AUSTRALIAN METS
What Beer and METS Ignited are now witnessing is mid-tier miners aggregating METS demand , to demonstrate to vendors there is enough industry appetite , to warrant investing in developing existing or new solutions to solve industry challenges .
“ The mid-tier miners don ’ t necessarily have enough buying power alone , but , in aggregate , they can drive a constructive change to support the way they consume technology ,” Beer said . “ They , in effect , are making a compelling business case to their own vendors .”
A great example is the recently launched Electric Mine Consortium , which came about following a 2020 State of Play report on mine electrification funded by METS Ignited and Australia-based automation / innovation company Project 412 .
This consortium is made up of over a dozen mining and service companies intent on accelerating progress towards the fully electrified , zero CO2 and zero particulates mine , but it is pursuing this aim in a different way to other collaborative projects focused on electrification .
“ We have a group of mining companies , vendors , researchers and investors all in the same room saying what they want , how much it will cost , saying what they are willing to pay for it , knowing which KPI of which person the technology will impact , and measuring the impact and the cost ,” Beer said . “ They are also considering their contribution to what the future model will look like for them as customers .”
These conversations let all parties – miners , OEMs and researchers – know exactly where they stand in the supply chain , allowing miners , specifically , to plan and organise their operations based on the expected arrival of technology and solutions .
Beer concluded : “ Quite often agreeing on the technology is the easy bit . Agreeing on a sustainable commercial model for that technology is the harder task .”
Electrification might be the focus in this instance , but METS Ignited is also helping facilitate similar conversations around robotics and automation , data and analytics and the critical minerals space with specific projects , according to Beer .
In this context , the industry growth centre is identifying which researchers have the capability to address specific operational issues , which vendors have the experience and knowledge to commercialise this research and which investors have the motivation to back the projects .
There is a difference with the projects METS Ignited is helping along now compared with the ones it was progressing in the past . All of these current projects , regardless of scope , need to come with vendor agnostic and interoperable solutions , meaning they can be used on all machinery , regardless of make or model , Beer said .
At the same time – and unlike mining technology of the past – the solution does not need to originate from the mining space . In fact , incorporating cross-industry solutions with an element of tailoring could ensure the technology continues to evolve after initial adoption in Beer ’ s opinion .
“ Mining companies no longer want to buy tech specific to the mining sector as it doesn ’ t always innovate fast enough ,” Beer said . “ The innovation cycles can be faster in emerging sectors , so miners can benefit from continuous development of the technology by adopting solutions that have a home beyond mining .”
Against this backdrop and a 15-month COVID- 19-affected period where industry had to innovate to stay alive , Beer is seeing a strengthening METS sector that can leverage the natural advantages that come with operating in Australia .
“ In Australia there is a tyranny of distance that allows vendors to take technology from all over the world into very remote corners and try it out in a new application where no one is looking ,” he said , reflecting on the test of a 6,500 kW wind turbine drive in a SAG mill back in the late 90s at the Ridgeway Deeps mine in New South Wales . This project , he says , led to the adoption of hypersynchronous slip energy recovery drives in