SME Keynote speaker, Dean Gehring, President and CEO of Rio Tinto Minerals was one of the five keynote speakers during the 2015 SME Annual Conference and Expo on Feb. 16.

Gehring began the discussion and spoke about how innovation and data collection will be the drivers in transformational change in mining. During his keynote address he illustrated how far data analytics has come in recent years when he held up his cell phone and told the audience that he could view real time data from haul trucks in Utah, Australia or Mongolia from the device.

He also said there should be caution exercised when accessing real time data.

“It gives me data without context. It gives me the ability to pass judgment based on one data point which can be bad,” Gehring said.

Recently, Gehring spoke with Mining Engineering in a Thought Leaders Podcast where he expanded on some of his thoughts from the keynote.
Gehring said that if he were to make a prediction about what will lead to large changes in the mining industry, the change will be driven by big data.
“The change will be from area that allows us to electronically capture key operating data,” Gehring said in the podcast. “This and having the skills to turn that into valuable information that we will see is bringing around the next big change in our efficiency, productivity and in health and safety.”

To hear Gerhing’s thought’s about data, innovation and the path to the Mine of the Future listen to his podcast at www.smenet.org/podcast.