Big ideas at cim plenary

Many of the challenges that have produced so much hand-wringing in the mining industry over the past several years were discussed at the plenary session at the 2017 CIM Convention in Montreal. Challenges such as lower-grade deposits, declining productivity, volatile commodity prices, an aging workforce, and resource nationalism were well-worn themes familiar to everyone in the industry. Gerald Sanders, an aerospace engineer with the NASA Johnson Space Center, cited the example of Google’s intrusion into the automotive industry with its pioneering work on the self-driving car.