Whittle Integrated Strategic Planning is a concept of long-term planning for the mining industry which considers: * All parts of the value chain – from the mineral resource to the market. * All periods – a decision of what to mine and process in one period affects the options for the other periods. * All stakeholders – shareholders are interested in financial returns in the form of cash flow and capital growth. However, the interests of employees, local communities, the government and the environment must be considered to earn an enduring licence to operate. A decision made at any point in the system potentially affects the optimal decision for other parts of the system. The key is to optimise all decisions simultaneously. This calls for cross-functional collaboration across all parts of the organisation – rather than a traditional silo approach (i.e. geology, mining, processing, logistics, marketing/commercial, finance and HR). This requires the application of the Whittle Integrated Strategic Planning philosophy and methodologies, combined with sophisticated optimisation technology. Only Whittle Consulting has this unique combination.