Innovation
The future of underground mining could mean no one sets foot underground at all - a zero-entry mine powered by autonomy, interoperability, and constantly updated digital twins.
As mining companies increasingly operate from hundreds, sometimes thousands, of kilometres away from the pit or plant, one challenge has remained constant – how to give remote teams the same operational context, detail, and situational awareness they’d have if they were standing on site.
Every hour of downtime costs a mine tens of thousands of dollars, and Professor Amir Gandomi told the NSW Resources Regulator’s Mechanical Engineering Safety Seminar how artificial intelligence is now cutting those losses by predicting failures and optimising operations in seconds.
When reliable environmental performance data doesn’t exist, simulation can step in – and according to IGO Nova’s Zachary Hearne, it could give Australian producers a market advantage.
What do Formula 1 racing and tailings storage have in common? More than you’d think - especially when AI joins the engineering crew.
The future of Australia’s role in critical mineral supply chains may depend less on matching China’s scale and more on proving that secure, trusted supply with ESG credentials is worth paying for.
When it comes to critical minerals in emerging nations, geology is often the easy part - what makes or breaks a project is navigating the politics, markets, and risks that sit behind the orebody.
China quietly built the world’s most powerful critical minerals supply chains while other nations - including Australia - dozed through a geopolitical shift that now threatens economic security, trade independence, and defence readiness.
PLS’ Pilgangoora Operation delivered a standout June quarter, with production volumes up 77 percent and unit operating costs down 10 percent compared to the previous quarter thanks to the integration of the world’s largest lithium ore sorting plant.
For years, exploration teams have wrestled with data chaos in the field.
