International Collaboration Drives Charge On Results
Austmine welcomes the announcement of the winning solution
concepts for the global Charge On Innovation Challenge. The eight innovators
selected are ABB, Ampcontrol and Tritium (Australia), BluVein XL, DB
Engineering & Consulting with Echion Technologies, Hitachi, Shell
Consortium, Siemens Off-board power supply, and 3ME BladeVolt.
“Five of the eight solutions come from Austmine members, so we are very
pleased with the results,” said Chris Gibbs Stewart. CEO of Austmine. “It is
also great to see that the leading innovators are not only from the big end of
town, but include smaller regionally based companies. Congratulations to Austmine Members ABB,
Ampcontrol, Hitachi, Siemens and 3ME, and all those involved as it was a very
competitive process with a game changing intent, aimed at tackling one of
mining’s biggest challenges.”
“This type of challenge and the results achieved herald in a new level
of international collaboration aimed at accelerating the development and
adoption of innovation. There is no doubt it will be used as a model to continue
to solve the big issues our industry is facing.”
Austmine has been involved in the Charge On Innovation Challenge since
February 2021 and was appointed as the initial facilitator by BHP because of
its work on BHP’s Supplier Innovation Program. In collaboration with BHP, Vale
and Rio Tinto, Austmine was responsible for setting up the challenge framework,
recruiting all the patron mining companies, promoting the challenge globally
and facilitating the judging process.
Dr Robert Trzebski, Director of International Business, Austmine led the
project for Austmine and has been involved since its inception over a year ago.
“This has been a very exciting project to be involved in and often referred to
as a true industry phenomenon. We never imagined 21 global mining companies would
come onboard and work together so seamlessly. When I approached mining
companies to get involved, the sell was not difficult as they saw the benefit of
the collaboration in the open-innovation space right away.”
“On the other side, we wanted the best solutions possible, and we put
out the call far and wide. We worked with such industries as mining, aerospace,
EV automotive, battery producers, defence from 31 countries and received interest
from over 350 vendor companies. Eighty (80) vendor companies submitted their
conceptual solutions and 21 companies were then invited to present a detailed
pitch of their solution. The final eight were chosen from these 21 companies.”
“When deployed, these solutions will significantly help to decarbonise
mining operations. It is an exciting step forward towards the electrification of
large haul trucks on open-pit mine sites and this work could have flow on
effects into other industries. The other exciting part about this project is
that we have built up a lot of goodwill right across the globe as in particular
mining companies have seen the value in this type of collaboration. We look forward
to leading other significant challenges of this type to benefit our industry
and showcase Australia’s highly innovative METS sector.”
GHD joined the Charge On Innovation Challenge as the technical
facilitator and instrumentally contributed towards the creation of the
consortia of vendors. GHD is now embarked on the journey of driving the
consortia to test testing of preferred technologies among the mining companies,
vendors, OEMs and interested investors.
Austmine is the leading not-for-profit industry association for
the Australian Mining Equipment, Technology and Services (METS) sector with
over 600 members nationally. The project contributes to Austmine’s goal of
championing the Australian METS sector as global innovation leader and
providing growth opportunities to members.