Digging up shiny new prospects for old gold
Back in the day, big businesses and small businesses rarely interacted. What could a small business have or know that could possibly interest multinational know-it-alls?
Money, distribution and influence were the assets that mattered then. But today the key currency is innovation. Smaller existing companies know they must either become masters of technology and shifting markets, or they’ll become a statistic. So now we see more corporations grasping for innovation expertise by partnering with startups, by sponsoring incubators, and even holding hackathons. They need innovation partners with one foot in the future.
Case in point: # DisruptMining, an innovation competition designed to bring solutions to the hard-pressed mining industry. The desire for change comes from Vancouver- based Goldcorp, the world’s fourth- largest gold producer. But the catalyst is Integra Gold, a junior explorer based in Vancouver. Although still at least a year from production on its properties at Val d’Or, Que., Integra is hungry to maximize its opportunities by making mining more efficient — and a more attractive investment.
“Mining is falling behind in innovation,” says Stephen de Jong, Integra’s 33-year-old CEO. He blames that innovation gap on the industry’s cyclical nature. “In the good years, it’s all go-go-go, bigger is better. When things turn down, there’s no money for new things. So there’s never an opportunity to innovate.”
Integra has weathered the current downturn through tireless fundraising and patient development at its Triangle deposit, 2.5 km east of two long- serving but currently shuttered gold mines. Given the site’s accessibility, and the processing capability of the old mill and mines that Integra recently bought for just $ 7 million, de Jong says Integra should enjoy the world’s lowest productions costs. Even so, he believes starting new mines shouldn’t be so hard — which is why it is championing #DisruptMining and pulling together prizes worth up to $2 million.
The competition, which closes Jan. 25, is looking for ideas to improve all aspects of mining: new processes, half- baked ideas and final products. Fifteen finalists will showcase their technologies at a half-day #DisruptMining Expo in Toronto on March 5, while the top five will pitch their solutions, Dragons’ Den style, to a panel of industry experts (including Goldcorp founder Rob McEwen) at a gala dinner for 450 of the world’s top mining executives. It coincides with the annual Prospectors’ and Developers’ conference in Toronto.
The goal isn’t so much to pick winners as to inspire ongoing innovation and col- laboration. According to de Jong, Goldcorp has contributed about $1 million in prize money, as working capital to develop proof of concept. On top of that, Integra is putting together a private-investment group that could invest as much as $ 1 million in the winning innovators.
Integra has also attracted top technology firms such as IBM, Microsoft and Accenture to its expo to promote the latest digital tools for tomorrow’s “connected mines.” De Jong sees the project as win-win-win: Innovators get to meet decision- makers, mining executives talk to tech vendors and Integra gets credit for bringing them all together.
But none of t his was planned. Integra only jumped into the innovation business in 2014, after acquiring the two failed mines in Val d’Or. Along with the mines and mill equipment came years of drilling results. But reviewing the six terabytes of data to find the best new drill sites would take more money and time than Integra could spare.
So l ast year, de Jong opened up the data to analysts around the world. He was following the lead of Rob McEwen, who issued his famous crowdsourcing challenge in 2000. Against the advice of his own staff, McEwen had released decades’ worth of drilling data at Goldcorp’s Red Lake, offering $575,000 to those who used the data to locate the best drill sites. That gamble yielded 1,000 submissions and helped Goldcorp harvest $ 6 billion worth of gold.
Inspired by $ 1 million in prize money, Integra’s 2016 Gold Rush Challenge attracted more than 100 submissions from 85 countries. The company is still analyzing results from the first drill site, so the potential payback is still unknown. But de Jong says the 2016 challenge was so successful he immediately rebooked the venue for this year. With Goldcorp, Integra created the Disrupt format, which de Jong now hopes will become an annual event.
Submissions received so far include techniques for accelerating data digitization, automated processes to improve safety, and systems that use machine learning to produce better decisions. There are even proposals for online investment platforms to develop better- informed investors.
McEwen, now running Toronto- based McEwen Mining, confirms the sector needs a jolt. “It’s a traditional industry with a great deal of inertia,” he says. All the pressure is on mining executives to complete projects on time and budget, so “a bad experiment can truncate your career.” He applauds Integra’s efforts. “When you’re a little company and have aspirations to be a bigger company, copying what the bigger companies are doing will never get you ahead of them. Without innovation, you’re always going to be behind.”
If you have a solution for the mining industry, de Jong urges you to submit your ideas to DisruptMining.com. “Come out and meet your market,” he says. “No idea is too small.” Even if your idea isn’t fully formed, he says, your project may complement other submissions. True disruption, de Jong says, occurs at the intersection of different technologies – and he’s determined to make collisions happen.