Austmine launched its new METS Exchange series in Perth on Wednesday 1 October, bringing mining and METS professionals together to share innovation in action.
This first event placed the spotlight on mineral processing – the engine room of production and one of the greatest opportunities for performance improvement. With the sector under pressure to lift recovery, reduce costs, and meet sustainability targets, the need for fresh thinking and smarter solutions has never been greater.
Across a series of short, high-impact presentations, speakers demonstrated how emerging technologies are transforming processing: improving plant control, boosting efficiency, and unlocking more value from every tonne. From metallurgical data to artificial intelligence, tailings solutions and predictive plant optimisation, the session highlighted the real-world impact of innovation at the heart of mining operations.
As Gold sponsor of the event, Robotic Systems set the tone for the evening, with Director Adam Amos highlighting how mining companies and equipment manufacturers can gain a competitive edge through technology development.
He shared the company’s site-first approach to designing operational technology solutions that improve efficiency, reliability, and processing outcomes from ore sorting at the point of excavation through to optimised plant performance.
Nathan Edwards – General Manager, Mineral Process Control
Bridging the Gap Between Mine and Mill
Nathan Edwards opened the evening with a deep dive into one of mining’s most complex challenges: aligning geology, mining, and metallurgy. He explained that each discipline often works from different data sets and priorities – geologists focused on grade definition, mining teams on schedules and tonnage, and metallurgists on plant recovery. This disconnect, he argued, can create inefficiencies, miscommunication, and even million-dollar losses.
To address this, Nathan presented the PAL1000 cyanidation assay system, a technology that generates metallurgically relevant grade control data in real time. Unlike traditional assays such as fire assay or photon assay, which may not reflect plant performance, the PAL1000 mimics the actual cyanide leach process, providing recovery data that closely aligns with what the plant delivers. Each unit performs up to 52 mini processing plant simulations on one-kilogram samples, producing results within an hour.
He highlighted tangible outcomes from mine sites already using the system: improved reconciliation between mine feed and plant recovery, optimised ore routing and blending, faster decision-making that reduces truck waiting times, and even predictive metallurgy capabilities. Currently, more than 150 units have been produced, with around 80 operating worldwide across Australia, Africa, and other mining regions. Nathan closed by emphasising the importance of all disciplines working from a shared, reliable data set, which the PAL1000 makes possible.
Tim Strong – Chief Executive Officer, Waterline Projects
Engineering Smarter: Real-World AI Applications That Deliver Efficiencies in Minerals Processing
Tim Strong followed with a look into how artificial intelligence is reshaping engineering and minerals processing. Waterline, an engineering consultancy with around 80 staff across Australia, began embedding AI into its operations just months after the release of ChatGPT. Tim explained how the company deliberately disrupted itself, bringing in a Chief Technology Officer with a technology background to work alongside engineers and accelerate the adoption of AI.
He demonstrated practical use cases that are already transforming site operations. One example is using AI to extract metadata from engineering drawings – a task that once took months of manual work but can now be completed in hours with greater accuracy. By connecting this data back to ERP systems, safety records, and equipment histories, operators can query information in real time, making fault-finding and maintenance far more efficient.
Tim also described the vision of equipping frontline workers with tablets that act as AI-powered knowledge hubs. These tools could allow operators to instantly access equipment histories, manuals, functional diagrams, and incident reports, enabling smarter, faster decision-making.
Importantly, Waterline is investing in AI literacy across its workforce, ensuring engineers feel empowered to adopt these tools rather than threatened by them. By embedding AI champions across teams, the consultancy is steadily progressing through an “AI maturity model” and building solutions that deliver measurable productivity gains for clients.
Richard Williams – Director of Global Business Development, McLanahan
Innovating Filter Press Technology for Safety and Efficiency
Richard Williams shifted the focus to tailings management, presenting McLanahan’s work on making filter press operations more efficient, economical, and safe. He explained that filter presses, widely used for filtered tailings, often present major cost and safety challenges. Frequent filter media changes – typically every 2,000 to 3,000 cycles – can involve hundreds of plates and require cranes, additional building height, and intensive labour.
McLanahan’s response is a quick-change filter cloth system that allows cloths to be replaced from outside the machine, without heavy lifting or climbing onto equipment. The design reduces labour and downtime, lowers building and installation costs, and makes it possible to inspect plates during cloth changes for better preventative maintenance.
Richard highlighted six key advantages of the system: speed, reduced labour, improved safety, simplified inspections, lower building footprint, and overall efficiency. He noted that by addressing the biggest cost drivers of filter press operation, the solution supports more sustainable and cost-effective tailings management – all while embracing McLanahan’s guiding principle of delivering equipment that is simpler, safer, and smarter.
Steve Bennett – Business Development Manager, Rockwell Automation
Optimise Your Mining Processing Plant
Closing the evening, Steve Bennett presented Rockwell Automation’s FactoryTalk® Analytics™ Pavilion8® Model Predictive Control (MPC), a technology that acts as an intelligence layer on top of existing automation systems. MPC continuously drives processing plants toward multiple objectives – such as reducing costs and emissions, improving consistency and quality, and increasing production.
Steve explained how Pavilion8® works as a vendor-agnostic solution that stabilises circuits, manages process variability, and delivers measurable throughput improvements. He highlighted real-world outcomes, including annual throughput increases of around 2.15% and payback periods of less than 45 days – demonstrating an impressive return on investment.
Beyond the technology, Steve stressed the importance of early collaboration with mining companies, working with operators and managers during the feasibility and design stages to ensure solutions are tailored to specific site needs. With Rockwell Automation’s long history in digital technologies and its strong service presence across Australia, he positioned MPC as a proven pathway to greater plant performance and long-term operational value.
Looking Ahead
The first METS Exchange in Perth set the tone for this new series — delivering practical insights, innovation and connection across the METS and mining communities. The series now continues in Brisbane with The Autonomous Shift on 13 November 2025, where the focus will turn to remote operations and automation. This event will explore how digital technologies and autonomous systems are transforming mine design, management and operation, and will showcase practical innovations from METS companies driving the transition to safer, more efficient and connected mining.
Find out more and register HERE
