Gold Fields CEO Nick Holland, above, believes it is time for gold mining operations to transform fundamentally into mines of the future. Speaking at the 120-year celebration of the School of Mining Engineering of the University of the Witwatersrand last month, Holland said the gold mines of the future had to be set up, structured and managed differently. Optimising existing technologies and introducing new ones, he said, would provide the solutions to current industry challenges and open the next 120 years of mining to enhanced digital mining, advanced analytics and new software technologies. There would also be a conversion of conventional mining practices to mechanisation and automation, accompanied by improved economics of low-grade orebodies and greater energy and water efficiencies.