IMARC 2024 Archives - International Mining

Technological innovation is the cornerstone of human progress. At their best the foundational technologies of the modern world – such as the global internet, digital technologies, space travel, clean energy, and AI – fill me with a belief that hard problems are not permanent fixtures in time and space, Flavia Tata Nardini* writes.

They are mutable barriers humanity must overcome to build a brighter future for our planet.

We now face a paradox on the road to net zero: delivering the minerals needed to fuel the global adoption of clean energy technologies depends on the rate of new mineral discoveries. That makes the global mining industry not only an essential partner on the road to net zero but elevates the complexity and structural obstacles involved in modern exploration as critical problems that must be solved to achieve climate progress.

Innovators in this field need a reality check: mineral exploration is a balancing act of constantly shifting macro-level conditions (market pressures, investment cycles, shifts in exploration strategy, regulation, budgets and price volatility, etc).

This means every exploration company faces unique operating conditions that are either enabling their progress, slowing it down, or forcing it into stasis. However, when you examine the challenges of explorers on the ground and how they compound across the exploration lifecycle, a clear innovation path starts to emerge.

At the project level implementing a strategy in highly remote and rugged environments with incomplete datasets and changing budgets can be a real struggle. Exploration teams are often being pulled in several directions at once while managing the planning, logistics, data interpretation, strategy modification and budget for each stage of their program.

Add the complexity of integrating vast amounts of data of various types and quality – each with their own weighted significance for the specific project – while reducing human bias in the analysis represent incredibly time and cost-intensive steps for exploration teams.

This is a significant contributor to why it takes up to 16.5 years to identify and operationalise a new mine (according to the International Energy Agency).

When I survey the technology landscape of the world today there are some very specific capabilities that can address these fundamental challenges in the exploration workflow.

Satellite connectivity, for real-time exploration data collection and processing. High-quality and scale invariant 3D multiphysics data, for streamlined integration of diverse 3D and 2D exploration datasets. Multimodal and multiscale artificial intelligence (AI) to radically narrow the exploration search space, enhance data-driven decision making, while also de-risking and identifying new opportunities faster.

Expecting major or early-stage explorers to cultivate the expertise and resources needed to develop and integrate these technologies is unreasonable: their focus is and needs to stay fixed on discovery. They also don’t need multiple new technology providers and software to build into their planning cycle and strategy, adding more complexity.

The real-time and predictive capabilities enabled by advanced satellite connectivity, real-time multi-physics data acquisition and AI must be combined into a plug-and-play technology stack that can be deployed rapidly at any stage of the exploration journey with minimal environmental impact. This represents more than just profound gains in efficiency at every level of exploration. It represents a unification of the end-to-end exploration journey, enabling data-driven learning in exploration on a previously unimaginable scale.

The key to maximising the value of high-quality real-time data acquisition and processing is AI. By linking a continuous feed of high-quality exploration data to custom multi-scale, multimodal AI models, the on-site teams working on the frontlines of exploration today can integrate and interpret vast amounts of data, challenge hypotheses and arrive at actionable decision points faster. This creates shorter and more insightful learning cycles, strengthening a positive feedback loop of enhanced decision making at every stage of the exploration journey.

Looking at the arc of mining innovation before us, I see a deeper integration of these technologies across the global exploration value chain.

As we continue to strive for a net-zero future the operational challenges involved with mineral discovery can no longer be viewed as isolated hurdles. They must be addressed through a unified technological approach that empowers exploration teams with real-time data, AI-driven insights and streamlined workflows, enabling them to deploy resources towards opportunities faster, with enhanced precision, while minimising environmental impact.

Instead of accepting complexity and operational headwinds as table stakes, we must view them as opportunities to drive down the time and costs involved between each step of the exploration journey using the latest wave of innovation in space, 3D multi-physics integration and AI.

With this approach we can meaningfully reduce the time to discovery, unlock sustainability across the mining lifecycle and set the industry up for a renaissance in data-driven exploration. Then, as mineral supply and demand equalises, clean energy technologies scale, and the inputs needed for the advanced technologies of the future are secured, the critical role of our industry will come into focus as the foundation of the clean energy future we aim to build.

The convening power of IMARC drives the future of the global mining value chain into the present. IMARC’s invaluable role in forming a shared understanding of the challenges we face, opportunities for collaboration, and solutions that can move the industry forward, is critical to the progress we work tirelessly to achieve.

We look forward to seeing you there!

*Flavia Tata Nardini, co-founder and CEO of Fleet Space Technologies, is a keynote speaker at IMARC 2024 in Sydney, Australia, from October 29-31. International Mining is a media sponsor of IMARC 2024

Miners have the tools and seemingly now also the will to be better stewards of crucial water resources, according to an experienced specialist in the area, Garrick Field. But he believes stronger engagement with local communities, including traditional landowners, can be the real driver of a new water stewardship course.

Speaking with Mining Beacon after the launch of Black & Veatch’s latest ‘Water for Mining in Australia’ survey and report, the company’s Industrial Water and Mining Solutions Director says high-profile tailings dam and cultural heritage failures have move the industry into an era of accountability, transparency and corporate commitments to environmental and social governance (ESG).

It’s what is happening on the ground, though, that is really demonstrating a shift in management and operational practices which can reset the tone of multi-stakeholder engagement and the industry’s potential to achieve improved environmental and economic outcomes.

“It’s the voices of stakeholders that are actually informing a lot of the solutions and decision making around the outcomes of water management in the mining industry at the moment,” says Field, who worked extensively across Australia, Peru and Argentina on large mining projects before working with Rio Tinto on a range of strategic water management challenges in Australia, North America and Eastern Europe over 15 years.

He joined Black & Veatch to help grow its mining services offering and exposure alongside a significant industrial and municipal engineering and consulting market presence in Australia and the Asia Pacific region.

“As an example, if you look at the Pilbara region of Western Australia, the shift to mining below the water table means that significant volumes of water need to be removed to enable access to the ore. There is a growing awareness amongst mining companies about the need to engage meaningfully with First Nations and Traditional Owner groups on what happens to that water.

“Historically the water has been seen as a waste product to be removed from the mining process. But more and more of that water is being valued as a resource that needs to be stewarded and not discharged, or even transported elsewhere to be put to another use, but rather reserved in catchment so that it stays in the landscape.

“It’s very important that the source and location of that water is considered appropriately. We’re seeing that as a different driver for the management of that resource that requires a different set of solutions.”

More broadly Field says deeper local engagement, undertaken earlier in project lifecycles, is opening up avenues to better long-term water resource management solutions.

“That meaningful engagement with local stakeholders on the values of the water, what happens to it and how it’s managed, can extend through project development, into operations, and beyond closure,” he says. “What would add value to a co-management type of solution, for example.

“If you define and design for stewardship together with local stakeholders at the start of the project it’s a very different experience to managing it together after the impacts of a negative event, when you have to fix things up.

“We’re seeing some developers that are taking a different approach to managing water – building infrastructure, developing water supply solutions – and seeking to engage with equity with local Traditional Owners as well, to bring shared environmental and economic benefit from the project for current and future generations.”

Field is leading a high-level discussion at the upcoming IMARC 2024 conference in Sydney on sustainable water management in mining in Australia. Fellow panellists include BHP Water Management and Mine Closure Global Practice Lead, Blair Douglas, Legacie Managing Director, Daniel Lambert, ICMM Director of Environment, Emma Gagen, and Travis Inman, Executive Director at the WA Government’s Department of Water and Environmental Regulation.

“Translating sustainable water management ambitions into on-the-ground solutions starts with a collaborative catchment-based approach – the holistic assessment of all the water users in a catchment – including social, environmental and other economic values,” Field says.

“And then margin needs to be planned and scoped such that the water needs of the mining project do not encroach on the other users and values in the catchment.

“This can be achieved by assessing the opportunities for optimised mine-planning and progressive rehabilitation for footprint reduction, water efficiency, recycling, treatment and development of alternative water supply sources.

“It is even better if these solutions can sustain and reinforce the health of the other values in the catchment.

“The contrast to this is that the project may seek approval for the water take without a real understanding of the catchment dynamics, which we have seen lead to a host of unintended consequences and impacts that need to be managed over the life of the mine and create a liability that requires significant investment to repair at closure.”

IMARC is due to take place on October 29-31, in Sydney, Australia. International Mining is a media sponsor of the event.

AI-infused plug-and-play tech stack needed to further exploration, Tata Nardini says

Deeper water engagement can help reset mining ESG course: Garrick Field