Everyone in the industry has an opinion on how major companies should run exploration. Maybe it is time we have an honest conversation about why these companies have to be different.

All innovation programs have a 70/30 rule associated with them. Only 30% of the problem is related to the technology. The other 70% is all about people's behaviours. To be successful, you have to solve both.

Did you know that 3M started off as mining venture in 1902? Over the last 100 years, it has become a materials company. Would mining companies be more sustainable as a business if they were more vertically integrated? Should they do more than just mining?

Social license issues have become commonplace in mining. In OECD countries, where there are more avenues of industrial development, navigating these has its own risks. We perceive these countries to be low risk for mining development. But is that changing?

A lot of the debate around data science in mining focuses on the what and the why: what information do geologists and engineers need to learn and why do they need to learn it. But the real question is: how do we learn from each other?

Mining has always been considered a laggard in adopting real-time analytics when compared to the oil and gas industry. This was not because of a lack of interest. In reality, there were some good reasons why this did not work in mining. Until now.     

Would academic research be more relevant to industry if academics adopted a more entrepreneurial approach? What could the lean startup model teach researchers?

A geologist, an engineer, and a social scientist walk into a bar. They discuss how the value proposition of resource development has changed and how we need to evolve it beyond just the economic benefit it provides.

Bill Joy once said "There are always more smart people outside your company than within it"... So should we be looking at ways to utilise the wisdom of the crowd? Are the many cleverer than the few?

The role of any entrepreneur, or any startup, is to learn... learn as quickly as possible before you go out of business.