Western Australia can be the Silicon Valley of resources technology

I was invited to speak at the Resources Technology Showcase this week. It allowed me to reflect on how WA can be at the cutting edge of technology as the world decarbonises, and how we must embrace ambition and take risks. Here's an excerpt of my speech.

Last week, Rio Tinto celebrated its 150th anniversary.?As we reflect on those 150 years, I am reminded that technology and innovation were critical in the birth of one part of what today is Rio Tinto.?

Back in 1883 a company was formed to mine an orebody at Broken Hill in New South Wales that was rich in silver, lead and zinc.?That company became the Broken Hill Mining Company, and went on to become what is now known as BHP.

A portion of its orebody was hard to process and BHP stockpiled it as waste.?An American mining engineer and entrepreneur called Herbert Hoover set up a new venture to develop an innovative processing technology to treat the waste.

The new venture purchased the waste from BHP, treated it to liberate its rich minerals and developed a business. It took multiple companies, multiple pieces of research, and many people working together to crack the code.

That business went on to become Consolidated Zinc Corporation - better known today as Rio Tinto.

Incidentally, Herbert Hoover took his newfound wealth, went back to the US, and went on to become the 31st President.

It’s incredible to think that one great orebody was the birth of two of the world’s largest mining companies, plus one US president.

None of it would have happened without the mindsets that drove innovation, that drove a leap in technology to liberate minerals from waste.

What really interests me is the system that sits behind and nurtures innovation.?

If Rio Tinto and Western Australia want to remain global leaders in resource technology and keep pushing the boundaries, we need to encourage a mindset that embraces both bold ambitions and the risks inherent in trying new things.

There are many global changes underway that provide immense opportunities for the Western Australian resource sector - decarbonisation, changes in globalisation and new supply chains, to name just a few.

Mining is one of the oldest industries on earth, and advances throughout history have been underpinned by improvements in the way we extract and use different resources.

At Rio Tinto we have a proud history in R&D and innovation.

That approach has already delivered innovations such as our remote operations centre, autonomous haul trucks, autonomous drills and our AutoHaul driverless trains.

Like any breakthrough technology, at the time these felt a bit like magic. Then over time it’s become common across the industry, and we almost take it for granted until the next wonder comes along.

For Rio Tinto, these innovations created a stronger business and developed local expertise in areas like remote sensing, automation, data analysis and robotics, plus all the advanced trades needed to build and operate those systems.

Technology and a mindset of continuous improvement have allowed the industry to push the envelope of what is possible.?

We have car dumpers and other bits of kit in the Pilbara operating at an order of magnitude more efficient than when first installed.?Trucks in the Pilbara are multiple times more efficient than when we began.

As an industry we now face structural changes that we cannot tackle alone.?These offer enormous opportunities for our business and our community

One of these is the decarbonisation of the world’s economies.

Since the industrial revolution, economic development has been driven by monetising energy from fossil fuels.?

We know today that this is not sustainable and we need to find better ways to transition the world’s economies to low-carbon energy sources.

Largely, the technology to do this does not exist today.?

Here in WA, we have an opportunity to play a key role in finding a pathway to transition.?

In 2021 at Rio Tinto we made the decision to double our annual R&D spend around the globe to US$400M.?Our steel decarbonisation team now has 49 projects, working across 30 partners, ensuring we have optionality as the technology and the market evolve.?

In my view, WA can be the Silicon Valley of resources technology – the cutting edge that others look to for inspiration, and the place where all the best and brightest want to work.

The key to making that happen is not the technology itself, but the people who create it, the policy settings that foster it, and the culture that attracts and nurtures those people.

Famous centres of innovation like Silicon Valley are places that have reached that critical mass of talent and ideas that have become self-sustaining.

I’m convinced we can do that here in Western Australia.

We have a strong foundation to build on.?The quality of life is hard to beat, and the size of our resources industry has already created a concentration of expertise and investment capital that has us well positioned.

We need to keep nurturing an ecosystem for talented people and provide regulatory certainty for business to invest. We need to attract people.?

I’m excited by the technology I’ve seen at this showcase. I’m excited by the steps I see our industry taking. And I’m blown away by the innovations that are emerging as we work to decarbonise.

What I’m most excited about though is what sits behind it.?The system that is building, and the impact that this will have on our WA community.