Before the era of energy gluttonous mineral processing becomes a relic of the past, we will need to establish the processes and technologies that will replace it. The Crush It! Challenge is designed to spark that change. Photo: Shutterstock

Mineral processing to liberate valuable minerals accounts for roughly six per cent of the world’s electricity consumption, and half of that is devoted to comminution. A significant portion of that crushing and grinding happens in Canada. So it makes sense that Impact Canada, the federally funded agency devoted to solving “Canada’s biggest challenges” chose to launch a national competition calling on innovators across the country to come up with a solution to reduce the energy it takes to perform this task.