Need for innovation crosses many boundaries

The MINEXCHANGE SME 2025 Annual Conference & Expo in Denver, CO and the 2025 Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada were two mining events separated by one week, 1,500 miles and one international border. They are the largest annual mining gatherings in North America, each with its own unique format, audience and programming. However, this year, there were some commonalities in the presentations as well as the conversations among attendees at both events. Proposed tariffs on goods from Canada from the Trump administration and countermeasures from Canadian officials, including comments from recently elected Ontario Premier Doug Ford, made from the exhibit floor of PDAC dominated much of the informal chatter in Denver and Toronto. The head-spinning pace of activity from Washington, DC had made it difficult to keep track of things in real time, and much has changed since early March until the time this issue went to press. Away from the social events and chatter during coffee breaks, MINEXCHANGE and PDAC shared a common focus on another topic important to the mining industry that is evolving nearly as quickly as the news cycle — artificial intelligence. As you might have seen in Denver or read on page 25 of this issue, the MINEXCHANGE conference featured a number of AI-focused talks, including a keynote address from Terry Jones, who referenced Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises and how it illustrates how change often happens gradually, then suddenly, much like the rise of AI, which Jones said is now at a tipping point. Jones said mining companies should look beyond their industry and “connect the dots” from other sectors where AI has already driven substantial transformation. During the technology and innovation keynote talk at PDAC, Flavia Tata Nardini, a rocket scientist, founder of Fleet Space Technologies and former propulsion test engineer at the European Space Agency, shared a similar vision. Fleet Space Technologies is working to launch a constellation of small satellites to enable high-value, real-time applications in industries such as mining, exploration and defense. Nardini challenged the mining industry to look beyond its own boundaries to innovate. Nardini spoke about how Formula One racing witnessed dramatic improvements in technology and performance when aerospace engineers became involved with the sport, and the transportation sector experienced a massive transition when computer engineers developed rideshare technology. Nardini argued that the mining industry is on the cusp of generational change fueled by technologies such as AI and machine learning, and encouraged the audience to embrace diversity in all forms, including diverse disciplines. AI and machine learning are transformative tools that the mining industry must embrace to meet the challenge of increased demand for minerals. By 2050, the Earth will be home to nearly 10 billion people, many in large cities requiring more energy and data centers. 2024 SME President Marc Herpfer wrote often about how AI will shape the future of mining and was instrumental in MINEXCHANGE programming efforts. “I thought it was critical to have a broad-spectrum presentation on what the current state-of-the-art is regarding AI,” Herpfer told me. “And more importantly, what the future has in store for all of us. I believe the next decade will see more technological change than during the last century (the Industrial Revolution, Atomic Age, Space Age, computer revolution, and so on), and that we are just now witnessing the birth of the next age in the history of the “epoch of mankind” on Earth. The key question is how this will all unfold, and how we will be changed and impacted by this evolution of AI as it grows from infancy to maturation?” MINEXCHANGE and PDAC attempted to address the issues around AI and its current and future role but the discussion is far from over. In Toronto, Tom Hunt, vice president of technology at KoBold Metals, said the need for technology in the mining industry is immediate. “We are not on track for the energy transition,” he said during a panel discussion. “We need to discover hundreds of new resources and bring them into production over the next several years, and that’s simply not happening.” AI is rapidly evolving and with it technologies that will help the industry discover new resources and exploit them in a more sustainable and productive manner, but it will require commitment, innovation, investment and a willingness to think outside the box to connect the dots. “There has to be a way to access more investment quickly,” Ted McGurk, head of investment banking at TD Securities said at PDAC. “If we want to achieve any of our goals on electrification and AI, we need more minerals and metals.”

Need for innovation crosses many boundaries

Authored by: William Gleason

To view the past issues of the UCA magazine you must be a member of SME/UCA.

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