Johannes Coetzee, TM Nemavhola
Abstract
Currently, the mining industry is facing several challenges, which is why technology and innovation methods are so important. Deeper mining to access the ore, rising energy costs, more complex ore bodies, access to high-grade ore bodies, and social and geopolitical risks are just a few of the challenges that are putting pressure on the mining sector to control costs.
The main objective of this study was to investigate whether utilising the strategic management of technology and innovation could have a practical benefit in giving the mines a competitive advantage and contribute towards the sustainability of the iron ore mines.
Interviews were used to gather data, and prepared questions were sent to participants before the interviews. The themes that emerged after coding were the source of technology and innovation, improvement benefits, quality of product, and sustainability.
The results showed that the strategic management of technology and innovation was identified as the key enabler that can be used in iron ore mines to enhance competitiveness. This was revealed from the study when analysing the transcripts from the interviews. The participants believe that studying market trends to plan the executing stage and which technology to implement and where to implement that technology and innovative ideas hold the key to unlocking the value from the ore, boosting the business’ profits, and addressing other production issues such as safety and production rate.