First Quantum Minerals Case Study

First Quantum Minerals (FQM) is a well-established and growing metals and mining company producing mainly copper, gold, nickel and zinc. FQM’s highly-successful platform consists of seven mines and one copper smelter across six countries, including Zambia, Mauritania, Spain, Finland, Australia and Turkey. 

FQM initially engaged TNC to perform a Gap Analysis on a proposal for its global WAN network from its incumbent supplier. Following the completion of this Gap Analysis TNC and FQM engaged with the vendor to negotiate improvements across several aspects of the proposal, including the commercials, SLAs and associated services. TNC’s Commercial Director followed this up to ensure these improvements were contained within the final contract. 

FQM had an opportunity to renew the contract with its main global WAN supplier, and wanted to ensure the pricing, solution and overall contract was competitive and aligned with latest market trends.

TNC was engaged to perform a Gap Analysis on the proposals, using its unique, vendor-independent telecoms market insight and pricing knowledge. Without TNC’s insight it would have been incredibly difficult for FQM to gauge how competitive the pricing was. Furthermore, FQM benefited from TNC’s broad telecoms contract expertise to conduct and conclude a favourable contract negotiation for FQM.

TNC completed a full analysis of FQM’s global WAN network, finding the pricing across most countries was competitive. However, there were a number of sites where the supplier’s proposals were materially off the market rate. TNC worked with the supplier and FQM to address this disparity and avoided the cost and time implications of running a full competitive tender procurement process.

TNC led the contract renewal negotiations with the incumbent supplier, providing detailed, impartial guidance on the full range of contractual terms, and making sure the usual vendor-weighted contract was re-calibrated to share risk allocation. In addition, TNC’s telecoms contract experts helped support the interim contract negotiations for FQM, with inclusion of a bespoke condition precedent clause, which enabled FQM to walk away without any financial penalties in the event FQM’s specific requirements and expectations were not met. The customer was especially pleased with the outcome. 

TNC’s unique database of market knowledge made it possible for FQM to understand and achieve the best possible contractual, operational and commercial terms available. As a result of this process TNC and FQM achieved an overall saving across all services of over $1.25m, including:

• 34% decrease in cost of the global WAN network
• Full confidence for FQM that they have market-leading services at the best possible prices, and contractual terms which ensure:

1. A detailed implementation plan, underpinned by risk mitigation strategies for the deployment phase

2. A co-terminus contract structure to facilitate clean break in the future

3. A flexible and agile contract with cover for divestiture and site closures during the minimum contract term

The Network Collective’s industry knowledge was invaluable to us. With the assistance of TNC, we were able to achieve significant cost savings, obtain the appropriate service support from the network provider and secured terms that met the business needs. 

Simon Liste, Group ICT Director, First Quantum Minerals

More Case Studies