What to expect from GRX25’s conference program

Australian Mining spotlights two speakers set to present at the Global Resources Innovation Expo 2025.

Proudly hosted by Austmine in partnership with AusIMM, the Global Resources Innovation Expo 2025 (GRX25) is set to be bigger and better than ever.

An expo “by industry, for industry”, GRX25 will bring together forward-thinking leaders in mining, technology, and investment. Set to be held in Brisbane from May 20–22, GRX25 is about ‘embracing a new era’, a theme that encompasses the mining industry’s need to embrace change and evolve with the times.

This theme will be woven throughout the GRX25 program, which will see speakers from around the world foster a future-focused dialogue.

Three collaborative conversation sessions will take place on May 21, one of which is titled ‘Making a mining tech market’.

This breakout stream will explore how the Australia mining industry can position itself as the leading global hub for technology investment.

Australian Mining spoke to two ‘Making a mining tech market’ speakers about what attendees can expect from the session.

Charles Gillies

Jolimont, the funds management company, and Jolimont Global Mining Systems, the mining investment fund, were both founded in 2013.

After much success, Jolimont became part of Resource Capital Funds (RCF) in 2017. A new fund, RCF Innovation Fund II, was created to invest in innovation companies aiming to reduce costs and increase productivity and safety for miners.

“We’ve seen over 1300 innovation deals across the globe,” RCF Innovation managing director Charles Gillies told Australian Mining. “We’ve been very active in the mining innovation space throughout the last decade.”

As the global energy transition continues, the demand for critical minerals will increase. As a result, mining companies are pushing to scale up their operations.

“However, as volumes increase, orebodies get deeper, costs get higher and the social license to operate gets harder,” Gillies said.

“Our view is these problems can only be solved by innovation in the mining industry.”

While recent mining innovation has come from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), not all innovation requires a huge balance sheet. It is this potential that will be the centre of Gillies’ presentation at GRX25.

“Like in other industrial sectors, smaller companies are often good at finding value-creation opportunities from larger miners,” Gillies said.

“At the same time, intelligent managers, engineers and entrepreneurs see the opportunities in building, growing and selling companies in the mining sector.”

Gillies said understanding the industry’s challenges and technological opportunities is key.

“You need to go to the industry with a solution that solves a particular problem,” Gillies said.

“The second part is understanding what it takes to commercialise a product, as the mining industry is a highly rational market and there are many things you need to know to successfully sell to them.”

A recent example of this is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and how it can increase productivity and safety personnel.

“Miners operate in harsh, difficult environments and are often in very remote locations,” Gillies said.

“The more you can remove humans from mines and replace them with robots or remote operations, the better. It’s good for safety and makes it easy for mining companies to deploy resources and machinery to where they need to be.

“The other area of focus is blending hardware and software to create new value opportunities, as well as reducing costs associated with sensors, network rollouts, and computer power.

“General improvements in technology and cost reduction in hard-technology items are creating plenty of opportunities for miners. It’s an industry unlike any other.”

Flavia Tata Nardini

Mining companies are always looking for new ways to enhance exploration to uncover minerals faster.

And that is exactly what Fleet Space Technologies is doing.

Founded by former European Space Agency propulsion engineer Flavia Tata Nardini and aerospace entrepreneur Matt Pearson in 2015, Fleet Space Technologies has pioneered satellite-enabled exploration solutions for the mining industry.

“While I didn’t start in mining, I’ve spent years working closely with the industry, learning about its challenges, and seeing firsthand how advanced seismic technology, AI, and real-time data can drive a step-change in exploration,” Nardini told Australian Mining.

It is these technological opportunities that will be the heart of Nardini’s presentation at GRX25.

“To fuel breakthrough discoveries, we must shift to high-quality, real-time data collection optimised for AI,” she said.

“The faster we can integrate AI-driven insights, the faster we can unlock the minerals that will power the future.”

While the mining industry has advanced and embraced innovation in automation, AI technology, and data analytics, the pace of discovery has slowed due to the lack of volume and quality of data required to maximise modern AI systems.

“In many cases, teams rely on handwritten core logs going back decades and fragmented datasets that aren’t processable by the most advanced machine learning algorithms,” Nardini said.

“AI is only as good as the data it’s fed. By making seismic tools real-time and integrating multiple geophysical techniques, we can narrow search spaces faster, reduce environmental impact, and drive a paradigm shift in exploration efficiency.

“Consider this: each autonomous vehicle generates 1500 terabytes (TB) of data per year, allowing AI to refine and improve decision-making exponentially. In contrast, a single mine produces just 150TB annually, with much of that data underutilised or unusable.

“The future of exploration lies in scaling data collection and feeding AI models that can radically accelerate discovery.”

Increasing mineral discovery in Australia is key to fuelling future-facing technologies.

To get there, Nardini said, METS companies must invest in real-time, AI-ready exploration solutions.

“The next leap forward isn’t just about finding more minerals – it’s about drastically improving discovery efficiency,” she said.

“If we scale our ability to acquire and process data by orders of magnitude, we unlock the resources needed for everything from EV (electric vehicle) batteries to space exploration. This is Australia’s opportunity to lead.”

With autonomous vehicles and space exploration having already embraced high-frequency and high-quality data acquisition, Nardini views this as the predecessor for mineral exploration.

“Mineral exploration is evolving from a resource-extraction business into the world’s greatest data intelligence opportunity,” Nardini said.

“By embracing innovation today, we ensure a future where critical minerals are discovered faster, drilling is optimised, and environmental impact is minimised – fuelling the next leap forward for civilisation.”

GRX25 will be held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre from May 20–22.

The ‘Making a mining tech market’ collaborative conversation session will be held on May 21 from 2.00pm to 3:30pm in meeting room M4.

This feature appeared in the May 2025 issue of Australian Mining.