Innovation is always a strong feature of Mining Indaba. A new competitive platform launched by the Development Partner Institute (DPI) at this year’s conference aims to tackle some of the industry’s biggest sustainability problems with innovation, by bridging the gap between mining, academia and investment.
DPI’s Mining and Innovation Research Battlefield 2024 was launched this week at Mining Indaba, at a panel discussion on Day 3 of the event. Planned to be the biggest research and innovation challenge of its kind in mining, the Battlefield will help develop real solutions to tough challenges and provide a pathway for young people to accelerate their ideas into the mining industry.
Backed by DPI and Hyve Group and culminating at Mining Indaba’s 2024 event, the Mining and Innovation Research Battlefield is modelled on Mining Indaba’s Investment Battlefield, where junior miners pitch projects to a high-level panel of investors, analysts and industry experts.
DPI’s Executive Director, Wendy Tyrrell, says the original battlefield event was born out of a collaborative industry roundtable in 2020 that asked big questions about the industry’s future, bringing in voices from education and research to present a different view.
“We’re excited to launch the 2024 Battlefield. As an industry, we need to change what we’re doing and think differently to meet the demands of a radically different future. The Battlefield is a platform designed to contribute to that.”
It’s been a privilege to watch the progress and prestige of the 2022 winners, Shilpa Rumjeet and Tapiwa Chimbgana.
Shilpa and Tapiwa’s project focused on a regenerative agriculture approach to a post-mining economy and won US$28,600 of seed funding at the 2022 Battlefield competition. Using contaminated post-mining soil, the team experimented with growing different crops and testing the results with different levels of contamination. The project has generated impressive outcomes in just under 12 months, including extensive stakeholder engagement, small-scale cultivation trials and plans for further piloting stages.
The 2024 Battlefield was launched as part of a Mining Indaba panel discussion, which included:
- Sheila Khama, DPI non-executive director and director of FTSE- and NASDAQ-listed companies
- Professor Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Free State
- Rohitesh Dhawan, CEO at ICMM
- Dr Jeannette McGill, VP and General Manager of Metals and Mining at Aspen Technology.
Want to get involved with the 2024 Battlefield?
Join the Battlefield as a financial supporter, and help us to uncover innovation by linking industry and academia.
Start planning your entry – applications open September 2023.