Rio Tinto | Minerals and Metals for the world

The shape of mines to come
Chris Morrissey investigates how Rio Tinto sees the future of the industry - and the work already in progress towards it.

One the clichés of science fiction is a mining colony on a distant planet: the film Alien 3 took it further than most, with a mine manned by criminal outcasts from Earth and a gruesome climax of horrors in its lead smelter. There are echoes of Plutarch (46-120AD): "One cannot much approve of gaining riches by working mines, the greatest part of which is done by malefactors and barbarians…"

There would be logic in expecting to source metals from other planets if it weren't for the inescapable fact that Earth's mineral resources are bountiful. They aren't running out, and will not, in the foreseeable future. So as the mining industry shapes up to the future it will still be firmly Earthbound, making the best possible use of every resource at its disposal and facing every challenge to its licence to operate.

"Licence to operate" is a weighty phrase without a precise meaning. It does not refer simply to pieces of paper, however exalted the signatories may be. Under most legislations there are people who can issue pieces of paper that look like licences to operate. But the industry knows that it is answerable to a wider authority - society itself. And society itself tends to rue the after effects of past mining and demands much higher standards from current and future mines. It challenges the industry to adapt to the dictates of sustainable development, which includes working out what those dictates are for everything it does.

So forward looking companies like Rio Tinto face an immensely difficult task in trying to lay conceptual and technological foundations for the mines of the future.



The shape of mines to come Chris Morrissey investigates how Rio Tinto sees the future of the industry - and the work already in progress towards it. One the clichés of science fiction is a mining colony on a distant planet: the film Alien 3 took it further than most, with a mine manned by criminal outcasts from Earth and a gruesome climax of horrors in its lead smelter. There are echoes of Plutarch (46-120AD): "One cannot much approve of gaining riches by working mines, the greatest part of which is done by malefactors and barbarians…" There would be logic in expecting to source metals from other planets if it weren't for the inescapable fact that Earth's mineral resources are bountiful. They aren't running out, and will not, in the foreseeable future. So as the mining industry shapes up to the future it will still be firmly Earthbound, making the best possible use of every resource at its disposal and facing every challenge to its licence to operate. "Licence to operate" is a weighty phrase without a precise meaning. It does not refer simply to pieces of paper, however exalted the signatories may be. Under most legislations there are people who can issue pieces of paper that look like licences to operate. But the industry knows that it is answerable to a wider authority - society itself. And society itself tends to rue the after effects of past mining and demands much higher standards from current and future mines. It challenges the industry to adapt to the dictates of sustainable development, which includes working out what those dictates are for everything it does. So forward looking companies like Rio Tinto face an immensely difficult task in trying to lay conceptual and technological foundations for the mines of the future.
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Review is published by Rio Tinto, 6 St James' Square, London SW1Y 4LD, England Telephone +44 (0)20 7930 2399 Editor: Cherry DeGeer