Given the current context, an increasingly strong theme in mining is to find lower footprint solutions, Triffett says.
“For many years now, ore grades have been falling across the industry,” he says. “If we do nothing and stick with traditional methods of mining and processing, we’re just going to create larger volumes of waste and be reliant on increasing amounts of energy.
“As we look at designing modern mines, we’re going to need to get creative to find new solutions.”
Triffett is part of the Think and Act Differently (TAD) team at OZ Minerals, tasked with exploring opportunities that global challenges will create for the company, its clients and its stakeholders.
“For the TAD team, this includes learning from other industries and people who may not normally be in our ecosystem,” he says.
Last year, TAD launched the Ingenious Extraction Crowd Challenge, with innovators completing their experiments this year. Its aim is to test ideas that might disrupt traditional extraction processes and move towards lower-impact onsite metals production.
“We invited innovators to propose novel leaching processes that could demonstrate material changes in key economic drivers such as energy usage, while maintaining metal recovery rates equivalent to the incumbent systems,” he says.
"If we do nothing and stick with traditional methods of mining and processing, we are just going to create larger volumes of waste and be reliant on increasing amounts of energy. As we look at designing modern mines, we're going to need to get creative to find new solutions."
Amazingly, 260 participants from 40 countries took part in the challenge. The TAD team selected seven teams as finalists, each proposing new and innovative extraction systems. Various experiments have now been funded to validate the performance of these processes.
It is good news that such innovative programs are happening now. In the past, however, organisations in the mining space have been accused of being slow to change; and they have been, Cook says.
Cook acknowledges that in some cases change has been slow, but he argues that this is understandable. After all, a very large capital investment goes into exploration, mine development, mining operations and the transport and processing of ore.
Also, mining is such a broad and complex sector that it is difficult for an expert in one area to comprehend what is going on in others.
“Very few people in mining have a full perspective over the whole mining value chain,” Cook says. “They don’t necessarily have the economic viewpoint. Geologists don’t understand processing, processors don’t understand geology, etc.”
However, according to Cook, environmental, social and governance issues are paramount in the industry right now. The process of applying for a mining licence can take one to two decades, so optimisation of all parts of mining processes is essential.
Goodsite agrees, saying the Holy Grail of mining is the reduction of energy and water usage.
“Most copper mines are only mining the top 5 per cent or 10 per cent of the copper that they have in the reserves, because the rest is too deep or too complex to get to,” Goodsite says.
“To resolve that, miners generally have to add more energy and water, and the processing of these ores to get the metals requires a lot more energy.”
Indonesia is looking into using nuclear power for the energy-intensive processing phase, he says. Iceland uses geothermal power.
“Australia could have some variable renewable energy to generate an energy vector, like hydrogen, then use hydrogen for processing,” Goodsite says. “In my opinion, hydrogen has to be a part of the solution. And luckily, in Australia we do hydrogen very well.”
