Western Australia mining
In mining, every generation gets its own frontier.
Mining loves a neat correlation – tonnes per shift, dollars per ounce, emissions per unit, but as Peter Burton pointed out at AusIMM’s Critical Minerals 2025 in Perth, one thing that refuses to fit a tidy graph is safety performance.
The future of mining is already here - and it’s being shaped by AI systems that can think, act and integrate seamlessly with the tools you already use.
An underground mining contractor has been fined $540,000 after a rock fall at the Hamlet Underground Gold Mine near Kambalda killed a driller and injured a probationary offsider.
Approvals in mining have long been described as a maze of red tape and delays, but at AMEC’s Nature Positive and Environmental Regulation Forum in Perth, regulators signalled that change is finally starting to cut through.
In open-pit mining, getting the right information at the right time can mean the difference between precise grade control and costly dilution - and one technology is giving operators a sharper, faster view of what lies beneath each bench.
The Western Australian Government has introduced a new authorisation pathway for low-impact exploration and prospecting, with tenement holders now able to lodge an Eligible Mining Activity (EMA) notice under the Mining Act 1978.
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.
When global lenders assess mining projects, it is no longer enough to meet Australian legislation – financiers are demanding alignment with international ESG standards, and the gaps are costing companies time and money.
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.
