Razor Labs at GRX25: A Conversation on Mining Innovation with Mark Warren

[00:00:00.00] – Andrew

Thank you, Mark, for joining in today. Mark is one of the Industry Legends, as we all know. During this GRX conference, I’d like to keep to know what challenges or pain that you’ve got in the last few days from the mining companies, mining operators, or from the partners in the industry.

[00:00:17.24] – Mark

Well, there have been a few. I’ve have been involved in Austmine for many years, and collaboration has been a theme over all that time. It’s been a growth in both the nuance and and how professional we as METS companies and tech companies and miners work together at collaborate. But I’d say this time for the first time, I’m using a new word where I’d actually say we’re seeing a convergence. We’re seeing things converge a bit more. The reason being that finally, new things like adoption of AI, adoption of automation, adoption of new ways of collaborating, and a maturity about how we collaborate is really starting to get a bit deep traction. To answer your question about what the miners feel, many of them working more together with the METS community to understand the problems and the roadblocks that are allowing them to adopt new technologies quicker. They recognize that they need to move faster. When I say that with convergence, because the other side of the convergence is demand. We see a huge demand gap in our ability to make supply, particularly things like copper. If we don’t move faster, we won’t get that objective.

[00:01:30.29] – Mark

But we’re unable to move past it, and we’re paralyzed to introduce these new technologies because of our processes. That’s what I’m seeing a lot of people are trying to get their head around how to adopt and get smarter solutions into their mines quicker.

[00:01:44.08] – Andrew

Good points, about what our industry is facing and Challenging. Thank you for summarizing it. Coming over one of the points you talked on AI and how you see the role of AI, and especially in the operations, and one of the other aspects of AI, for predictive maintenance. How you How did you see that and what’s the overall feel in the last few days? What’s your take on that?

[00:02:06.26] – Mark

It’s really good to be here at Razor Labs and talk to you guys about your solutions. My own personal experience in maintenance, and I’m seeing it still playing in in the mining industry and the mines that I’m evaluating, they are still undertaking maintenance practices that are not fit for purpose. Let alone AI, I would just rather have more data-driven, dynamic adjustment of maintenance strategy at the top level, the answer maintenance actual task at the bottom level, driven by understanding what’s going on. Now, people say they’re doing it, but often we’re fixing what ain’t broke and we’re letting what needs to keep working break, and we’re not adjusting and being dynamic enough about that. That’s a real problem. I’ve seen it years ago, and unfortunately, I don’t think it’s forgot as what it should by now.

[00:02:56.07] – Andrew

There are one final tip that you would like to see and encourage to their mining companies.

[00:03:03.01] – Mark

I recognize, and one of the things I heard in one of the breakout sessions this morning, which is a good one, which was a session on trust and how we had a panel session. It was quite well done by all the speakers. Everyone acknowledged the difficulty of when you’re running a mine and you’re just slightly focused, you got to get production at the door, and then a supplier comes along with a solution. Sometimes the solution is not quite fully baked, but even if it is, how do you get it into the operation in a seamless way that you don’t disrupt the operation? We haven’t really cracked that very well yet. I think there’s an opportunity for mines to think more about how they can stream in innovations at a faster rate. If they do that, I think we’ll crack something quite special and accelerate your ability to innovate.

[00:03:46.09] – Andrew

Fantastic. It’s a truly honor, Mark. Thank you. Cheers.

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