Global resources firm BHP Billiton recently reported record-breaking production levels across a variety commodities, including within several mining operations.

According to BusinessDaylive, the company saw a 19 percent increase in iron ore production, as well as a 22 percent boost in metallurgical coal production in 2013. The group produced 98 million tons of iron ore and 22 million tons of coal, breaking records in the organization and overall industry.

BHP Billiton CEO Andrew Mackenzie said the business's productivity was considerably improved, as illustrated by the firm's Queensland Coal company that produced an annualized rate of 68 million tons in December last year.

"A strong operating performance across our diversified portfolio in the December 2013 half-year delivered a 10 percent increase in production, and volumes are expected to grow 16 percent over the two years to the end of the 2015 financial year," Mackenzie said.

BHP wasn't the only organization to considerably raise production levels. According to Mining Weekly, Universal Coal announced plans to boost production on its Kangala project in South Africa. The group had a goal of producing approximately 50,000 tons of coal between November and December of last year. Furthermore, Universal is preparing to ramp up to 200,000 tons by March of this year.

Overall, Universal Coal chief development engineer Kevin Donaldson told Mining Weekly that the Kangala project is poised to produce around 2.4 million tons of coal over the next eight years life-of-mine. Additionally, once the group's crushing and screening plant is up and running, workers will be able to directly process and send about 75 percent of production to market.

Other mining organizations seeking to boost their output levels can start by improving the equipment reliability of the key machines they rely on for the majority of production. By implementing equipment condition monitoring technology, operators can oversee the health and service life of machines and perform preventive maintenance as necessary. This will keep vital systems up and running as the business works to increase production.

Prevent unplanned downtime of critical assets by using Scanimetrics equipment condition monitoring solutions.