We will be completing the shorlist of nominated inductees in August to send out to the global panel of judges who will make their decisions by the end of September. If you want to nominate a development team or single person we need 500 words or more on the person(s), the innovation and what it has achieved. Please include pictures and diagrams. There are 15 categories – don’t forget the new one – METALLURGY. The others are:
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND STEWARDSHIP, EXPLORATION, UNDERGROUND DEVELOPMENT, UNDERGROUND LOAD & HAUL, UNDERGROUND PRODUCTION, UNDERGROUND SUPPORT, SURFACE PRODUCTION, SURFACE LOAD & HAUL, BULK HANDLING, SAFETY, MINING SOFTWARE, COMMINUTION, CONCENTRATION and OUTSTANDING INNOVATOR.
We are pleased to welcome Stantec as this year’s overall sponsor. Stantec personnel are among the judges and will be helping co-host the induction event at the Brown Palace Hotel, Denver, on February 16, 2015. The event is a fully-supported part of the SME Annual Meeting week – an important networking week in the mining technical arena.
Sponsorships are available for individual categories.
As always the industry’s future technology needs are under the spotlight. Exxaro’s Ernst Venter, Executive Head: Growth, Technology, Projects, Services and Ferrous recently made a presentation on South African Innovation Network: Innovate to remain relevant in the resources industry. In it he quotes Jürgen Beier, Deloitte Mining Leader, Canada: “Tweaking existing processes cannot deliver the massive shifts mining companies need in today’s capital-constrained environment. To build true competitive advantage, companies must look beyond incremental performance improvement to determine how they can revise their systems to embrace the broad theme of innovation.”
He also quotes Anglo American CEO, Mark Cutifani: “We, as an industry, are woefully underspending on innovation and business improvement programs given the state of extraction challenges. On a revenue to revenue basis, the mining industry spends 80% less on technology and innovation compared to the petroleum sector.”
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