The key trends in the mining industry today revolves around technology and automation evolution. What does sustainable mining mean for the future of the industry? Is technology and automation the key to achieving it? How are mining companies minimizing their environmental impact? Will new technologies lead to job displacement, or will they open up opportunities for workers? And ultimately, can we achieve a world free from fossil fuels without mining?
Watch the interview with Frik Els, Executive Editor of Mining.com to find the answers to these questions!
-
Frik Els -
Andrew Petruska -
Chris Rhoades
- Based on average size of currently operating mines, we can calculate that more than 300 new mines need to be built over the next decade to meet the demand for electric vehicles and energy storage to meet the world's climate goals, in particular 97 natural graphite mines, 74 lithium mines, 72 nickel mines and 62 cobalt mines.
In this series
EXECUTIVE EDITOR OF MINING.COM, CANADA
Frik Els is the executive editor of MINING.COM, the world’s premier source of news and opinion on mining and metals with a weekly readership of more than 200,000 industry professionals across the world.
Frik has focused his writing and public engagements on the green energy transition and the raw materials needed to meet climate goals and combat global warming. He created the EV Metal Index providing insights into the greatest disruption to the auto and extractive industries in a century.
PROFESSOR AT COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES, USA
Dr. Andrew Jacob Petruska is currently a tenured Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the Director of the Robotics Interdisciplinary Graduate Program at the Colorado School of Mines, Golden, that he joined in 2016.
Awarded an NSF IGERT Traineeship during his PHD to study noncontact magnetic manipulation, he developed the first real-time reconfigurable magnetic manipulation system. His current research focus has pivoted to perception, state estimation, and control in GPS denied environments for applications ranging from underground mining, search for rescue, and on- orbit manufacturing, to lunar construction, navigation and mining.
VICE-PRESIDENT FOR OTR, BKT USA.
With a family tradition in the OTR sector that goes back to 155 years ago, Chris Rhoades started his career by working on tire tracking programs.
He then joined BKT in 1999 as Senior Product Manager, Technical Solutions, and used his expertise to develop a new technology: SPOTech. It is a cutting- edge monitoring system that collects data on haul truck activities by means of GPS systems, GoPro cameras and accelerometers for improving productivity, efficiency, and operating conditions within mining sites or quarries.
With 24 years’ experience in BKT, he is now BKT Tires' US Vice-President for OTR. He's passionate about partnering with customers and dealers to leverage
solutions to reduce their total cost of ownership
