Miners' space-race collaboration to boost talent pool, supplier diversity

by Anthony Barich

Western Australian Science, Innovation and ICT Minister Dave Kelly said in a Feb. 17 statement that the state's resource sector's autonomous and remote operations expertise will help develop technology and services for future space exploration, such as mining for water on the moon.

Kelly said AROSE would help Western Australia partake in the "global space economy," which was valued at US$350 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow to US$1.1 trillion by 2040.

BHP Group's former technology vice president, Alan Bye, was involved in the idea behind AROSE's genesis — that industry needs more talent to be able to work on technology platforms so jobs can be created locally rather than importing or outsourcing them to international companies.

Bye, who founded Perth-based technology company Imvelo Pty. Ltd. six months ago with BHP's former autonomous operations program director, Sharna Glover, said in an interview that sensor, automation, control system and artificial intelligence/machine learning are common themes running through the resources sector's future technology needs.

Quantum TX launch

Bye is also involved with Quantum Technology Exchange, or Quantum TX, another initiative launched in Perth on Feb. 13 that will see 10 Australian small to medium enterprises visit facilities such as the European Space Agency's deep-space tracking station in remote Western Australia, iron ore producer Roy Hill Holdings Pty. Ltd.'s mining remote systems automation center, and Woodside's robotics labs.

Imvelo founder Alan Bye

The small to medium enterprises, which all have products that can solve common supply chain challenges across multiple industries, including the international space sector, will also engage experts from groups including BHP, American multinational technology conglomerate Cisco Systems Inc. and METS Ignited Australia Ltd.

Adrian Beer, CEO of METS Ignited, which promotes mining equipment, technology and services activity in Australia, said that while remote operations miners built initially targeted productivity, supply chain optimization and integration of many disparate technology systems, the autonomy that came from remote operations was "secondary."

That autonomy then enabled various business problems to be solved, which then reaped supply chain benefits, yet the mining sector severely lacks the skills to apply new technologies, and initiatives such as AROSE and Quantum TX will help address those skills shortages.

Beer sees the open and collaborative nature of AROSE and Quantum TX's models to benefit end users as multiple technology vendors in the one space means much faster technology adoption and advancement, as opposed to a solution that is vendor- or end user-specific.

Speaking from his experience within a major miner, Bye said there is a "real appetite" among such companies for engaging with smaller technology companies, but procurement systems are more geared toward large-scale contractual work.

This is why AROSE and Quantum TX will seek to nurture technology startups to become bigger and more resilient, so they can serve the mining industry, and grow a pool of talent for it to access, as well as creating diversity, which is key given majors like BHP prefer market competition among suppliers, according to Bye.

Continue to read SPG Global Intelligance full article