*Check against delivery*
I want to start by acknowledging the Jagera and Turrbal peoples as the Traditional Custodians of Meanjin – and pay my respects to their Elders past and present.
I also thank the Hon. Dale Last – Queensland's Minister for Natural Resources and Mines, Manufacturing, and Regional and Rural Development – for being here today.
Everyone in this room will have witnessed the unprecedented acceleration in technology over the past decade.
It's changed the way we live, work and interact – and the pace isn't slowing down. In fact, it's moving faster now than it has ever before.
But when we bring that into the mining context… are we keeping pace?
Are we taking advantage of the opportunities that are out there?
I've spent almost a quarter of a century in this industry – and I love it. I love what it means to our people and the communities where we operate, and what it provides in the context of the world's demand for raw materials and minerals.
When I started, we were still using dial-up internet, we had phones on our desks and the biggest advancements on site came through spending capital on bigger machinery.
Today, we've certainly upgraded our connection speed… we've seen autonomous technology integrated into our operations and AI applications emerging all along our supply chain.
But a recent trip to the US again forced me to reflect on where we're at as an industry in terms of adapting and leveraging some of the most cutting-edge technological advancements to solve our sector's challenges – and take us into the future.
It also got me thinking that there are solutions out there looking for problems, and problems looking for solutions. But often, the immediate marrying of the two doesn't always deliver the breakthrough intended.
I want to start off my sharing some observations I took on this trip when I hailed a ride in one of Waymo's autonomous cars, developed by Google.
Now I'm sure there's many of you here today who have seen this before or even been for a ride in one of these cars.
But it's the innovation behind this that's much more impressive than the ride itself.
Waymo's sensors can see the equivalent of three American football fields in any direction.
It has algorithms and artificial intelligence – trained by millions of miles of driving on roads – able to process all that data in milliseconds.
Waymo explains the innovation behind their cars in three words.
Sense. Solve. Go.
By 'sense' they mean using an array of sensors to acquire as much information as possible.
By 'solve' they mean using massive processing power to analyse all that data.
By 'go' they mean – having been informed by sense and solve – finding a way to move through the world safely.
When I heard this approach, I couldn't help but make the parallel to one of our own values at BMA. Which is also three simple words.
Seek. Better. Ways.
The idea behind this is that when we listen to learn, and inspire challenge, we can drive progress. It's why we seek better ways.
And that's what Waymo is doing.
Right now, I'll just say that the emerging technologies behind self-drive and data processing are very adaptable to mining – from trucks to trains to diggers and planning.
But the adaption of new technologies or ideas is seldom plug-and-play in mining.
In mining, if you want to innovate you have to be prepared to get your hands dirty.
With that in mind, I want to do two things this morning.
First, I want to provide you all some observations, based on personal experience, about how innovations do – and don't – work in mining.
Second, I want to explain why I'm optimistic about the future of our industry.
Let me first remind you why mining matters.
Queensland Mining contributes $122 billion to the Queensland economy – and supports more than half-a-million jobs in this state.
In the 2024 financial year, BMA alone contributed more than $8 billion to our suppliers, $4 billion to the Queensland government, and had more than 9,500 employees and contractors.
If we look to the industry as a whole - 40 per cent of the steelmaking coal in the world comes from right here in Queensland.
We ship our coal around the globe from our Hay Point Coal Terminal in Mackay – and a lot of the steel made with our coal is then used to make the infrastructure the world needs to urbanise and decarbonise.
Mining – more than any other industrial sector – is the engine that will help give our economy the skills, capital and creativity we need to make the leap to net-zero.
According to Boston Consulting Group, a fifth of the minerals the world is expected to need by 2035 is yet to be found.1
Another consultancy, McKinsey, estimates that closing the global supply gap for copper – just copper – will require around $350 billion in capital spending between now and 2035.2
That means the demand for BHP's portfolio of resources – copper, iron ore, potash – is not going away …
… and neither is the demand for BMA's steelmaking coal.
But – and this is important – we need work faster and smarter if we're going to bridge future supply gaps.
But rather than finding a way to solve a problem, conventional wisdom – particularly when I first joined in the industry – would have been to super-size a piece of equipment – like making bigger tyres or trucks or dragline buckets.
Don't get me wrong, I love a big truck – but bigger is not always better and as we reach physical technical limits, we need to advance our thinking by looking at what is happening outside our industry.
When I witnessed a truly impressive warehouse environment at Amazon – it challenged everything I thought I knew about warehousing and parts management.
Through their latest deployment of technology, they have determined that warehousing can be completely randomised in order to deliver safe and productive parts management.
They have combined the receival and picking function - and this is in an environment where they are moving over one million items a day!
Looking at examples like this we need to be prepared to think differently and really apply ourselves to the opportunities we face – because that's the way we will find transformational ways of working.
But implementing an innovation takes time because the problems we have to solve are often complicated, just like driving around San Francisco in an autonomous car.
Mining's challenging problems are above ground and underground. They're on roads and rail and oceans and in the air. They're environmental and technological and deeply human based.
Our industry is inherently conservative and typically resists change because we know how to mine!
If we really want to bring innovation and new thinking into large mining operations, we need to meet in the middle – and start with the problem we are trying to solve.
Now I know that's not as simple as it sounds. But after spending many years in this industry, my observation is we just don't get the connection of problems and solutions at a pace that the rest of the world is now operating at.
And I – hand on heart – accept the challenge to be better at articulating the problems we're looking to solve.
But what I do know, and what history has told us, is that adaption drives innovation by allowing us to respond to challenges and changes.
And sometimes the solutions to our problems come from unexpected sources – or that started out trying to solve something completely different.
To illustrate my point let me share another example of this.
A Formula 1 pit stop and an emergency room in a hospital.
Not two scenarios you would assume had a lot of synergies.
But if we think to the medical team… teams in this environment faced some common challenges during certain scenarios – lack of communication, roles were unclear and technical problems were common.
A doctor caught a glimpse of a Formula 1 pit stop change and was impressed by the precision and efficiency of the team.
The doctors engaged a Formula 1 team and learned how to perform a pit stop. And the F1 team were invited to observe a hospital handover.
What did the doctors learn? They learned that they needed to adapt. And they now had the solution on how to do it.
They implemented principles such as clear leadership, discipline and limited speech to improve the quality of care for their patients.
By adapting, medical teams were able to transform the way medical teams operate to this day.
So, what does this tell us?
The solutions are out there… and we know – I know – we have the problems that need solving. We just need to get better at bringing the two together.
How we innovate or seek better ways comes in many different shapes and sizes.
Let me explain what I mean by walking you through a couple of case studies of innovation at BMA.
My first example comes from our Goonyella Riverside Mine.
At BMA, safety is a core value – and we work hard every day to keep our people safe.
And that's why we're always looking at ways to improve safety.
So, in 2020, we introduced autonomous haulage trucks to our Goonyella Riverside Mine.
This was one of the biggest examples of technological change at BMA.
With over 65 driverless trucks on site, Goonyella is now one of the world's largest fully autonomous open-cut coal operations.
The move to autonomous brought a lot of change for our workforce – it meant that new roles had to be created, traditional roles evolved, and our workforce had to develop new skills.
There's a lesson here: innovation doesn't necessarily mean less work or jobs. It means re-skilling, training, preparing a future ready workforce and creating a safer more efficient work environment.
My second case study takes a slightly different approach and relates to advancements in our tooling and machinery.
BHP set a goal back in 2016 to achieve a gender balanced employee workforce in one of the most male-dominated sectors in the world.
I'm proud to say that we recently achieved that goal – reaching 40 per cent female participation in our global employee workforce, which is a massive achievement for this industry
But, in order for that goal to be realised and to attract and retain female talent, we needed to ensure that our work environment was inclusive – so we made changes.
At our Broadmeadow mine, we introduced a zero-gravity arm which reduced the requirement for manual handling which was previously 25kg overhead.
At Saraji, one of our Maintenance Supervisors came up with a clever alternative to the heavy pull rings and metal shackles that are commonly used to pull mobile equipment.
He used his knowledge and experience as a competitive sailor to come up with a solution to reduce the risk associated with heavy lifting – removing physical barriers that may prevent people from completing the task while also reducing the safety risk.
There's a couple of lessons here: great ideas – big and small – come from anywhere – and they often come from people with hands-on experience.
And by having a more balanced workforce, we are unlocking innovation which is leading to better safety outcomes for everyone.
The bottom line is that we cannot continue at the same pace as these solutions take time.
We can – and must – do better. And we need to work together as an industry.
Mind you, working together as an industry is not enough.
We need to work in partnership and collaboratively with governments, communities, partners and stakeholders – and earn their support for changes such as …
Investing in technology and strategic infrastructure – to unlock new growth across the nation, and especially in regional communities.
Investing in skills and innovation – to ensure Australians have know-how to lead the next generation of technologies and systems.
Streamlining permits – so that, without reducing standards, we secure major projects… and extensions that create new jobs and opportunities for Queenslanders.
And delivering competitive policy, regulatory and fiscal settings – to help Queensland – and Australia – compete for global investment.
This last point is more important for us then ever – particularly here in Queensland.
We have one of the world's highest coal royalty rates imposed by the previous Queensland Government which makes it very challenging to justify future investment in this state.
Our resources sector can be to Queensland what Silicon Valley is to Northern California – a source of pride and prosperity. But we need to be competitive to unlock that potential.
The impact of Silicon Valley has reverberated far beyond the confines of personal computing, software development, or the Internet.
But all of us in this room would know that a fast adopter of innovation doesn't come for free. It's capital intensive and it needs long term commitment.
That's why we need to start thinking about mining as our Silicon Valley and back the resources sector. We need to be competitive now for the future …and why we need to work in partnership to move forward.
If you think that means I'm pessimistic about the future of mining, you're wrong.
On the contrary, I'm excited about the future of our industry.
We have great assets and great people. And we have good support from local and regional communities.
But we can't afford to be complacent.
There's no doubt we already have the advantage. Starting with the fantastic minerals and resources right here in Queensland and Australia the world wants and needs.
We're also advantaged by our know-how and initiative.
I know that Katie Hulmes – the head of BHP's Think & Act Differently innovation team – will be speaking on a panel later this morning.
I'd recommend making the time to hear Katie speak, because her team is all about partnerships in and outside of our industry to solve problems, thinking outside the box – leveraging technology to accelerate the delivery of resources.
For instance, BHP's Think & Act Differently is already adapting innovations from other industries – such as the oil and gas industry's use of 3D seismic survey technology – to mining.
Using 3D seismic survey technology is a faster and more sustainable way to find high-grade deposits.
It uses electric currents to scope out deposits up with 1.5 kilometres underground – as well as mapping subsurface areas and detecting minerals that contain copper, nickel, gold and silver.
It's surgically-precise exploration.
BHP is also trialling other advancements such as thermal probe and robotic lance technology, as well as autonomous drilling.
The thermal probe provides real-time slag chemistry and temperature monitoring;
The robotic lance automates thermal lancing and launder cleaning;
And automated drilling capability has the potential to enhance productivity and reduce downtime.
This industry is at the frontier of some of the most amazing feats of engineering and tech.
AI-enhanced exploration and extraction, driverless earth-movement, remote train control, automated ship-loading.
But individually and collectively, our industry needs to keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible.
We need to be deeply curious. We need to be open to new ideas. We need to experiment.
After all, resources are becoming more difficult to find and extract.
But we know change can be hard – especially when traditional ways of working have been engrained for years, if not decades.
Not to mention the fact that mining is capital intensive, highly technical, and time consuming.
Still, we must take the chance and commit to change. That means business and government need to work together – as partners – to overcome barriers to growth.
Given the size and scope of the challenge we face; and given the acceleration of change – the biggest risk we could take, and the biggest mistake we could make, would be to do nothing.
To keep ahead of the curve, we must challenge the status quo and seek better ways.
But what does this mean for those of us working in the industry right now?
It means continuing to deliver value – to our customers, partners and stakeholders.
It means maximising the returns on every dollar we invest.
And it means focusing on the business problems we need to solve – working in partnership.
The world has changed immeasurably since I started in mining.
Global urbanisation and population growth … climate change … the Global Financial Crisis … Big Data … robotics … Artificial Intelligence. Not to mention geopolitical shifts such as the rise of China and India.
And the pace of change keeps accelerating.
Mining is at the vanguard of this acerated change, helping create a new world that – on the other side of 2050 – will be radically different to the 2020s.
That brings me back to the lesson of Waymo's approach to innovation - Sense. Solve. Go. – sounds simple, but it's not.
Imagine how many thousands of problems – micro and macro – that might confront an autonomous car on a Sunday drive.
Slowly but surely, one by one, the makers of Waymo have solved those problems.
The lesson?
We can solve any problem if we put our minds to it… but we can't do it alone.
I believe we're on the cusp of a new era in mining.
A new era where mines are safer and more efficient than we can imagine because they are using technologies in ways we haven't yet conceived …
.. and discovering resources we never knew we could find, let alone extract and refine.
I believe that everything and anything is possible for the future of mining – if we continue to seek better ways.
Please enjoy the rest of the expo and continue to be curious, ask questions and take this opportunity to look outside the usual realm to solve problems.
1 'Dig it', Economist, 1 March 2025, p67.
2 'Shock and awe,' Economist, 5 April 2025, p53.
