Insights from the field
Mining Field Notes
Notes on getting mining paperwork off paper, written by a mining engineer. Every number cited to the page it came from.
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Job Costing Spreadsheet Construction: Where Excel Breaks
A job costing spreadsheet for construction works until late invoices, version copies and field data pile up. See the layout, the math, and where Excel stops.
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19 posts-
Heavy Equipment Cost Per Hour: Owning and Operating Cost
Add owning, operating and operator cost into one hourly rate. Worked example from a Caterpillar track-type tractor: $67.01 per hour, with every line shown.
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Powder Factor Calculation: Worked Bench and Development Blasts
Powder factor is explosive mass divided by rock volume. Work a 6.5 in bench blast to 0.91 lb/yd³, then check it against SME ranges and development rounds.
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Cost Plus Contract Records Contractors Need to Get Paid
A cost plus contract pays your costs plus a fee, but only costs you can document. Here are the records, the math and the gaps that delay payment.
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Back Charges in Construction: How Daily Reports Win or Lose Them
A back charge in construction can erase a month of margin. Daily reports are your best defense - here is exactly how to document, dispute, and settle fast.
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Construction Timekeeping Software: The Four-Entry Problem
A shift entry gets written four times before it hits an invoice. The timesheet has to reconcile three other records. Here is what breaks when it does not.
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Construction Invoice From Daily Reports: Stop the Retype
How to turn your running Excel cost sheet into a construction invoice without retyping the numbers - and attach the backup in the same step.
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Construction Daily Report Template for Mining and Civil Crews
A copyable construction daily report template covering crew hours, equipment hours, quantities, and delays, with a direct mapping to each invoice line.
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Job Costing Software for Construction: What the Field Sends
Heavy civil contractors lose margin when field data lacks cost codes, standby splits, and wear item tracking. Here is what your job costing software needs from shift.
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Double Data Entry in Mining: 3 Retypes, Field to Invoice
How many times does a field number get retyped before the invoice? For a 3-rig operation: 1,296 times a week. Where errors enter and what they cost.
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Job Cost Report Built from Daily Reports: Weekly Variance
How to calculate cost variance from daily field reports each week, what a mining contractor's job cost report must show, and how to act before month-end.
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Construction Cost Codes: Turning Daily Reports Into Unit Cost
The crew writes what they did. The office assigns the cost code. A clean code list is what turns those daily reports into a unit cost you can manage.
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Construction Job Costing: Revenue Minus Five Cost Lines
Track what a mining or heavy civil job actually cost against your bid using five direct cost lines and field data you already collect every shift.
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Why Automate: The Annual Cost of the Manual Reporting Chain
Before any vendor pitch, size what the manual reporting chain costs your operation today. Here is the arithmetic from your own rig count and billing rate.
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The Real Drilling Cost Per Meter Once All Inputs Are Counted
How to build the true drilling cost per meter from rig time, bits, steel, fuel, and labor: why your quoted rate rarely matches what you actually spend.
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AI for Safety Management in Underground Mining
Development meters, tons hoisted, ground support, ventilation: what underground contractors record, bill, and where an AI agent reads first.
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What Can Be Automated in Mining Contracting, and What Cannot
The paperwork chain from daily report to invoice can be automated. Ground conditions, crew decisions, and contract disputes cannot. Here is the honest line.
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AI Use Cases in Mining: Where Paperwork Earns Its Keep First
Where AI earns its keep in a mining contracting business: daily reports, MSHA records, and invoice reconciliation before any autonomous machine.
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How to Use AI in a Mining Contracting Company
Before AI touches a blast pattern, it can read your dailies. Here is where it actually fits in a mining contracting company and the first step that pays.