A fast-growing gold mining company operating various sites across multiple geographical locations, partnered with Scatterlink across two of their Ontario-based gold mine sites.
They were spending heavily on direct materials with no visibility into what had already been purchased, where it was stored, or how much remained. The ERP was in place but no longer trusted. Materials were spread across yards and warehouses with no reliable way to locate, count, or audit them. Items were being re-bought not because they were unavailable, but because no one could find them.
Scatterlink deployed a field-first, RIFD powered, materials visibility platform: tagging, photographing, and cataloguing direct materials across both sites, and bringing them under warehouse control for the first time. The result? Fewer unnecessary re-purchases, weekly RFID cycle counts running 15 times faster, audit-ready records where none existed before.
The company's ERP implementation was still in progress. That meant there was no reliable system-of-record for materials on the ground, with site audits being conducted twice a year, all paper-based. The gap was most visible in direct purchases: consumables and operational supplies that were being procured outside formal inventory controls entirely.
They were implementing a new ERP system for the third time in four years, with poor data quality, duplicate items, and a baseline no one trusted. Teams had stopped working with the system and were working around it instead. There was no reliable way to locate, count, or audit what was physically on site across either location.
As production scaled, headcount grew and procurement volumes increased. The volume of direct materials being bought with no tracking after arrival had expanded well beyond what informal record-keeping could manage. Procurement leadership flagged it as a systemic issue: not isolated incidents, but a structural gap in how direct spend was being handled.
Parts were being re-ordered because no one could find what was already on site. The ERP existed; but no one trusted it. Warehouse staff kept their own records. Supervisors relied on whoever had been there the longest. This is not unusual in mining. The question is how much it is costing you.
What the operations and procurement teams were dealing with daily:
Scatterlink deployed a field-first materials visibility platform across both sites. The implementation was designed to work alongside existing systems — not replace them. The ERP remained untouched. What changed was the quality of information flowing into it and the speed at which field teams could act.
The Solution:
Scatterlink was deployed across two active mine sites without waiting for ERP integration to be complete. Powered by RFID and GPS, the immediate priority was bringing direct-purchased materials under control, giving warehouse, operations, and procurement teams a reliable view of what was physically on site.
Direct items and historical materials were RFID-tagged, barcode-enabled, photographed, catalogued, and assigned to physical locations. Materials were also standardised using structured classification, including UNSPSC-based categorisation, so teams could search consistently, identify duplicates, and understand what existed across both sites.
Scatterlink reviewed historical purchase order data to identify materials being repeatedly bought through direct channels. More than 1,800 SKUs were flagged as candidates for inventory-code creation, helping the client convert recurring direct purchases into warehouse-managed stock and reduce unnecessary re-buying.
The platform now delivers monthly intelligence that flags items purchased three or more times and recommends them for inventory conversion. Warehouse and procurement teams can act on repeat buying, slow-moving stock, and unmanaged spend without relying on manual analysis or institutional memory.
"Honestly, out of all the dozens of contractors and consultants we've worked with, Scatterlink stands out as the best. I was genuinely surprised by how well it works — practical, simple, and highly effective in the field."
Warehouse Supervisor
Site Team
"Scatterlink brought a level of visibility and simplicity we had been missing for years. Their solution was delivered quickly, exceeded expectations, and created immediate value for our procurement and supply chain teams."
Director, Procurement
Corporate Team
If your operations team is managing inventory through a combination of ERP workarounds, spreadsheets, and institutional knowledge; you are not alone, and you are not without options.
The working capital tied up in unaccounted stock, the premium paid on emergency purchases, the maintenance hours lost to searching rather than working. These are costs that rarely appear as a single line item, but they accumulate at scale.
Scatterlink's platform is built for the realities of mining operations: remote sites, rugged conditions, high staff turnover, and the kind of complexity that makes off-the-shelf software fail. It is designed to deliver results in weeks, work with what you already have, and give your leadership team the visibility they need to make sound operational and procurement decisions.
Two mines are live. A third is underway.
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