on behalf of its growing workforce. This complex undertaking involved:
- Transporting incoming work crews from local airports to a fixed-base operation in Kitimat via charter buses
- Maximizing utilization of a fleet of specialized chartered shuttles transporting the crew to various stopping points along the mountain, dependent on their job duties
- Tracking the itineraries of each crew member and modifying reservations accordingly
- Maximizing room utilization for a workforce of over 1000, housed across four lodges located adjacent to the mine site
- Managing worker certifications to ensure mine access and equipment operation was limited to authorized personnel only, and ensuring that medical staff was on site daily
- Providing day-to-day camp management and catering services for each lodge
The Challenge
With no central system, Pretivm works in silos and incurs additional costs
Pretivm relied on spreadsheets to manage travel arrangements to and from camp, as well as room reservations for on-site crew. While manual administration of travel arrangements and accommodations worked during the earlier stages of the mine’s development, this system began to fail as Pretivm expanded to four lodges and welcomed hundreds of crew workers into camp ahead of peak production.
Prior to implementing an integrated solution, Pretivm faced the following challenges managing their Brucejack operation:
CHALLENGE 1: Travel Logistics & Room Reservations
- Pretivm operated charter vehicles headed to and from the mine at reduced capacity
- Staff had no way to track the location of a vehicle and its passengers in real-time, presenting a safety risk in the event of an emergency in transit to camp
- Travel and room coordinator teams managed reservations separately and had no way to view a crew member’s complete, up-to-date itinerary
- Without a complete itinerary, travel coordinators were unable to modify contingent travel plans when crew rotation schedules changed, leading to frequent no-shows at camp
- Room coordinators were not able to view availability across all four lodges in a single system, creating a fragmented room booking process and resulting in sub-optimal occupancy
CHALLENGE 2: Housekeeping
- Turnover of rooms was often delayed due to fragmented communication between the Front Desk, Housekeeping and Maintenance departments
CHALLENGE 3: Certifications & Safety
- Pretivm had no centralized means to manage certifications of all personnel on-site at any given time (by trade level certification, medical certification, etc.)
- Front desk personnel lacked a way to track the whereabouts of crew in case of an evacuation or emergency
The Solution
An integrated solution ensures logistics and room reservations stay in sync, boosts occupancy at remote lodges
As the mine raced towards peak production, Pretivm realized the need for a solution capable of booking and managing travel, accommodations, and on-site operations—in a single system. Pretivm paired EnRoute, a crew travel booking engine, with SmartLodge, an end-to-end property management system for remote crew housing, and achieved the following results:
- EnRoute provided Pretivm with the ability to book seats online across its chartered fleet, maximizing vehicle utilization and reducing trips required to shuttle crew to and from the mine site.
- SmartLodge enabled Pretivm to book and manage room reservations online for crew housed at all four lodges using a centralized room reservation portal. By implementing SmartLodge and EnRoute as a single, integrated solution, Pretivm was able to ensure transportation and accommodation reservations were always in sync, which drastically reduced no-shows and go-shows.
- SmartLodge enabled housekeeping shift leaders to more tightly manage room assignments and gave staff the ability to update room status in real-time, increasing the rate of room turnover 3X, on average.
- SmartLodge enabled Pretivm to monitor crew worker certifications to ensure essential personnel were present on-site during each rotation.
- SmartLodge provided front desk personnel with rostering and the ability to conduct role call at pre-assigned muster stations in the event of an evacuation
Download the PDF
Receive a downloadable PDF copy to review in your spare time or to share easily with colleagues.