IM 2020 April 20 | Page 5
THE LEADER
VO LU M E 1 5 • N U M B E R 4
A progressive mining agenda
T
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he electrification of mines is essential if mines
are to become more productive and profitable.
It is even more essential if mines are to meet
the challenge of producing the metals society will
need to address the Climate Change Crisis within 20
years. But electrification alone is not enough – a
radical transformation of mining operations is
necessary. A new operating paradigm for the
underground mines that extract base metal ores is
essential if they are to be able to cope with the heat
and rock stress conditions common at depths over
2.5 km below surface.
Profitable base metal mines operating close to
3,000 m below surface will have to operate a lean,
all-electric, autonomous production system. The
rate of access to orebodies and the rate of
producing ore must be greatly increased and made
safer by autonomous, continuous conveying
systems. Mines must implement tailings storage
systems that ensure they prevent any harm to the
health of local communities and natural ecologies.
The operating cost for these facilities might be
marginally higher but this will be more than offset
by the benefit of a much shorter permitting and
approval process. This must be achieved in the next
five years to impact climate change within 20 years.
In autonomous mining operations, there will be
very few people involved, and it will be far more
cost-effective to keep these people cool and
comfortable in self-contained Comprehensive PPE
suits than to manage the temperature of the entire
underground mine. They will travel in system-
directed (autonomous) utility vehicles to re-supply
the simple, robust modular production equipment
with consumables and to resolve the abnormal
operating events that often occur in deep hot,
seismically active mines. The electric vehicles will
be recharged by decompressing liquid air.
This is not science fiction; the low-carbon
environment we need to redress the effect of
climate change is a high-metal future that relies on
generating, transmitting, storing and manipulating
much more electricity than we do now. But higher
prices for base metals or other critical metals
cannot drive carbon out of the economy and create
a low-carbon future. And the new electricity-based
systems and technologies have to be readily
available and inexpensive before any significant
transition from carbon-based technologies will
begin to take hold.
It is not just a technology or cost problem, it is a
time problem. For greater electrification to impact
climate change within 20 years, it will take at least
10 years before lower GHG levels begin to drop
significantly. It now takes decades for a new mine to
come into production because very few
communities trust that the industry’s mine waste
management systems will protect the health of
their children and their environment after closure.
Mines will have to demonstrate proactively just how
their alternative waste storage systems will create
reliable, self-sustaining waste management
solutions.
Many years of ineffective investment in
incremental R&D have created major companies
that are unable to identify the technological
solutions they need. The answer is not to select
technologies, but to develop new systems that
address the constraints making existing systems
ineffectual. Many of these solutions have already
been developed but are
obscured by the clamour
over digital technology and
AI.
The low productivity
levels in mines accrued
over decades of investing
in 20- and 30-year-old
technology platforms is
now compounded by the
scale of potential liabilities
represented by the enormous stores of untreated
tailings they own. While the most recent
catastrophic failures in Brazil have raised investor
awareness of these of events, there is little mention
of the long-term damage done by fugitive toxic dust
released as ageing tailings facilities dry out.
Mines typically rely on tailings maintenance
programs that depend on people doing exactly the
right thing, the right way, at the right time for
thousands of years to come: an approach
guaranteed to fail. A sustainable approach is one
that removes all the contaminants from the tailings,
treats them to be re-usable or inert, and securely
manages the remaining benign material to
eliminate any long-term liability.
This shift has changed the mining technology
market dynamic. The market for technologies that
sustain existing mining operations is a buyer’s
market, but the market for technologies that can
make a significant difference to mine performance
is much smaller and is a seller’s market. It is not yet
attracting the attention of investors, but this will
change.
It is becoming clear that owning the access to
mineralisation in the ground might be less
important than owning the technologies that allow
that mineralisation to be extracted profitably, while
ensuring the health of neighbouring communities
and ecologies.
The wholescale automation of mining operations
will fundamentally change the social contract
between mines and local communities. The new
social contract will have to better reflect the
inherent values and priorities of these local
populations and enhance the physical, social and
cultural aspects of their communities.
CEMI’s Progressive Mining Agenda recognises
that mining metals and agriculture on an industrial
scale are essential for the wellbeing of a human
population of 8 billion people on Earth. In many
parts of the world, these two sectors are often in
opposition or in a contest for land and water
resources. This has to be resolved. One way to
achieve this is for mines to train local people in the
automation and digital control technologies that
will make their operations safer, less arduous and
more productive, and help them apply these skills
to the pre-existing agricultural economy to achieve
similar objectives. This will strengthen local
economic, social and cultural conditions and
accelerate the technological and social
convergence of the mining and agricultural sectors.
Ultimately, this would be mining’s greatest
contribution to achieving a Globally Sustainable
Society.
Doug Morrison
President & CEO
Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI)
APRIL 2020 | International Mining 3