Innovation – Opportunity or Necessity? Craig Stegman Austmine 2017 conference

Salvador power plant, Chile - 200 GWh of solar energy per year

The Answer?

Necessity is a big driver of innovation – we innovate to stay in business

But, innovation for Opportunity creates new businesses

- & marginalises existing ones!

Clayton Christensen’s definition of Innovation

Sustaining Innovation

Efficiency Innovation

Disruptive Innovation

Making a good product better: Gearless conveyor drives

Increased truck payload

Advanced Flotation technology

Improving the efficiency of existing

processes: Equipment automation

Mining dispatch

Process control technology

Transforming something that is expensive &

complicated into something that is simpler,

more accessible & more affordable: Conveyors (1795)

Mining mechanization (1900s)

Froth Flotation (early 1910s)

SXEW technology (1960s) Growth Creating

Margin Sustaining

Case Study 1: Opencut Mining at RTKC

1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

Steam shovels & rail

Haul truck scale-up

Trucks replace rail

330t haul trucks

Electric shovels

Mine

electrification

Jockling’s

“Rail-road pit

operations”

World Cu

recession

Electric rail & traffic mgmt.

RTKC supplies

30% of Allies

WWII Cu

In-pit crushing & conveying

2% Cu 1% Cu 0.5% Cu Mine closure

Manefay slide

10 April 2013: RTKC Manefay Slide – 125Mt of waste material

10

00

m

Case Study 2: RTKC Post-Manefay - mining to a higher factor of safety

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

3D Numerical Pit Modelling Underground

Drainage Galleries

Future Pit

Cutbacks

Manefay

Slide

Observational Mining

ITH Borehole Drilling

Remote Mining

Light Weight Truck Beds

9 Layers of Pit monitoring

South

Pushback

Approval

Mine Dispatch

Case Study 3: Copper Leaching

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

SX/EW – Oxide leaching

2° sulfide leaching

1° sulfide leaching

Dump Leach @ Escondida

SX-EW technology

developed by Ranger

Exploration & Dev. Leaching

producing 30%

mined copper

Agitated leach of oxide ore

Crush & Agglomerate

Mobile Stacking

Case Study 4: Addressing the water challenge

Increased leaching

Increasing mine/mill

throughput

Desalination of seawater

Improved thickening

Seawater in processing

Improved water recovery from

tailings

Step-change in water

consumption

Step-change in cost of power

Reduced

groundwater

2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025

Social

Licence

Pathway

Options for producers & enabling technologies

Key Enablers Challenges

Increase scale

- Reduce fresh water use

- Cheaper/reliable energy

- Concentrator efficiency

Unsustainable

power, water

& capital

New mining &

processing

methods

- More rapid innovation

- Focus on reducing water &

energy demand

Technology

uncertainty

Large-scale

Underground

- Cave management & mine

control systems

- Equipment modernization

Mining

uncertainty

New, remote &

difficult areas

Higher risk,

less control

- Non-technical solutions

required

De

cre

as

ing

qu

ality

of

ore

Problem

1

2

3

4

The important Innovation Trends in the mining industry

Trend

Data Analytics –increasing

application of information

technology to monitor, control and

improve performance – and to

break down operational siloes

Automation – removing the

operator in high-risk, repetitive and

high cost roles where consistency

of operation is valued

Options-rich environment – no

shortage of technology options –

an abundance of “off the shelf”

technologies

Multiple sources of innovation –

OEMs, METS firms, private equity

R&D, universities, non-mining

Approach

Integrated Operations:

• A new operating model

• Common IT back-bone that promotes multi-user

interfaces & “plug and play”

• Centralisation of data analytics

• Partnering with OEMs to accelerate solutions

• Robust business case – not a fad!

• Incremental innovation to achieve a step-change

• Open door policy – bring us your ideas!

• Clear statement of the “problems”

• Rigorous prioritization of opportunities

• Active scanning of mining & non-mining

environments for innovation opportunities

• Rapid experimentation – fail fast!

• Invest in early stage opportunities in return for

technology access

Conclusions

• Innovation is absolutely necessary for our survival

• Innovation is a balance between risk and reward

• We need to focus on the challenges we are trying

to solve

• We operate in an Options-rich environment

• Experiment fast – and often!