Project Risks Affecting Performance in Mining Industry: A South African Perspective

Project management involves both short term and long term management of contracts. There are certain tradeoffs in Project management which project managers must always bear in mind to finish off projects within the set timeline. Costs overrun and running behind schedule are very commonly seen in most of the projects which ultimately expose firms under moderate to high risks. These risks directly or indirectly eat away the profits and make firms uncompetitive thus, losing market share. To manage such risks supply chain practitioners need to know the risk factors and their importance with respect to firm performance. The purpose of the study is to identify the project risk elements affecting performance in South African mining industry. Total Interpretive Structural modeling approach is employed to model the identified risk elements. Findings show that corruption, poor project time planning and management, poor project cost management, poor procurement management and delays/interruptions are the top level risk elements. Project managers must eliminate these top level barriers/risk elements for smooth project execution and avoid cost overruns.