Why ReThink?
Mining innovation ensures the future
Mining is an essential and evolving industry.
Why should we rethink mining?
On This Page
The challenges of operating productively and profitably go hand-in-hand with the need to reduce waste, and to maintain our commitment to environmental responsibility.
At the same time, we also have a duty to a public who demand visibility and accountability.
The mining industry’s greatest challenges are how to reduce energy consumption, recover waste energy, decrease the environmental footprint of a mine, develop and adopt new technology, and create new clean jobs.
This needs to be achieved all while facing volatile commodity markets, increasing costs and significant competition from other jurisdictions.
Building the ReThink Mining ecosystem
Innovation happens at the speed of trust. Our evolving ecosystem delivers on solving the challenges the mining industry is facing today.
Not every problem requires the same type of solution. In creating our innovation ecosystem, we carefully evaluate each challenge to determine the right stream of process required. These initiatives are grouped into three categories:
Innovation Delivery
Launching and executing research and development projects aimed at addressing the following industry priorities:
- Reducing energy consumption.
- Recovering waste energy.
- Decreasing environmental footprint.
- Developing and adopting new technologies and creating clean jobs.
Industry Collaboration
We are providing a forum via which industry and thought leaders can share their challenges, experiences and insights with a view to collaborating on technology projects.
Knowledge Sharing
By aligning and engaging with groups and organizations outside our immediate field, we are able to share unique insights, innovations and experience with our members.
How we are rethinking mining
Our challenge
Transform mining to a zero-waste industry.
CMIC technology programs are directly related to clean technology and climate change, and designed to enable the mining sector to significantly reduce energy costs, improve productivity and significantly reduce GHG emissions.
Our goal
Develop the technologies required to promote more efficient and sustainable operations to achieve zero waste in the industry within 10–20 years.
By working collaboratively, our innovation delivery, industry collaboration, and knowledge exchange projects accelerate the pace of innovation and move us towards solutions that we can commercialize across the sector.
Our strategy
Incorporate multiple, agile project delivery models that leverage knowledge, facilities and investments.
By working together as an industry, we are tackling the challenges faced in exploration, continuous underground mining, processing, energy efficiency and environmental management.
Our business model
ReThink Mining reframes every aspect of mining operations in order to build a more profitable, productive and sustainable industry.
This will require open collaboration between industry members, a solid strategy moving forward, and the development of new processes, innovations and technologies. The sections below outline how that works.
Learn more about the original business case for Towards Zero Waste Mining.
Business Ecosystem
This business ecosystem comprises a network of organizations – including suppliers, distributors, customers, competitors, and government agencies – involved in the delivery of a specific product or service through competition.
CMIC is harnessing innovation from these organizations to solve the complex challenges our industry faces. Organizations from Canada, Australia, United States, Europe, and South Africa are actively involved with CMIC to help drive transformation.
Roadmaps
Roadmaps provide the strategic plan to meet Towards Zero Waste Mining (TZWM) objectives by identifying industry-level challenges, and gaps in technology or fundamental knowledge.
They also assist to align various stakeholders around these common challenges, ultimately defining projects that directly address TZWM. CMIC facilitated the creation of industry-level roadmaps in exploration, underground and surface mining, mineral processing and the environment.
Platforms
CMIC’s projects focus on developing and/or demonstrating platform processes that will enable significant reductions in energy and water use while reducing the amount of waste material produced.
Open Innovation
Every CMIC led project engages mining industry partners – and, in some cases, partners outside the mining industry – in a collaborative and open approach to innovation. Consortia allow for shared risk, intellectual property and results.
