Innovators in the mining and resources industry must tell their stories better, be more business-minded and truly understand their customers’ needs if they are to attract the investment required to bring their technology to market, according to a panel of experts at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC).

In addition, investors themselves – whether venture capitalists or operators – need to be prepared for failures and take a more collaborative approach towards sharing intellectual property (IP) to create an environment that encourages innovation.

The keynote panel discussion on Day 3 of IMARC 2023, titled, 'Connecting Technology and Investment: How this will Drive Innovation', heard from investors and product developers on the challenges they see facing the mining equipment, technology and services (METS) sector.

RCF Jolimont Mining Innovation director Charles Gillies said Australia’s METS sector was a world leader, yet it was struggling to tell its story to both its customers and to the wider community. Mr Gillies went on to explain that Australia ranked amongst the best in the world when it came to innovation in engineering but lamented the fact that the broader public was largely unaware of the industry’s achievements and global leadership.

“We often talk about Australia’s automotive manufacturing heritage, but the METS sector is now a major employer and exporter. Yet, it’s not telling its story very well,” he said.

“This lack of storytelling results in poorer outcomes for operators as great innovations and valuable ideas end up not being implemented and ultimately forgotten.”

RFC Ambrian chairperson Rob Adamson agreed, and reflected on why the METS sector had not embraced storytelling in the same way as other sectors had.

“Scientists don’t want to be entrepreneurs and miners don’t want research programmes on their sites, so therefore only 10% of really good science makes it into industry,” he said.

Psychological factors are also holding a lot of innovation back. The panel reflected on issues where long-term employees of mining companies rejected new technology that challenged or refuted their traditional ways of operating or highlighted either inefficient or less-accurate models or systems. The way forward, they said, was for the METS sector to improve their “soft” or interpersonal skills to breakdown these barriers and encourage collaboration, which, in turn, would lead to greater investment.

“If you fail because there is something fundamentally wrong with your technology, that's okay. If it fails because of something you can influence or change, that’s deeply disappointing. Too often people are unwilling to accept new innovation because it goes against their own routine and that’s really hard to change,” said Adamson.

The panel also discussed the importance of getting the underlying business operations right to secure investment.

Gillies said, “The challenge we see with young firms is that coming up with a really good, innovative idea is incredibly hard. Creating a good business is equally as hard. We see companies focus on the former at the expense of getting the business right, and that makes it hard to invest in. Nothing ever goes smoothly, nothing ever goes to plan, so having an experienced management team is key to riding those challenges.”

The panelists agreed that the inclination of operators to lock everything up under Confidentiality Agreements was stifling innovations. Innovators need to understand the size of a potential market, where the pain points of an operator are, and how they can be solved in a practical manner.  

“We often see the operators putting their foot on IP by restricting access to everything. It is unreasonable to assume that innovators are willing to invest the time and effort into projects without knowing the size of the problem or the level of competition within the sector," said Gillies.

To ensure innovation continues to address the challenges facing the industry, the panelists agreed that collaboration and the sharing of knowledge is the most efficient action that needs to be taken.