mining innovation
As ore grades decline and sustainability pressures rise, mining operations are being forced to find new ways to optimise resource extraction.
In the race to squeeze more value from every tonne of ore, the mining sector is increasingly looking to data-rich, high-resolution technologies that can keep pace with operational demands.
In the high-stakes world of Australian mining, where downtime can cost millions and conditions test even the toughest machinery, one company is redefining how mine sites manage water and turn dewatering from a necessary burden into a strategic advantage.
What if the smartest way to power your remote mine site was silent, clean, low-maintenance - and already outsmarting diesel and solar in the field? For Chelsea Kovacs, business development manager at SFC Energy Canada, the answer lies in compact, intelligent fuel cell technology - specifically, direct methanol fuel cells that operate quietly, efficiently, and with minimal emissions.
For Superintendent of Mine Planning Anne-Marie Ebbels, the expansion of BHP’s Prominent Hill operation isn’t just a technical upgrade—it’s a strategic shift in how the mine approaches longevity, productivity and sustainability.
At the 2025 AusIMM Underground Operators Conference in Adelaide, Dyno Nobel Senior Technical Consultant Ed Wargem delivered a message that cut through the noise of technical jargon and digital disruption: sometimes, the biggest improvements in underground development blasting come not from cutting-edge technology, but from going back to basics.
In a bold shift from business-as-usual block modelling, a team of geologists has turned their attention to the part of the orebody most often ignored — waste — and what they’ve uncovered could reshape how mining operations plan for ESG risk.
In an industry where incremental improvements are the norm, a new variable-energy blasting system is delivering a true step change in underground blasting.
Underground haulage is often regarded as a necessary bottleneck—an unavoidable compromise between ore delivery and operational congestion.
It’s not often that a guidance document—rather than an actual regulation—sends shockwaves through the mining sector.
