The successful mining industry of the future will look significantly different to what it does today. Not only will it be safer, more sustainable, more diverse and more inclusive; it will have also proven the world wrong in that it could meet the demand for minerals while simultaneously achieving sustainability targets. In this vision, several mines of the future will actually be operating and the industry footprint post-mine will be sustainable. These were some of the ten-year visions presented by speakers at the World Mining Congress in Brisbane (26-29 June 2023). Others included the aspiration for the industry to become a desirable industry of choice for jobseekers, a greater level of collaboration with local communities and an elimination of sexual harassment in the industry.
Five Mipac staff members attended the Congress, held in Brisbane for the first time in its 60-year history, and their key takeaways included many hot industry topics:
1. The green energy transition
“Mining has a crucial role to play in the green energy transition, but the industry needs to adapt. Various presentations demonstrated how investing in technology and innovation has shown significant ESG (environmental, social and governance) benefits – as well as economic benefits – for both greenfield and brownfield operations,” Mipac Senior Process Engineer Hans Liang said.
“The evolution of the West Musgrave comminution flowsheet to utilising vertical roller mills (VRMs) over the traditional SABC (SAG-Ball mill-Crusher) circuit, and Cadia’s journey incorporating coarse particle flotation, for example, challenge the classic mining playbook of “bigger and more.””
A common thread throughout the concurrent sessions of the conference – which covered everything from artificial intelligence to education and the future of the workforce – was the question of how the industry can contribute to the Net Zero targets while continuing to invest in the necessary innovations and technologies to support this transition.
Decarbonisation and the role of copper and other critical minerals in the clean energy transition were also discussed at length, particularly when it came to the demand for and supply of these minerals to support future battery and technology requirements.
“Australia has a lot of the world’s cobalt resources, but only produces around 3%,” Solutions Manager Dominic Stoll noted. “Similarly, the United States has a lot of lithium but only produces 1%.” How will we supply the critical minerals needed to meet the Paris Agreement targets if 250 new copper mines the size of Newcrest Cadia are required and it takes on average 16 years from discovering a new resource to production? And how does that in turn become our burning ambition to increase diversity and inclusion in mining and establish a framework for an ESG-centric collective of stakeholders to work effectively?”
2. Global megatrends and innovation
Discussions of global megatrends and innovation focused on artificial intelligence (including the future of work), digitisation and data.
Innovation was also discussed in the context of things like recycling, with Veena Sahajwalla from the University of New South Wales discussing her work on recycling by injecting polymers (car tyres) into steel making electrical furnaces. Veena’s suggestion that we need to revise our expectations of recycling was something Process Engineer Andrew Yang, from Mipac’s Optimisation Team, found particularly interesting:
“In this fascinating discussion, Veena suggested that our recycling should be as complex and detailed as the components that we’re recycling. If we’re recycling microchip boards from computers with layers of metal and plastic, we should expect the recycling part of the process to be equally complex. She also noted that perhaps we will need to consider ease of recycling during the initial design phase of such components to better recycle them after their initial use,” said Andrew.
3. Trust, respect and care
“Besides the carbon footprint and sustainability, Newcrest’s interim CEO Sherry Duhe spoke about the need for industry players to respect and care for each other,” noted Mipac Business Development Manager, Matt Chauhan.
“This respect ranges from the need to respect and care enough to want to make a change (in terms of mining practices) to the respect and care that companies need to show to ensure the continued employment of thousands of people.”
The need for greater collaboration between the industry and government, non-government organisations (NGOs), communities and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) was also a repeat message at the conference.
Furthermore, Allie MacAdam from Bechtel Mining and Metals spoke about the need for trust: trust among mining companies, between industry and the government, between mining companies and EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) firms and trust among colleagues and employees.
Were you at the World Mining Congress? What were your key takeaways?
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