Rohitesh Dhawan, ICMM president and chief executive officer (CEO), delivered a keynote that opened the May 5 plenary panel discussion at the 2025 CIM CONNECT Convention and Expo, which began by sharing examples from mine sites around the world that illustrate ethical leadership in the use of technology.

One such example he spoke about is the Los Bronces mine, an open-pit copper and molybdenum mine and plant located about 65 kilometres northeast of Santiago, Chile, that was first established in 1867 and has been operated by Anglo American for the last 40 years. It is one of the largest copper mines in the world, with two per cent of the world’s known copper reserves. During the mine’s technological transformation—about one third of its fleet is autonomous and it opened an integrated remote operating centre (IROC) in Santiago in 2021—Anglo American committed to zero job losses from the shift.

“Automation can result in fewer workers,” Dhawan said. “Instead of seeing that as simply a cost of doing business, Anglo American thought of it differently. They committed not to make a single person involuntarily redundant as a result of the change to the integrated remote operating centre, and they stuck to that promise.”

He described how the company retrained people and reallocated them to new roles so that technology would not replace jobs. Furthermore, instead of expanding the centre to service its El Soldado mine, which is 125 kilometres north of Santiago, it built a new IROC close to the mine to create local jobs.

He concluded by stating that such stories, “show us that as a sector, we have every reason to be proud and confident of our ability to mine with principles and to lead with purpose.”

Following the keynote, a panel discussion dug into the challenges and opportunities of deploying new technologies in the mining industry.

Moderated by Don Duval, CEO of NORCAT, the panel included Saskia Duyvesteyn, chief advisor of research and development at Rio Tinto; Jeff More, president and CEO of MineSense Technologies; Kimberly Keating, board director of Pan American Silver; and Eric Desaulniers, founder, president and CEO of Nouveau Monde Graphite.

Duval kicked off the session by asking the panellists: does the mining industry have an innovation problem, or an adoption and deployment problem?

Duyvesteyn said that innovation is where people, technology and processes or systems come together: “I think we have a tendency to really focus on that technology piece—how to invent it, how to develop it—but it’s that piece where it comes together with people, with systems; how do we use the technology? How are people going to interact with it? How does it change? I think that’s really where we start to see interesting things happen. Because once we have people interact with technology, we realize that it opens up so many opportunities that we didn’t know [about].”

More said that, while many mining companies are already integrating cutting-edge technologies into their operations, the industry has a history of being on the conservative side when it comes to innovation, due to the large investment required to bring in completely new or disruptive technology. “The rate of adoption is still a bit challenging in terms of how fast things can move forward,” he said.

Keating suggested that companies think about failing fast to push their company to implement new technologies. “I don’t think we have a problem with innovation in this industry; like many, I think it’s the integration and adoption of what will take us from now until the future,” she said.

Desaulniers pointed out that it is challenging to be innovative with a greenfield project—like NMG’s flagship Matawinie mine, an open-pit graphite mine near the village of Saint-Michel-des-Saints, Quebec—as investors tend to be risk-averse.

“The word new, they don’t want to hear about it,” he said. “They want proven technology. You really need to pick your battles in terms of innovation when you develop a greenfield project. This is the reality we’re in—we want to innovate, but we first need to precisely understand in a commercial operation before changing [anything].”

The panellists also discussed the benefits and challenges that come with integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into mining operations.

Duyvesteyn stated that AI should be used to help humans make decisions, creating what she called decision intelligence—which received hearty applause from the audience.

“We often think about AI making decisions, but when humans are using AI to make decisions, [that] is where you really get that shift,” she said. “Here’s a real chance for us to pivot and think about, how do we actually use  [AI] going forward? Because that’s where the value comes from.”

Desaulniers agreed with Duyvesteyn, stating that, “I feel AI today is used when humans are sick of making the same decision. They want to automate a decision that they’re making so often that they get bored of doing it.”

Duyvesteyn added that while AI sounds exciting, it is important not to overlook investing into infrastructure and other critical aspects of a mine.

“It’s the shiny stuff, but we have to remember that [AI] is still built on that foundational data, the quality, the governance and the infrastructure, and that’s way less exciting,” she said. “We like to say we have to treat data as an asset, and therefore you need to invest in those systems, just as much as you’re going to invest into your pumps. The best AI does not make up for poor data quality and poor data decisions.”

The panellists also touched on how highlighting the fact that the industry, while it is an old one, is full of technological advancement and innovation could help to address mining’s labour gap.

Duyvesteyn said that Rio Tinto brings its technology into schools, from K-12, to show that mining is a high-technology industry. The company also communicates how the mining industry is attempting to address its role in one of the biggest challenges of our time: climate change.

“For the upcoming generation, they want to think about these big-world problems. And we try to tell them mining is part of the solution,” she said.

Keating recommended that companies think about what skills will be needed in the workforce not just now, but in the future. “What are the core skills that are going to be required to attract top talent in 2030?” she said. “They [will] look very different than what they did 15 years ago: Big data, AI, critical thinking.”

She added that while it is important to talk about the exciting things happening in the industry to attract younger talent, mining cannot lose sight of its existing workforce.

“Equally, I do think we have to be mindful of the fact that we also have a huge cohort within a lot of the companies that are from a different generation,” she said. “Trying to manage that as we introduce more technology, and making them part of the process, [is important] because we still need those people to be part of these mining operations.”

Desaulniers said that mining has “never been so sexy,” pointing to the fact that Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump are constantly in the news talking about the importance of critical minerals, and that now is the time to seize on this heightened interest.

He added that it is crucial to engage with Indigenous communities, which could be an even greater part of the workforce: “I think mining is closer to their heart. It’s closer to their community. We need to find a way to get all that untapped talent  into mining. And if they want to be in tech in mining, there’s room. If they want to be driving a truck and mining, there’s room. If they want to do anything in the plant, there’s all sorts of skill sets. It’s our job to make it sexy.”