Several Australian mining companies have been involved in the formation of a new consortium launched Feb. 17 in Perth that could see the industry's remote and robotic technologies used in exploring Mars and mining water from the moon.
Western Australia's government launched Australian Remote Operations for Space and Earth, or AROSE, which will be based in Perth, to ensure the state has a leading role in the Australian Space Agency's partnership, launched in September 2019, with NASA's Moon to Mars exploration initiative.
Mining companies comprised about 20% of the 42 resources, defense, science and government organizations that participated in workshops around Australia throughout 2019 during AROSE's planning period.
AROSE, whose founding partners include Western Australian oil and gas major Woodside Petroleum Ltd., could spark an additional A$196 million gross state product on an annual basis and support 1,540 new jobs within the next five years, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers economic modeling.
A 2019 report from AlphaBeta Advisors also suggested that adopting digital and automation technologies in the mining, oil and gas sectors has the potential to add A$74 billion to Australia's economy and create 80,000 new jobs by 2030.
AROSE Chair Russell Potapinski told S&P Global Market Intelligence that as an automation and digital technology leader, the mining sector will play a key role in the new entity, both in submitting problems on which the multisector members can work and in contributing technology solutions that can be deployed elsewhere, such as the aerospace, agriculture and defense sectors.
Western Australian Science, Innovation and ICT Minister Dave Kelly said in a Feb. 17 statement that the state's resource sector's autonomous and remote operations expertise will help develop technology and services for future space exploration, such as mining for water on the moon.
Kelly said AROSE would help Western Australia partake in the "global space economy," which was valued at US$350 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow to US$1.1 trillion by 2040.
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| Imvelo founder Alan Bye |
BHP Group's former technology vice president, Alan Bye, was involved in the idea behind AROSE's genesis — that industry needs more talent to be able to work on technology platforms so jobs can be created locally rather than importing or outsourcing them to international companies.
Bye, who founded Perth-based technology company Imvelo Pty. Ltd. six months ago with BHP's former autonomous operations program director, Sharna Glover, said in an interview that sensor, automation, control system and artificial intelligence/machine learning are common themes running through the resources sector's future technology needs.
Quantum TX launch
Bye is also involved with Quantum Technology Exchange, or Quantum TX, another initiative launched in Perth on Feb. 13 that will see 10 Australian small to medium enterprises visit facilities such as the European Space Agency's deep-space tracking station in remote Western Australia, iron ore producer Roy Hill Holdings Pty. Ltd.'s mining remote systems automation center, and Woodside's robotics labs.
The small to medium enterprises, which all have products that can solve common supply chain challenges across multiple industries, including the international space sector, will also engage experts from groups including BHP, American multinational technology conglomerate Cisco Systems Inc. and METS Ignited Australia Ltd.
Adrian Beer, CEO of METS Ignited, which promotes mining equipment, technology and services activity in Australia, said that while remote operations miners built initially targeted productivity, supply chain optimization and integration of many disparate technology systems, the autonomy that came from remote operations was "secondary."
That autonomy then enabled various business problems to be solved, which then reaped supply chain benefits, yet the mining sector severely lacks the skills to apply new technologies, and initiatives such as AROSE and Quantum TX will help address those skills shortages.
Beer sees the open and collaborative nature of AROSE and Quantum TX's models to benefit end users as multiple technology vendors in the one space means much faster technology adoption and advancement, as opposed to a solution that is vendor- or end user-specific.
Speaking from his experience within a major miner, Bye said there is a "real appetite" among such companies for engaging with smaller technology companies, but procurement systems are more geared toward large-scale contractual work.
This is why AROSE and Quantum TX will seek to nurture technology startups to become bigger and more resilient, so they can serve the mining industry, and grow a pool of talent for it to access, as well as creating diversity, which is key given majors like BHP prefer market competition among suppliers, according to Bye.