Advice from the cutting edge: Expert panel on innovation highlight of CEMI 10th annual general meeting.

• Author: McKinley, Karen
• Position: DESIGN-BUILD

The reasons for mining innovation are many, so it made sense to hear from many voices who have made a living from offering it as a service.

The Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) held its 10th annual general meeting at Dynamic Earth Sept. 27 to a packed house eager to hear what the consortium had planned for the coming months. Along with board business and updates on new projects and products, the highlight was the panel discussion at the end featuring four people who have made a living offering cutting edge products and services to the industry at home and across the world.

Christine Haas, president of Renix; Chris Novak, president and CEO of Centric Mining Systems; Walter Siggelkow, founder and president of Hard-Line Solutions; and Michael Gribbons, vice-president of sales and marketing at Maestro Digital Mine comprised the panel, offering their insight to questions from moderator Dick DeStefano, executive director of Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA), as well as from the audience.

The talk focused on their experiences in the mining industry and the critical path innovators have to take to market a commercial product to the industry, as well as the need to export to stay afloat.

Haas, whose company uses ion exchange to decontaminate and purify materials like liquids and resins, said she works with resource-based industries, where their technology comes into play. She's seen a trend across those with shrinking grades and resources, fuel, environmental regulations and licensing.

"Those are causing a lot of challenges," she said. "We have to make sure we are putting those into that context so organizations can understand what it is we have to deal with."

Integration is already being embraced, but the challenge for her company is showing industries how they work.

Novak said with his company, the trick is to know how to solve the problem better than the customer.

"Don't put yourself in front of the industry, the individual that you intend to sell your product or service to, without knowing the problem and having the solution in place and being prepared to defend it better than anybody else."

Over time, the company's confidence to solve a problem will be the selling point, no matter how it is solved.

Siggelkow said the mining industry is a very closed and tight-knit group of people. No matter where he goes, he always meets people he's worked with. He agreed that to be successful they have to have a...