Miners' tacit knowledge: A unique resource for developing human-oriented lean mining culture in deep mines

This research explored the significance of retaining aspects of traditional mining culture attributes as value-adding waste in the introduction of lean mining. The purpose was to understand the influences that aspects of human practices derived from miners' tacit knowledge, and reinforced by traditional mining culture, could have in the molding of a lean culture to facilitate the introduction and sustenance of the lean mining philosophy. Historical and actual data were collected and analyzed by viewing mine culture as attributes, such as values, beliefs, schemas, and implicit theories commonly held among the mine workforce. It is concluded that since the knowledge-oriented human-added value held by individual miners is most commonly transferred through personal experience, such knowledge could be extracted to enhance the development of a human-oriented leaner mining culture to encapsulate the existing lean mining philosophy.