Goldcorp’s Luis Canepari on automation, AI, innovation

VANCOUVER — The Northern Miner sat down with  Luis Canepari, Goldcorp’s (TSX: G; NYSE: GG) vice-president of technology, to talk about his company’s approach to innovation and technology. Below is an abridged transcript of the discussion.

The Northern Miner: The mining industry has a bit of a reputation as lagging in innovation and technology. Is that  warranted?

Luis Canepari: It’s a fair comment that mining is behind other businesses like manufacturing, aerospace or the financial sector. We’ve been slow in adopting new technologies.

Perhaps that’s due to the fact that it takes a very long time to get a mine into production. It’s a long, capital-intensive process when you think of a mine-life cycle in terms of permitting through to reclamation. The nature of the business itself makes it a challenge to innovate quickly.

TNM: But that may be changing. Do you see a rising awareness across the mining business for a need of technological disruption?

LC: It has been within the past five years that mining companies broadly realized the value they were leaving on the table. We realized the value of data and that if we invest in technology we can improve our cost profiles and increase profits, while also making it safer for our employees. I believe executives realized these types of investments can lower mine footprints and increase productivity.

And with every new technology there’s going to be a lot of hype at the beginning, but you’re going to have setbacks and failures. What I recommend to any mining company is that you can’t be afraid of it. You take these projects and consider them research and development. They are an attempt to make your company better. You have to fail fast and move on to the next idea. If you can embrace that mentality you will find innovation that works, and I believe that will yield a lot of value. The opportunities are out there and they will significantly disrupt mining.

Goldcorp VP technology Luis Canepari. Credit: Goldcorp.

TNM: What are some of the hurdles you have encountered in implementing innovation at Goldcorp?

LC: One of the biggest challenges for us has been user adoption. We generally have an aging workforce, so bringing in a new process or technology takes a lot of time and convincing. I find that having the right change management approach is really helpful. Our employees should want to adopt new technologies and make our operations more efficient.

Another factor is looking at returns on investments, but all these projects have great returns. For example, if you look at what we’re doing with automation it’s improving performance. All that goes directly into the bottom line. I think shareholders will start realizing the value proposition of [innovation] very soon.

TNM: What are some examples of innovation and technology programs at Goldcorp?

LC: One project we’re working on is improving ore sorting at the face of the mine. So we’re trying to use augmented and virtual reality to give operators more information in the cockpit of our shovels to move material more accurately during the mine’s life cycle. We’ve been talking with many technology providers over what opportunities might apply to that process.

It has never really been done before so we took a bit of money out of research and development. I said: “Look, we’re going to experiment and build a prototype together.” We want to see if we can develop something we can replicate across all of our mines.

TNM: We hear about digitization in the mining industry and the use of artificial intelligence (AI). What are some of the benefits?

LC: Our industry still has a lot of data that’s stored on paper. When we look at our historical operations, like Red Lake, for example, you have 80 years’ worth of data sitting in a vault somewhere that isn’t utilized. Nobody has access to this data on a day-to-day basis. So that becomes another challenge, and we have to make an investment in that work. Our newer mines, like Éléonore and Cerro Negro, are less of a challenge in that regard. But you have potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in that paper data, and that’s a wealth of knowledge.

I’m a big fan of AI and its ability to structure data. We’re looking at things like IBM’s Watson to sort that historical data faster without going in and manually doing the work. We’re investing heavily in making that technology available across our operations. We want that information sharing throughout the organization and that’s especially true in exploration. We want our geology teams worldwide looking at the same data to generate discovery targets faster.

Note: Goldcorp is bringing back the #DisruptMining challenge to this year’s Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto. The major is offering an investment of up to $1 million to the winner of a Shark Tank-style live event where participants will pitch innovative solutions to major challenges across the mining industry. Last year, Cementation Canada and Kore Geosystems shared first place.