Key Strategies for Driving Mining Innovation

Mining companies use only a fraction of their data. Less than 1% according to McKinsey's analysis, which quantifies at $370 billion annually, or 17% of the global mining industry's cost base. This represents one of the most extraordinary value creation opportunities I've seen in years. While most industries fight over marginal gains, mining sits on transformational improvements that are entirely achievable with proven technology. Mining companies have already built the infrastructure, deployed the sensors, and collected the data. The hard work is done. The foundation exists. Now it's simply about connecting these assets intelligently to unlock value that's already been created but not yet captured. The real problem is that the industry has convinced itself that it is somehow uniquely complex and unsuitable for digital transformation. Yes, underground operations face harsh conditions. Equipment gets covered in dust and operates in extreme temperatures. Networks struggle with signal penetration through rock. But aerospace companies manage to stream data from Mars. Formula 1 teams process thousands of telemetry points in real-time while cars travel at 300km/h. Mining's challenges are real but hardly insurmountable. The integration complexity actually works in our favor. Mining operations span geological data, drilling parameters, processing chemistry, equipment telemetry, and market dynamics. Each domain requires specialized expertise. Traditional software struggles with these multivariable relationships. But this complexity creates opportunity. Companies that successfully integrate these data streams achieve significant throughput improvements and recovery gains. For a large copper mine, that translates to millions in additional revenue. The skills gap represents another opportunity. The workforce is aging rapidly. But this creates space for technology-driven approaches that augment rather than replace human expertise. Predictive maintenance reduces the need for mechanical troubleshooting. AI-powered analysis handles data complexity that overwhelms human operators. The result? More engaging work that attracts talent previously dismissive of mining careers. Even the organizational structure becomes advantageous when properly leveraged. Yes, departmental silos exist. But mining's clear operational stages from exploration through processing create natural points for targeted intervention. Each failure point in the data value chain represents a specific market opportunity. Specialized solutions for ore characterization, predictive maintenance, or process optimization can deliver immediate value without requiring enterprise-wide transformation. At IRH, we see this as mining's renaissance moment. By integrating modern technologies across the value chain, we're unleashing potential. Every sensor becomes an opportunity for optimization. Every data point contributes to collective intelligence. Every operational decision gets progressively smarter.

“We are rich underground, but poor above ground.” Post #3 If Ghana is to turn its mineral wealth into true national prosperity, we must answer one question: 👉🏾 How do we move from raw extraction to long-term transformation? At the ALUMaT Lecture, I shared one strategic tool I believe can guide this journey — the Build–Borrow–Buy Framework. It’s a simple but powerful way to think about growth: 🔨 Build: Develop capabilities internally. Invest in technical universities like UMaT, creating world-class R&D hubs for mining and critical minerals. Establish training schools in Obuasi and Tarkwa to build critical underground and open-pit skills. Fund Ghanaian-led research into mining innovation and ESG. 🤝 Borrow: Partner with others to accelerate knowledge transfer. Collaborate with international OEMs to build local supplier capacity. Leverage joint ventures to strengthen Ghanaian participation in global mining supply chains. 💰 Buy: Invest directly in strategic assets. Mobilize Ghana’s pension funds to take equity in mining ventures — just as global pension funds are major investors in international mining companies. Use sovereign investment vehicles to capture more value from our resources. This framework is not abstract theory. It is a blueprint for action: It improves revenue retention by keeping more value in Ghana. It deepens local content participation by building Ghanaian suppliers and talent. It ensures shared prosperity, where our natural resources fund schools, infrastructure, and innovation for generations to come. 💡 Some argue that Ghana’s transformation requires full nationalisation of our mineral resources. But nationalisation is not the silver bullet. Around the world, it has often produced mixed results — from Chile’s success with Codelco to Zambia’s struggles in the 1970s. 👉🏾 What Ghana needs is not wholesale nationalisation, but strategic participation. The Build–Borrow–Buy framework gives us exactly that: a way to strengthen Ghanaian ownership, skills, and equity without scaring off investors or overburdening the state with operational risk. The real measure of success will not be ounces produced, but industries created, skills developed, and futures secured. Are we bold enough to Build, wise enough to Borrow, and strategic enough to Buy — so that by 2045, Ghana’s mining story is studied as a model of transformation? #MiningWithAMission #Ghana2045 #BuildBorrowBuy #ResourceEconomy

Mining companies choosing solutions on lowest cost doesn’t save money. It’s just moving costs around and potentially eroding the industry’s value.  In our last LI post, we looked at why price-first feature set buying fails. This time lets consider the incredible lost opportunities that one size fits all procurement processes create to slow progress. In addition to meeting features at low cost, vendor qualification questions are also used: Where has this been implemented on our deposit type? Provide n references? The problem with these questions is that many will invalidate any innovative solution.  Here's the thing about real innovation: it costs more upfront and it comes with uncertainty.  Trying new things also comes with risk - but may also have large rewards.  And many of these rewards are linked to benefits that were not initially identified.   An example of this type of innovation is implicit modeling for geology.   Initially developed by a New Zealand medical research company, and identified for its geological potential by a young PhD working in a mining consultancy, FastRBF results were at first derided (shish kabob bubbles along a drillhole) and yet eventually became the foundation of a mining Unicorn.  It took one person’s perspicacity and determination to demonstrate the value of an untried algorithm to shift how we think about geological modeling.   Now implicit modeling is allowing larger amounts of machine collected data to be more quickly integrated into geological models. One way to break the vendor/buyer cost/feature cycle isn't to stop caring about cost. It's to start measuring the right things.   Instead of asking "What's the cheapest option?" ask "What's the option that creates the most value per dollar spent?" Instead of focusing on upfront cost, look at total cost of ownership over the life of the solution. The mining industry is full of complex cost cutting opportunities that require sophisticated solutions. Shopping for those solutions, like you're buying office paperclips, is a recipe for short term status quo, long term stagnation and the starvation of a niche innovation ecosystem. Instead of choosing vendors based on their proposals, choose them based on their track record of delivering results, can they objectively deliver value today and identify downstream unrealised value? Sometimes the most expensive option is the cheapest in the long run. And sometimes the cheapest option is the most expensive mistake you'll ever make.

India’s growth story over the next decade will be closely tied to how intelligently we manage energy and natural resources. Demand for steel, power, infrastructure, and mobility is rising at a pace we have not seen before. Highways, rail corridors, renewable parks, urban expansion, and manufacturing clusters all rest on one foundational layer: reliable access to minerals and energy. The question is not whether demand will grow. It is whether we are prepared to meet it responsibly. In mining and energy, the future will be defined by three clear shifts. 1. First, scale with discipline. As the country pushes for higher production, operational excellence will become non negotiable. Predictable output, strong safety systems, and efficient logistics will determine who leads. 2. Second, integration with sustainability. Green steel, lower carbon operations, renewable integration, water recycling, and smarter fuel management are no longer peripheral initiatives. They are becoming central to competitiveness. The companies that adapt early will shape the market. 3. Third, technology driven efficiency. Across the sector, digital systems are gradually becoming an important part of mining operations. Monitoring tools, data driven maintenance planning, and smarter dispatch and logistics management are helping operations become safer, more efficient, and more predictable. The goal is not technology for its own sake, but technology that supports people on the ground and improves operational discipline. These larger industry shifts are also reflected in what we are learning through our own experience at the Surjagad Iron Ore Mine in Gadchiroli. Over the past few years, the effort has been to steadily build the foundations required for scale, from strengthening infrastructure and logistics to building capable teams and reliable operating systems. Crossing 10 million tonnes of dispatch in 2025 was an important milestone for us. More than the number itself, it reinforced a lesson that applies across the industry: sustainable capacity comes from preparation. Infrastructure, safety culture, and operational discipline must grow alongside production. India’s mining and energy future is strong. But strength will belong to those who prepare early, invest patiently, and operate responsibly. The next phase of industrial growth will not reward speed alone. It will reward preparedness.

Today’s “hot mining technology” is likely half a century old. It’s baffling how frequently we celebrate supposedly groundbreaking technologies, despite knowing they’re often older than the executives promoting them. I recently had multiple conversations with veterans in the industry who’ve candidly confessed they’ve been refining the same innovations for decades, unnoticed and undervalued, until suddenly they’re labeled revolutionary. Bill Buxton calls this phenomenon “The Long Nose of Innovation”, pointing out that significant tech developments quietly evolve, often taking ~ 15 years to move from invention to mainstream adoption. But in mining, timelines extend even further, sometimes up to 50 years or more. Politicians and universities naively persist with tech-transfer incubators, believing these will yield immediate economic returns, about as realistic as expecting to win the lottery. A chart I created from the Minalliance’s publication, detailing 100 mining technologies, further highlights this point. [See the live chart link in comments] Sectors like ore extraction and exploration appear crowded with innovations, while critical areas such as remediation and ore deposit definition remain notably sparse. This imbalance signifies considerable untapped opportunities, hidden gems waiting patiently for visionary inventors and perceptive investors willing to give these overlooked niches the attention they deserve. The industry’s greatest innovation potential isn’t in inventing flashy new ideas, but in actively cutting down the absurdly prolonged timelines of existing technologies. Even shaving 10% to 20% off these innovation cycles could dramatically speed up adoption and significantly boost returns for those involved from the start. I might be an outsider, as I’ve openly admitted before, but it doesn’t take long to see that my usual marketing toolkit isn’t enough. Helping one company at a time is one thing, but assisting a group of companies makes a bigger impact! Mining tech suffers from systemic sclerosis, buried beneath years of neglected ideas and obscured investment opportunities that no sane outsider can decipher quickly. So what’s genuinely needed is fundamentally changing how mining innovation gets discovered, adopted, and funded. It’s about surfacing overlooked but proven technologies, making investment cases simple enough that even outsiders (those mythical creatures known as “generalist investors”) can immediately grasp the opportunity without a geological degree. Hope that with the support of the community and partners, we will bring change together at Rocks ‘n’ Futures.

Key comminution trends that will decide whether your mine controls energy costs or loses profitability. With energy costs rising and ore grades declining, the old approach of grinding everything to dust and hoping for the best is quickly turning into a financial liability. Some mines are already optimizing their circuits and slashing power costs.   Others will soon realize the price of inefficiency is about to go up. Let’s break down key trends:   1. Pre-concentration & coarse particle flotation. Mines have long crushed everything, wasting energy on low-value material. New sorting tech removes waste upfront, rejecting 30% of uneconomic ore before milling. The result? Lower energy use, higher throughput—without costly expansions. 2. High-intensity blasting. Smarter blasting beats inefficient grinding. Some mines boost throughput 28% with high-intensity blasting. Break the ore properly at the start = less grinding = lower energy costs. Comminution starts in the pit, not the plant. 3. Dry grinding. Comminution is one of the largest water consumers in mining. Yet few talk about how grinding circuits contribute to this problem. Emerging solutions like HPGR (high-pressure grinding rolls), VRM (vertical roller mill) and air classification are cutting water use while maintaining high recovery rates. 4. The end of one-size-fits-all circuits. The traditional SAG-ball mill-cyclone circuit has been the industry standard for decades. But as energy prices skyrocket, mines are rethinking flowsheets and using: - HPGR-ball mill combinations for better energy efficiency  - Single-stage AG/SAG circuits with pre-crushing to simplify flowsheets  - Autogenous & pebble milling to reduce reliance on grinding media The goal? Extracting maximum value at the lowest possible energy input. 5. AI & real-time process optimization: no more guesswork Comminution is moving from gut feeling to AI-driven control. AI-driven process control systems are now: - Adjusting feed rates, mill speeds, and power inputs in real-time - Eliminating inefficiencies and keeping operations at peak performance - Maximizing throughput without human error In 5 years, top operators will let AI optimize comminution automatically.   6. Grade engineering. Instead of grinding everything, Grade Engineering® optimizes ore processing by: • Blasting for natural size separation • Sorting by actual grade, not assumptions • Using sensor-based bulk sorting to feed only valuable ore to the mill The result? Higher recovery, lower energy use, better margins.   Mines that optimize comminution will be keeping costs low and margins high. Mines ignoring it will be fighting rising energy costs with circuits designed for a past economic reality.   Process smarter – or pay the price for inefficiency.   And it all starts with understanding your ore.   Real-time ore hardness data impacts blasting strategies, mill performance, and overall process efficiency. Want better comminution data? Let’s talk.

At my son's soccer match, I was reminded that some of the smartest people I know have zero clue about the industries that literally keep civilization running. Another parent, hearing about my (painfully slow) doctoral research into innovation and economic growth, dropped what he thought was a casual observation: wasn't it weird that I was studying innovation while working in an industry that "just digs up rocks"? Classic academic type—brilliant, well-read, supremely confident, and about as connected to real industry as I am to professional ballet. But his comment got me thinking about all the innovation I've actually witnessed in mining over the past couple of decades. To me, the mining industry isn't just innovating, it's pioneering technologies that make Silicon Valley look like they're playing catch-up. We're talking about autonomous truck fleets that operate 24/7, cutting costs by 15% while achieving zero fatalities. These aren't your basic self-driving cars; they're AI-powered logistics systems managing billions of dollars in equipment across some of the world's harshest environments. Then there's digital twin technology that creates virtual replicas of entire mining operations, boosting productivity by 15-20%. Bioleaching uses bacteria to extract metals from ore—basically biological manufacturing that's opening up resources we couldn't touch before. Plasma technology cranks temperatures up to 12,000°C to unlock precious metals, increasing yields by over 1,000%. And microwave-assisted ore processing cuts energy use by 50% just by zapping rocks before grinding them. Who knew microwaves could revolutionize heavy industry? What really gets me is how these innovations ripple out everywhere. The autonomous vehicle tech developed for mining? It's informing city transport systems. AI pattern recognition for finding ore deposits? That's being used across industries. Safety monitoring systems from underground mines? They're becoming the template for industrial IoT. The mining industry operates under constraints that would make most tech companies weep—extreme environments, massive scale, razor-thin margins, life-or-death safety requirements. But instead of limiting innovation, these constraints force it. You can't fake your way through a solution when failure means someone doesn't go home to their family. My colleague's comment revealed something fascinating about how we think about innovation. We picture it happening in sleek offices with ping-pong tables and kombucha on tap. But the lithium in his iPhone, the rare earths in his laptop, the copper in his office building—all extracted using increasingly sophisticated tech that would blow his mind. Sometimes the most profound innovation happens in hard hats, not hoodies. #Innovation #Mining #Technology #Research #RealWorld

This week, my team TechBlocks and I had the opportunity to visit a leading company in remote machine operations and autonomous vehicles. The future of mining isn’t just autonomous—it’s intelligent. -- The convergence of IT and OT is rewriting the playbook for mine operations, where safety, efficiency, and tonnage goals are no longer competing priorities but interconnected outcomes. Key Take Away For Me: ** Safety Enhancements: Autonomous technology is reducing human exposure to hazardous conditions, thereby decreasing the risk of accidents. For instance, Rio Tinto's autonomous haul trucks have operated with zero human injuries attributed to truck operations since their deployment. ** Productivity Gains: Autonomous systems enable continuous operation, leading to increased efficiency and higher output. Companies like BHP have reported a more than 20% improvement in productivity after implementing autonomous haulage systems. **Addressing Workforce Challenges: With an aging workforce and recruitment difficulties, automation helps maintain operational continuity. It also allows for the redeployment of employees to less hazardous roles, enhancing overall workforce safety and satisfaction. The integration of Information Technology (#IT) and Operational Technology (#OT) is crucial. By combining advanced analytics with operational processes, mining executives can make informed decisions to achieve and exceed their 2025 #tonnage goals. This convergence ensures that technological investments translate into tangible operational outcomes. Embracing these technologies not only propels the industry forward but also sets new standards for safety and efficiency.

Mining doesn’t give its employees enough freedom to innovate. As a result, the industry transitions more slowly toward the innovations that actually move it forward. There’s a quiet class of innovators in the shadows. They are testing better ways to mine, process, and decarbonize, often with nothing more than Excel, intuition, and after-hours grit. But not every idea can or should be grown inside the system that created it. In fact, many shouldn’t. Industrial systems are designed for control, not speed. Ideas with the highest long-term potential often look like the biggest short-term distractions. This is not a failure of talent, but of structure. We’ve seen four pathways for innovators to scale their ideas. 1. Leave the company. This is the riskiest move for the founder, but the most conducive to speed and scale. They raise early funds from friends, family, and angels to validate traction. If the solution proves viable, VC may follow. The upside is full control over the IP, the ability to build without internal politics, and a direct line to commercial traction. The downside is that it requires personal risk, and generalist investors don’t understand mining well enough to evaluate the opportunity. The founder must find investors who grasp both the complexity of the problem and the magnitude of the market. 2. Build it inside. This assumes the company is willing to provide time, resources, and protection from competing priorities. If successful, the company may keep the solution in-house, providing recognition but rarely financial upside to the internal founder. The innovation risks being under-utilized, siloed, or eventually deprioritized if leadership changes or commodity cycles turn. Example: VECKTA First built inside Worley, Veckta helps companies deploy onsite energy systems. It later spun out to scale independently. We backed it at seed in 2022, betting it would grow faster outside. 3. Spin it out. If the company sees external scale as the best route forward, it may support a spinout. In this case, the corporate retains some equity, transfers IP to the new entity, and allows the innovation team to lead the new venture. This model preserves alignment while giving the team the independence they need to grow. Example: Endolith We helped Endolith spin-out out of Cemvita Inc. 4. Get the someone to back you from the outside. Rare, but possible, especially when there’s trust, technical traction, and a clear ROI for the customer. Nomadic Venture Partners backed founders who left to solve the problems their employers wouldn’t fund. Some innovations will never see the light of day if it's being grown in the wrong environment surrounded by people with conflicting incentives. Mining needs more of them.