Project overview
In 2017 and 2018, CMIC and CanmetMINING partnered on a multi-year initiative to transform Canada’s mining innovation ecosystem. The partnership focused on strengthening, expanding, and defragmenting the ecosystem while aligning innovators towards the goal of a zero-waste industry.
In turn, this collaboration supported CMIC’s role as the industry champion for mining innovation and as the national hub for mining innovation. The project also facilitated the development of collaborative innovation projects that are industry-relevant and aligned with CMIC’s industry-defined technology roadmaps as well as the Government of Canada’s clean technology agenda.
There are some undeniable truths about the future of mining that are driving the industry to transform itself. To achieve these goals mining must address some fundamental Grand Challenges and put Key Enablers in place.
Goals – mining must transform significantly
- Zero waste – Move towards zero waste with a bold reduction in energy use, water use and environmental footprint. CMIC’s vision is 50% reduction by 2027.
- Intensity, productivity and efficiency – Improve mining intensity, labour productivity, and cost-efficiency.
- Health and safety – Improve the safety and health of everyone in the mine.
- Sustainability – Deliver sustainable long-term benefits to our communities, locally and globally through multi-stakeholder partnerships.
Global mining trends
Grand challenges – what mining must figure out
Enablers mining must drive towards
|
AUTONOMOUS MINING
|
FLEXIBLE MINE DESIGN
|
OPEN COLLABORATION
|
|
INTEGRATED DIGITAL PLATFORM
|
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
|
Integrated innovation roadmap
Enablers → Challenges → Projects Portfolio → Zero Waste Mining
EnablersSoftware Defined Mine
Flexible Mine Design
Circular Economy
Open Collaboration
Autonomous Mining
|
ChallengesProduce Minerals on Tap
Know Everything About the Mine
Eliminate Environmental Footprint
|
Additional resources
Webinars
Workshops
CMIC held a total of 7 workshops across Canada focussed on the areas of exploration, surface mining and processing as part of our mandate to strengthen, expand, and defragment the ecosystem, while aligning innovators towards the goal of a zero-waste industry. A summary of each of these workshops is below.
| Topic | Location | Attendees | Outputs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geo-Mine-Met Integration | Toronto, Canada on November 14, 2017 | 15 attendees |
|
| Exploration | Vancouver, Canada on January 21, 2018 | 22 attendees | |
| Surface Mining | Calgary, Canada on February 27-28, 2018 | 26 attendees (base & precious metal, oil & gas and coal miners, suppliers, academia) | |
| Mineral Processing | Vancouver, Canada on March 22-23, 2018 | 30 attendees | |
| Mining, Surface and Underground | Vancouver, Canada on May 9, 2019 (hosted by GMG) | 35 |
|
| Surface Mining | Edmonton, Canada on January 31, 2019 | 65 attendees |
|
Project definition workshop
A two-day workshop supported by CanmetMINING was held December 12-13, 2018 in Toronto to align industry-defined requirements and the Grand Challenges with the “Crush-it” Mining Challenge organized by the Impact Canada Initiative and Natural Resources Canada.
Participants ideated and prioritized potential CMIC lead or supported projects, building out six initial project plans that included timelines, commercial pathways and project leads. Two of these were identified as high-priority and have subsequently been launched. One page summaries of these projects defined by participants are below.
