Red metal insights from South Australia.
The 2021 Copper to the World conference was a platform to celebrate the many successes of South Australia’s vibrant copper sector and join with global participants to learn new ways to explore, innovate and collaborate to drive more value from copper.
South Australia’s copper sector produced a record $3.3 billion in gross sales in 2020–21, $1 billion above the long-term annual sales average.
Hosted by the Department for Energy and Mining, the conference drew 232 delegates in person to the Adelaide Convention Centre and 59 online.
Minister for Energy and Mining, the Hon Dan van Holst Pellekaan MP, announced the South Australian Government will co-invest $2 million in a $7.3 million trial of the continuous mining machine under development by Komatsu at Hillgrove’s Kanmantoo copper mine. The trial has the potential to transform and liberate significant value for copper mining in South Australia with the low-carbon autonomous machine making underground hard-rock mining safer, faster and more cost-effective. It also offers the opportunity to access and extract more quickly, high-value zones of economic ore.
Lachlan Wallace (CEO and Managing Director, Hillgrove Resources) presenting on Hillgrove’s Kanmantoo copper mine and the continuous mining machine under development by Komatsu.
Keynote speaker, Kristin Alford, Director of In Situ Foresight, challenged the audience to identify biases and think deeply about the legacy impact of copper activities and to revisit key values in a changing world. In the year that copper reached its highest value on record, the market insights from Bloomberg, the London Metal Exchange and RCS Global linked to Kristin’s challenge and highlighted value-creation through environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations. ESG is increasingly informing decisions on how to explore, apply innovation and who to partner with on collaborative projects.
The state’s active explorers shared news of discoveries across a broad range of copper projects including Zambian-style copper at Coda Minerals’ Elizabeth Creek and Western Areas’ nickel–copper project at Sahara. South Australia’s pipeline of renowned iron oxide – copper–gold projects continues to flow with Coda Minerals’ sharing details of the recent Emmie Bluff Deeps discovery and BHP relaying progress at their Oak Dam developing project and the shared benefits of mining operations at Olympic Dam.
Panel discussion at the end of the Exploration session. Left to right: Chris Stevens (CEO and Executive Director, Coda Minerals), Lachlan Wallace (CEO and Managing Director, Hillgrove Resources), Jennifer Purdie (Asset President, BHP) and Ian Gregory (Exploration Manager, Western Areas).
Continuing the theme of sustainability, the Innovation session was kicked off by the International Copper Association Australia’s launch of Zero Emission Copper Mine of the Future - The Water Report. The session featured a breadth of other projects including creating a new revenue-stream worth millions through scrap copper processing at Olympic Dam, and innovation driving value in OZ Minerals’ copper assets. Future focused projects with the potential to deliver greater value included EnviroCopper’s exploration of in situ recovery of copper at Kapunda, and Fleet Space’s perspectives and actions for unlocking copper value through disruptive space technologies.
In the collaboration session, OZ Minerals encouraged participants to consider who we need to get onboard or, in the ‘bus’, to deliver our goals and the broader objectives of stakeholders, while Indigenous Women in Mining and Resources Australia dove into the complexity of Indigenous engagement and how we can build towards meaningful and sustainable practices together. CORE Innovation rounded out the day revealing 9 of the top 30 technologists and entrepreneurs driving innovation in Australia are based in South Australia and 3 of those are working on innovations for copper.
The conference provided an ideal opportunity to present Australian Geoscience Council’s inaugural Roy Woodall Medal to Dr Kathy Ehrig of BHP. Kathy has spent a large part of her career documenting the Olympic Dam deposit and was a long-term mentee of Roy’s.
Presentation of Australian Geoscience Council’s inaugural Roy Woodall Medal to Dr Kathy Ehrig of BHP. Left to right: Kathy Ehrig, the Hon Dan van Holst Pellekaan MP (Minister for Energy and Mining), Barbara Woodall (Roy’s widow) and Jon Hronsky (AGC past chair).
View the conference the program
Exhibitors included:
Between sessions there was plenty of time for networking and creating new copper connections in the exhibition hall.
– Peta Abbot and Grace Taylor, October 2021
