Tag Archives: Heather Ednie

GMG and IME seal The Electric Mine 2024 partnership

Environmental, Mining events, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, , , , ,

Global Mining Guidelines Group (GMG) and International Mining Events (IME) have signed a partnership agreement related to The Electric Mine event series, reinforcing the two organisations’ commitment to helping the mining industry electrify and decarbonise its global operations.

As part of the agreement, GMG and IME will work on a joint report evaluating the major discussion points and highlights of The Electric Mine 2024 – taking place in Perth, Western Australia, on May 21-23. This report, due to be published by the end of 2024, will also be leveraged as part of GMG’s own mine electrification work.

The Electric Mine is the world’s only global event focused on the practicalities of electrifying mobile mining equipment. The conference brings together all parts of the mine electrification ecosystem – OEMs, service suppliers, solution providers and mining companies – to highlight new projects, new thinking and new approaches to tackle the electrification transition. It caters to the need to implement solutions today to achieve interim decarbonisation targets, as well as longer-term, net-zero goals.

Since its inaugural show in February 2019, IME has attracted close to 1,200 global participants to its events.

The Electric Mine 2024 is set to bring more than 800 attendees to the Crown Perth for three days of presentations, panels and networking. For the first time, the 2024 event will also host an equipment showcase highlighting battery-electric trucks, a diesel-electric loader, a battery-electric excavator, an electric light vehicle and a battery-electric concrete sprayer.

GMG, as an event partner, will have a significant presence at the upcoming event, with Andrew Scott, Lead Principal, Innovation Delivery, BHP on behalf of GMG, set to present alongside several other GMG members over the three days.

The partnership represents a natural progression of previous collaborations between GMG and IME, including the first Electric Mine event in Toronto, in 2019, the second meeting in Stockholm, in 2022, and most recently, the third event, in Tucson, in 2023.

Andrew Scott, Lead Principal, Innovation Delivery, BHP on behalf of GMG

Through a number of working groups and industry guidelines, GMG has been helping accelerate the adoption of all-electric technologies in mining. The Electric Mine Working Group, in particular, has been looking to address the challenges associated with such technology, while sharing information on how to enable safer, more efficient, productive and cost-effective mines.

Active projects within this working group include an ‘Electric Mobile Equipment KPIs and Definitions Guideline’, to help enable mine operators to identify equipment performance and benchmark against other mine operations with the goal of improved electric equipment performance, and ‘Implementing the Transition from Diesel Mobile Equipment in Surface Mining Guideline’, to help provide direction and specific approaches, and identify best practices to help facilitate the process.

The crossover between The Electric Mine event series and GMG’s own electric mine work is vast, Dan Gleeson, Director of International Mining Events, says. “We see this partnership as a way to accelerate the learnings both groups are making, as well as distribute the information required to leverage and adapt such work for individual mine sites.”

Heather Ednie, Managing Director of GMG, echoed these sentiments: “GMG’s purpose is to enhance the safety, innovation and sustainability of the global mining community by facilitating and accelerating collaboration among industry stakeholders. This mine electrification collaboration is very much in keeping with this purpose.”

To read more about The Electric Mine 2024, head to the event website here.

‘The Electric Mine 2024 review: a GMG and International Mining publication’, will be published by the end of 2024.

Global Mining Guidelines Group welcomes Ma’aden to its membership

Base metals, Mining industry recognition, Mining services, Precious metals, Sustainable mining, , , , ,

Global Mining Guidelines Group (GMG) has welcomed Ma’aden to its membership, the first mining company from Saudi Arabia to do so.

A fast-growing enterprise that includes a mineral portfolio of phosphate, aluminium, gold, copper and other commodities, Ma’aden continues to diversify its portfolio to encompass a wide range of industries, GMG said.

It added: “The Saudi-based company pioneered the mining industry in the region by creating a fully integrated mining value chain. This has paved the way for the development of the Saudi Arabian economy well into the future, and mining is now the third pillar of Saudi industry, a key pillar in delivering Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 economic diversification plans.”

Since its IPO in 2008, Ma’aden has transformed from a small gold producing company to a much larger entity. Capitalising on this momentum, the company has set ambitious goals to continue its growth trajectory by leveraging the country’s mineral deposits, increasing production rates in existing value chains, increasing exploration and adding new strategic minerals to its portfolio.

Heather Ednie, GMG’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “Ma’aden’s growth has been truly remarkable. They’ve become a leading force in the mining industry not only in the region, but globally. Collaboration remains a key component to solving many of the challenges facing the industry today and we’re certain their team of mining experts will bring a vast wealth of knowledge and experience to the Global Mining Guidelines Group.”

Saud Al-Mandil, Vice President, Digitalization & Operational Excellence at Ma’aden, said: “We are pleased to join the Global Mining Guidelines Group and contribute to the advancement of the international mining industry. As we move forward, governance and sustainable reporting will be imperative for the global industry to advance and contribute to the development of industries from food and agriculture to electric vehicles. We will continue to work with our colleagues in the industry to ensure that the mining ecosystem operates in a sustainable and efficient manner.”

In addition to owning a number of mining assets outright, Ma’aden also has a joint venture with Barrick on the Jabal Sayid copper-gold mine in Saudi Arabia (pictured).

GMG launches cybersecurity and electric mine working groups

Environmental, IoT, Mining equipment, Mining events, Mining services, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, , , , , ,

The Global Mining Guidelines Group (GMG) says it has just launched two new working groups on cybersecurity and the electric mine to create safe and sustainable mines of the future.

The Cybersecurity Working Group aims to help mining stakeholders as they look to design safe, secure, reliable and resilient cybersecurity infrastructure that adheres to regulatory, trust, and privacy best practices, GMG said.

The group is to provide guidance for the industry to access and implement existing solutions, be responsive to the priorities of the industry, and look for projects that will benefit from GMG’s open, collaborative principles and processes, it added.

“As digitalisation increases in our industry, so does the risk of cybersecurity incidents,” says Andrew Scott, GMG Vice-Chair Working Groups and Principal Innovator at Symbiotic Innovations. “Industry-wide knowledge sharing and collaboration are important for mitigating these risks.”

Scott added: “The topic has come up in many existing GMG projects including those on autonomous systems, artificial intelligence and interoperability, and it is clear that cybersecurity is a high-priority concern among mining stakeholders.”

The group will work closely with the Mining and Metals Information Sharing Analysis Centre (MM-ISAC) to collaborate on and identify existing projects and prevent duplication, according to GMG.

The Electric Mine Working Group, meanwhile, aims to accelerate the advancement and adoption of electric mining technologies in underground and surface contexts. It will cover all-electric technologies that are replacing those that typically use diesel.

Key objectives include developing guidelines and sharing information on using and testing electric technologies and designing electric mines.

GMG Managing Director, Heather Ednie, said: “The shift toward the electric mine in surface and underground contexts is indicative of our industry’s growing commitment to reducing greenhouse gases and providing safer working environments.

“Previous GMG work on battery-electric vehicles in underground mining brought together a community of companies leading the way in developing and adopting electric mining technologies. As these technologies are increasingly used in surface mines, the need to expand the community has become clear.”

This group will work in parallel with the International Commission on Mining and Metals (ICMM) and its Innovation for Cleaner Safer Vehicles (ICSV) initiative to ensure that the initiatives support each other, GMG explained.

Once launched, these groups will form a steering committee to refine the scope and objectives and identify early projects, GMG said.

The Cybersecurity Working Group will have its introductory virtual meeting on November 11. The kick-off workshop is to define what the industry needs from a cybersecurity perspective; it will be held at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, USA. on December 5, held in partnership with the MM-ISAC.

The Electric Mine Working Group will have its introductory virtual meeting on November 21.

Mining industry players come together to form new interoperability forum

Automation, Communications in mining, IoT, Mining equipment, Mining industry recognition, Mining services, , ,

The Global Mining Guidelines Group (GMG), following its inaugural mining interoperability alignment roundtable two weeks ago in Perth, Australia, has come together with industry participants to launch an interoperability organisations taskforce.

This group will work toward fleshing out a detailed roadmap and develop a way of illustrating how all the pieces fit together, the GMG said.

GMG stated: “Interoperability is a priority for the mining industry and there are many ongoing projects, guidelines and standards being developed for it.”

The roundtable was designed to accelerate progress and enhance collaboration between organisations working on interoperability. It brought organisations working on different aspects of the issue – both inside and outside the mining industry – together to increase the visibility of ongoing interoperability initiatives and to prevent duplication of efforts, according to GMG.

Representatives from AMIRA, CSIRO, Enterprise Transformation Partners, GMG, IIC, ISO, Interop, IREDES, METS Ignited, and MI4 presented on their initiatives and discussed ways to move forward collaboratively.

GMG said: “The roundtable confirmed the need for coordination and knowledge sharing among organisations, and participants recognised that interoperability is a vast issue. While their projects focus on different aspects of interoperability, there are overlaps and many are interconnected in some way.”

GMG Managing Director, Heather Ednie, commenting on the breadth of what was presented, said: “We’re further ahead than we might think. Once the pieces are put together, you can see that there is a lot going on in an effort to solve interoperability challenges.”

Exposure will be just as important as coordination in ensuring these initiatives achieve their full potential, GMG said.

To foster this collaborative environment, these organisations and others working on the topic will form the interoperability organisations taskforce.

Among the participants, Ednie says, “There was a very strong willingness and appetite to work together”, also noting that many of these organisations and initiatives are backed by the same companies, so coordination is in their best interest as well.

This roundtable is part of GMG’s Interoperability and Functional Safety Acceleration Strategy (IFSAS), launched in early 2019 with support from BHP and Rio Tinto. This strategy aims to facilitate collaboration and accelerate progress on interoperability and functional safety. The interoperability component of this strategy also involves coordinating industry alignment on a direction and vision for interoperability through communication and engagement. These efforts will be directed by a steering committee comprising key stakeholders.

GMG strengthens mining innovation ties with SME partnership

Automation, IoT, Mining equipment, Mining industry recognition, Mining policy, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining software, Sustainable mining, , , , , ,

Global Mining Guidelines Group (GMG) and the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME) have announced a strategic partnership to “drive increased openness in the mining industry”, GMG says.

“The SME-GMG partnership will enable SME members to maintain a leadership position in the global mining community,” GMG said, adding that it has similar agreements with other mining organisations as a key strategy to building and strengthening the global mining innovation network.

GMG Executive Director, Heather Ednie, said: “The future of mining requires greater collaboration, increased openness and sharing across the industry, and a willingness to embrace new technologies and practices – that is the premise of GMG. And, we need leadership level participation from the US mining community to be successful – and SME represents that community.”

As part of this collaboration, SME will become the official partner on all GMG events held in the US as of 2020.

SME Executive Director, David L Kanagy, said: “The United States is one of the leading mining nations in the world, home to many large mining companies as well as key mining suppliers, both traditional and non-traditional.

“This partnership will enable SME members to participate in global innovation collaboration and ensure that the US has input into international guidelines development.”