Case Study: World’s Largest Mining Company achieves increased smelter uptime, dramatic safety gains and $90M cost savings with Talogy

Multi-Level Assessment Brings Excellent Return on Investment

A major copper mine in Magna, Utah — the world’s largest man-made excavation and the U.S.’s second-largest copper producer — faced possible closure unless productivity was improved. Internal analysis showed the smelter was the main bottleneck (operating at 89% capacity) due to maintenance issues, prompting management in 2001 to replace the incumbent maintenance workforce to achieve a necessary “step change.”

Select International used its EZ App® pre‑screening and competency testing to winnow 4,000 applicants to a vetted pool of 490 and enabled hiring 88 qualified mechanics. The result: a 40% smaller workforce, smelter uptime up to 94% (about one extra month of throughput), safety incident rates falling from 9.6% to 1.6% (and later 0.45%), no unfair‑labor claims, roughly $90M saved over three years, a $170M investment to extend the mine, and renewal of the maintenance contract.