The practice of mining and its values has shifted as the world demands more responsible and thoughtful resource extraction and management.
But to make this transition, mining operations will require multidisciplinary expertise, and they can find this at the new EY Americas Mining and Metals Centre of Excellence, says Theo Yameogo, EY Canada, Mining and Metals leader.
“The way we see it, there are two sides to how the mining sector is going to do business, now and in the future,” explains Mr. Yameogo. “There’s what they need to do in-house to fix their business, and then there’s what they need to do externally to boost and repair their brand to capture respect from the outside world.”
Launched last year, the Centre of Excellence will usher global mining businesses into a future that includes innovation, digitization and decarbonization through its collaboration with experts throughout the mining, technology and environmental sectors.
At its crux, the Centre of Excellence is about helping clients solve some of the most difficult problems in the industry by focusing on four key areas: technical expertise; digital transformation; operations management; and decarbonization and ESG (environmental, social, and governance).
For example, tailing ponds have been something the mining sector has long tried to tackle, “but what if we were able to figure out the best way to monitor tailings with robotic drones, having state-of-the-art alert systems in place? Then those systems could be adopted by industry as a whole,” adds Mr. Yameogo.
Indeed, drones are becoming an industry standard as they offer the ability to access near-impossible-to-reach underground data. So it only makes sense that Exyn Technologies, a leader in AI-powered drones and robotics, operates with the Centre of Excellence. Here, clients can see the ExynAero drone’s full range of features, says Raffi Jabrayan, vice-president of corporate development for Exyn.
“The ExynAero is fully autonomous, allowing for mapping of any environment – including GPS- and communications - denied, human-inaccessible, industrial environments without a pilot,” he explains. “It captures beyond-line-of-sight, efficient and accurate data without risking operator safety. By being in the Centre of Excellence, these technologies can be effectively introduced to the global mining community.”