The mining business’s angst about group resistance, sustainability and the necessity for automation to avoid wasting employees’ lives are discussions the chemical compounds sector was having many years in the past.
Sanjeev Gandhi, CEO of chemical compounds and explosives large Orica, says synthetic intelligence (AI) could also be new however the chemical compounds business is much superior.
“They got pressure first because they were known as big pollutants, bad actors,” he mentioned.
“Big accidents, people dying and the regulators came down hard.”
He mentioned innovation in chemistry and automation helped rebuild the status of his business.
“The discussions we have today on ESG (environmental, social and governance issues) and AI, in the chemicals industry we had that 20 years back,” he mentioned.
The chemical engineer took to the primary stage on the latest World Mining Congress, held in Australia for the primary time, as international locations grapple with the necessity to mine extra however depart a smaller footprint.
The influence on the setting, water high quality and the well being of native communities and mine workers are the primary perceived negatives of mining, opinion polls present.
Asked about negativity in direction of mining, Mr Gandhi mentioned Rio Tinto chair Dominic Barton, BHP chair Ken MacKenzie and Newcrest CEO Sherry Duhe give him hope.
“Because these are not miners, they’re international executives,” he mentioned.
“I have nothing against miners but they bring this global perspective to Australian-based companies and we need more of these,” he mentioned.
“You need that outside perspective, you need people to come in and say ‘that way doesn’t seem quite correct’. That’s what you’ve been seeing.”
But simply because Australia has the ore, it doesn’t imply the nation could be a producer – it is a completely totally different ability set, he warns.
The value-added step for the nation ought to be into processing and refining, not battery manufacturing, as a result of there’s know-how, he mentioned as an skilled government and chemical engineer.
“How do you get from ore to stable lithium at high quality – that’s chemistry,” he mentioned.
“And don’t forget, from lithium hydroxide to a battery pack is another $10 billion to get it into a car.”
Presently, the largest commodity publicity Orica has in its portfolio is to copper.
“It’s not classified as a critical mineral but it is critical,” he mentioned.
“Without copper you can’t transmit anything – whether you need solar or wind or batteries – you need copper.”
Nickel, cobalt and lithium are additionally rising up the ranks, notably West Australian exhausting rock lithium as a result of mines have to blast, he mentioned.
Mining corporations will even have to go deeper underground in harder areas to seek out new sources of in-demand crucial minerals, sparking demand for Orica’s digital instruments.
New geotechnical instruments and cloud computing imply a brand new useful resource could be discovered and its high quality recognized – with out drilling or having to ship samples to a laboratory, he mentioned.
BHP has warned governments to not get too possessive of the assets their international locations personal within the race for clear vitality minerals.
Excluding competitors is a harmful sport to play, Mr Gandhi mentioned.
He mentioned rising producers ought to be supported with subsidies.
“Australia needs to find the next driver of our prosperity and growth, and that is going to be critical minerals.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
