Achieving our ambitions for a systemic shift in sustainability across the mining sector requires more than process optimisation and energy efficiency gains. We need to implement step change solutions, using new technology to replace historic conventions and, in doing so, enabling new flowsheets and approaches to resource supply chains. Banksia Minerals Processing is demonstrating what it takes to bridge the gap between breakthrough technology research and commercial application, as they develop a new copper refining process with the potential to traditional smelting. As a result, the team hopes to provide a playbook for other step change solutions to build on. Come and hear Founder and Managing Director, Leigh Staines, share the Banksia story.

As global supply chains face increasing pressure to demonstrate environmental integrity, social responsibility, and transparent data flows, organisations must adopt digital solutions capable of integrating diverse sustainability frameworks. This presentation introduces the different digital frameworks available, industry feedback on current processes and the development of interoperable tools that unify LCA, ESG reporting requirements, and traceability systems into a cohesive data architecture. By bridging these traditionally siloed domains, such tools enable consistent material- and product-level insights, streamline compliance with emerging regulatory standards, and empower decision-makers to identify actionable opportunities for impact reduction.

This session will cover the complex ESG framework and standards landscape companies face today—and how to cut through, prioritise what matters, and avoid falling into the trap of disclosure for disclosure’s sake. We’ll explore practical ways to address mandatory requirements and meet stakeholder expectations, embed sustainability into strategy, and ensure reporting if focused on real performance success metrics and value rather than becoming just a checkbox.

Sensor-based ore sorting is widely promoted as a sustainability silver bullet, increasing resource efficiency, reducing energy consumption in comminution, and decreasing tailings volume. However, crossing the technology’s infamous Valley of Death from promising lab-scale test to a reliable, high-throughput industrial operation is fraught with practical, often-glossed-over pitfalls. This presentation moves beyond the glossy vendor brochures to provide a frank, experience-based discussion of the real-world "traps for young players" in sorting implementation. Critical, yet under-discussed challenge, including the strategic intent, the performance impacts of feed presentation and chute design, and the effect of sorting mass pulls on downstream process chemistry as well as framing the sorting investment case in the face of the technology’s infamous Valley of Death. Attendees will gain a realistic understanding of the technical and operational hurdles, enabling them to make informed decisions and if it stacks up build a robust business case for sorting that accounts for all hidden costs and complexities.

Bellevue Gold is Australia’s most renewably powered mine, and is the world's first net zero (Scope 1 and Scope 2) emission gold mine. With operations commencing in late 2023, and the solar farm constructed in 2024 and the wind turbines in 2025—now Bellevue Gold has claimed the title of Australia most renewable powered mine—including running the entire mine with ‘engines off’ and 100% instantaneous renewable energy for over 100 hours.

Remote mining clusters face converging pressures—declining grades, water and energy insecurity, escalating waste liabilities, and rising ESG expectations—that cannot be addressed by individual mine project-level optimisation alone. This presentation introduces an eco-industrial networking (EIN) approach grounded in Industrial Symbiosis processes to orchestrate cross-site resource linkages, shared infrastructure, water and energy, and by-product valorisation. Developing a framework and baseline mapping provide a pathway to scale EIN across remote mining clusters globally.

The fragmentation resulting from drill and blast has a significant impact on the subsequent comminution processes—in terms of achievable throughput rate, unit costs, and energy efficiency—just as particle size from grinding strongly affects the performance of the downstream separation process. Attempts to optimise each stage in isolation often not only fail to optimise the overall process, but can be actively detrimental. By employing a structured approach, supported by extensive auditing, surveys. and data analysis, real and durable results can be achieved. Mine-to-Process Optimisation projects led by Hatch’s Mining & Mineral Processing group typically achieve more throughput, lower comminution energy intensity and higher recovery.

CSIRO’s Sustainable Mining Technologies programme delivers practical, field-proven solutions to industry challenges in emissions abatement, water-positive mining, efficient resource recovery, and waste reduction. This presentation showcases emissions reduction technology for ventilation air methane, from R&D to pilot scale, alongside modular water treatment pilots and advanced sensing technologies for in situ analytics. Real-world trial data, scale-up pathways, and case studies will be presented, demonstrating CSIRO’s commitment to advancing sustainability in mining.

• Field-proven CataVAM technology for methane abatement
• Modular pilots for mine waste water treatment
• Advanced sensing for real-time resource analytics
• Case studies highlighting operational impact and scalability

This presentation examines how nature-based design, including geomorphic modelling and ecosystem restoration, can improve tailings storage facility closure outcomes. Focus is placed on enhanced physical stability, chemical neutrality, and biodiversity, showing how these approaches reduce long-term environmental liabilities and maintenance costs, deliver quantifiable performance, and create multifunctional land uses beyond regulatory compliance.

Viridian Biometals is developing proprietary critical minerals refining technology that is 50%+ less expensive to build and 30%+ less expensive to operate than conventional processing. The technology harnesses bacteria that breathe ore and extract metals with no toxic waste, no burning of fossil fuels and no need for a freshwater supply, solving the most pressing environmental and economic problems with conventional refining.

As sustainability reshapes mining finance, trust in data, ESG performance, and valuation has become critical. This paper explores how agentic AI can function as a financial governance engine, integrating geological, operational, and ESG data into a continuously updated, auditable valuation model. By transforming static feasibility studies into living digital twins, AI enables real-time risk visibility, stronger investment confidence, and accelerated access to sustainability-linked capital.

Unlock data-driven decarbonisation with life-cycle assessments and emissions benchmarking. Discover how integrating granular emissions data and performance metrics identifies hotspots, drives targeted interventions, and aligns with global regulatory and market expectations. This session shows how transparent, science-based frameworks accelerate decarbonisation across complex supply chains.

Data science can reveal powerful insights, but deployed models often fail due to trust issues, unclear actions, or misaligned decision processes. To deploy cost effective and sustainable AI apps require much more than a good enough model. This talk discusses the key notes an AI program of work needs to truly “hear the music in the data.”