Jeff More on Advanced Sensing Technology to Solve Critical Metal Shortages

The Essential Role of Mining

• 💡 Mining is an absolutely essential industry, historically naming ages like the Bronze Age (90% copper) and the Stone Age.
• ⚡ Copper, known as the "industrial metal," is critical for modern life, enabling everything from lights and smartphones to electric vehicles, wind turbines, and solar power.

The Growing Demand and Supply Gap

• 📈 Critical technologies like EVs and renewable energy sources use significantly more copper than traditional ones, leading to dramatically growing demand.
• ⚠️ By 2050, a projected supply shortage of 19 million tons of copper is expected, nearly equal to current global production.
• ⏳ Building 50 new mines by 2030 to meet a 4-million-ton shortage is impossible, as mine development takes about 15 years.

Traditional Mining Wastefulness

• 🗑️ Traditional mining is very wasteful, with over half of the material dug up ending up in waste dumps.
• 🔍 Valuable copper is often thrown away in error due to a lack of data and the inability to see inside the rock during extraction.

ShovelSense: A Technological Solution

• 🚀 ShovelSense is an advanced sensing technology that turns mining shovels into smart measurement devices.
• 🧠 By using delicate equipment that "sees" inside the rock and combining it with AI, miners can make better decisions about whether to process ore or send it to the waste dump.
• 🛠️ Despite initial engineering challenges (hardware lasting 8 minutes instead of 8 years due to extreme G-forces), the technology has been refined and is now robust.

Impact and Future of Mining

• 📈 Applying ShovelSense increases copper production at operating mines by 5-30%, using less electricity and water.
• 🌍 This technology is applicable to other critical metals like nickel, iron, zinc, and cobalt, all vital for the clean energy transition.
• 🚀 MineSense has already increased copper production equivalent to one new mine in two years and aims to fill half the projected 2030 supply shortage by producing two million tons of extra copper.