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 Editorial Director Paul Moore B.Sc (Hons), M.Sc. Email: [email protected] Editor Daniel Gleeson BA (Hons) Email: [email protected] Advertising Sales: Phil Playle Email: [email protected] [phone] Publishing Assistant Lynne Lane Email: [email protected] Accounts Manager Nicola Shukla [email protected] Marketing Assistant Joanna English BA (Hons) [email protected] Circulation Assistant Jane Alter [email protected] Design and Production Trevor Sheldon Email: [email protected] Website: www.im-mining.com Annual Subscription Enquiries Emma Smith Email: [email protected] Annual Subscription UK and Europe £160, €230 Rest of the world US$270 International Mining (ISSN No: 1747-146X) is published monthly by Team Publishing Ltd, GBR and is distributed in the USA by Asendia USA, 17B South Middlesex Avenue, Monroe NJ 08831 and additional mailing offices. Periodicals postage paid at New Brunswick NJ. POSTMASTER: send address changes to International Mining, 17B South Middlesex Avenue, Monroe NJ 08831 Printed by The Manson Group, St Albans, UK © Team Publishing Ltd 2020 ISSN 1747 -146X IM uses, as preference, SI units throughout, so, for example, all tonnes are metric unless otherwise stated. All dollars are US unless otherwise stated 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