The mining industry has to go deeper – both physically and mentally – than ever before to meet growing demand for economic, social and environmental sustainability.
That was the key message that Tony O’Neill, our Group Director for Technical and Sustainability and Donovan Waller, Group Head of Technology Development communicated to delegates at Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE Forum – North America, held on 11-12 November in Las Vegas.
And each presentation supported the idea that to achieve these sustainability targets, a robust approach to technological innovation is required.
That’s why our FutureSmartTM approach took centre stage at the event. But what is it?
Donovan described it succinctly during his session: “FutureSmart positions Anglo American at the leading edge of tech and innovation in mining.”
Find out about FutureSmartTM
In Tony’s presentation (which you can download here), he revealed that, in the 1980s, it took just 11 minerals to manufacture a cell phone, while today it takes more than 60.
Quite a jump.
So as this type of demand grows throughout different industries, we need to encourage technological innovation that results in safer and more efficient ways to unlock the value in the earth’s precious minerals. With FutureSmartTM, we are actively driving and supporting this type of innovation.
But we need to look at how technology supports the whole mining process and associated activities, rather than focusing on lone scenarios, for us to achieve long-term success.
A key feature of FutureSmartTM is that it looks beyond technology for the sake of it. We look at the upstream and downstream impacts. That way, we don’t improve efficiency in one area, only to run into a resulting backlog further up the ladder. We look for sustainable, lasting change.
FutureSmartTM in action
In Donovan’s presentation (which you can download here), he revealed that, as part of FutureSmartTM, Open Forums will be held that focus specifically on global challenges around mining, processing and sustainability. In these Forums, we will work directly with diverse stakeholders, including our peers, research institutions and suppliers, to address these challenges, collaborate to solve them and share the solutions across the industry.
“We’ll need to consign restrictive intellectual-property rights to the wastebasket… they are simply holding back our ability to innovate and change at the pace the world demands,” Tony argued.
Existing FutureSmartTM initiatives have pushed boundaries through energy efficient methods of crushing rock, fleet automation and continuous mining, with one area of innovation in particular standing out: Big Data.
Its analytic capabilities provide fresh insight into our business and, under FutureSmartTM, those real time insights are captured so that we can significantly improve scheduling for equipment maintenance, tailor our products, enhance safety and be smarter about how we deploy our people.
During his presentation, Tony acknowledged the potential of this type of activity and the role FutureSmartTM should play.
“Mining is on the cusp of game-changing innovation that will move the industry forward in leaps and bounds. At Anglo American, we’re determined not only to be ready for this innovation, but to lead the way in creating it.”
Ultimately, it is continual improvement that remains at the heart of FutureSmartTM. There’s no doubt that the industry faces major challenges, but none of them are insurmountable as long as we push forward with innovative technologies, working together to be partners in the future.