If you think the most exciting innovations in critical-minerals exploration are happening in labs or boardrooms, you might want to take another look at the drill pad.
There’s a moment in every technological revolution when optimism meets reality - when the glossy promise of transformation hits the grit of practical deployment.
It takes a certain type of confidence to suggest the future of clean energy metals might lie four kilometres below the Pacific Ocean – confidence, and perhaps a streak of stubbornness.
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.
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.
Rare earth metallurgy is unlike any other field in mining, and as Damien Krebs told AusIMM’s Metallurgical Society in his webinar Rare Earth Metallurgy 101, every single deposit is a puzzle that defies cookie-cutter solutions.
