Mining innovation must redeploy tech like Lego

Colin McClelland | October 26, 2023 | 7:26 am Careers Top Companies 

Moderator Courtney Adler, Risk Leader with EY, left, Martino De Ciccio, Deputy CFO of Endeavour Mining; Ana Cabral, co-chair and CEO of Sigma Lithium Resources, and Don Lindsay, former CEO of Teck Resources speak on the panel. Credit: The Norhern MIner

The industry needs to apply existing technology in new ways like using the blocks of a Lego kit to build several solutions, panellists at The Northern Miner‘s Canadian Mining Symposium said this month in London.

Sigma Lithium Resources (TSXV: SGML; NASDAQ: SGML) produced spodumene concentrate without any carbon emissions or tailings ponds and recycled all its water, CEO Ana Cabral said on Oct. 12 during the EY-sponsored panel “The Future Of Mining – Unlocking Opportunities for the Next Generation.”

“We like to use the example of a room full of Legos…Nobody had bothered to assemble those Legos in a different way,” Cabral said. “It cost almost nothing to do those innovations.”

Don Lindsay, former CEO of Teck Resources (TSX: TECK.A/TECK.B; NYSE: TECK) suggested internal awards and funding to generate new approaches. The future is about transparency and education, said Martino De Ciccio, Deputy CFO of Endeavour Mining (TSX: EDV; LSE: EDV).