How will the mining industry innovate through the technological revolution that we are currently going through? To answer this and other key questions Rob Interviews Michelle Ash the chief innovation officer for barrick Gold, and the Chair of the Global Mining Guidelines Group. Their conversation moves from how Michelle got into the mining industry to what skills people need to adapt to the rate of technological change within society. If you have thought about possibly working in the mining industry in the future, or want to understand how as an industry they are trying to work together to solve problems through the GMG this is the podcast for you.
 
Key Takeaways
How did you get into the mining industry? I’ve been in the mining industry for 25 years and really I fell into it by accident. I trained as a civil engineer, and then I got picked up as a blast engineer, and seeing your work literally moving mountains was something else. I love the mining industry and I’ve worked all over the world. I loved working in Australia, most recently I worked in Tanzania which I thoroughly enjoyed.
 
What’s the major differences between the big companies? I’ve worked for both larger and smaller companies. Often in the smaller companies you get a lot more flexibility, and breath in the roles that you take whereas in the bigger companies you are more specialized. With the smaller companies you have to make sure that you squeeze every bit of profit out of the mine because they are a lot smaller.
 
What would you say the new technological trends are within the mining industry? We talk a lot about industry 4.0 but what it boils down to is around connectivity being faster and better. With satellite comms, and 5g networks being cheaper it allows companies access to high quality computing and communication without the previous scale of costs. There are lots of new technologies that are able to track the health of our employees, and tracking more effectively underground.
 
What new skills do mining professionals need to learn? We are all going to have to learn a lot more about AI, and Blockchain. If you are younger, I would recommend getting some good coding skills if you want to enter the mining industry. There are some less obvious skills like focusing on humanistic design, especially around agile methods of production I think that universities and companies have to change to reflect these new skills.
 
Do you think that mining has an image problem? I think technologies will help make it more attractive but they are only enablers. Making sure that people need to get out and know about the mining industry. Some of the Hackathans that we have conducted were around wanting to really engage young people in the problems that we are trying to solve. Young people are the future workforce which means that you have to engage with them.
 
What should institutions do to attract people into the industry? We have seen a decline in people getting into certain fields like geology. You have to have a multi-level approach, around upgrading company practice and the curriculum. Governments have a great convening ability, getting these groups together to talk about important subjects. I think we have to get into science, mathematics and engineering in schools which are the base of the skills that we are looking for.
 
What social changes will impact the mining industry? There is greater demands on being less impactful to the environment. This might drive us to create different drilling methods. Those technologies have an impact on how people interact, communicate and learn new things.
 
What is GMG all about? GMG is an industry association, which is member driven. We have members all over the world from India, to the States and Latin America. We are looking at expanding in China. We also work with mining services industry. We work towards developing guidelines on topics such as automation, remote operations, and KPIs for example. We are currently looking at AI and Dam