Peter Kondos

Innovations in Gold and Silver Processing

There are several challenges confronting the gold mining industry. One of the key challenges is the trend of increasing complexity of gold deposits with decreasing gold grades and gold-to-sulfur ratios along with higher proportions of carbonaceous matter, arsenic, copper-bearing minerals, and deleterious elements such as mercury. Many of these deposits are economically marginal as the capital and operating cost requirements are relatively high and the metal recoveries are suboptimal in addition to the need to address various environmental issues associated with these deposits. A holistic approach to innovation in mining and processing, that challenges the existing mining paradigm, is becoming more important.

Metallurgical Processing Innovations: Intellectual Property Perspectives and Management

Transformational innovations in metallurgical processing are essential to surmount the challenges facing today’s mining industry. Metallurgical processing innovations arise from within the mining industry and from supporting businesses and organizations. Innovations can be new products, ideas, and methods that add value and are typically protected as intellectual property. Mining companies encounter substantial barriers in developing and implementing innovations. Successful innovation must be driven from a company’s top leadership and linked to a business strategy and future corporate vision. New approaches must be implemented to capture the benefits of R&D through strategic relationships and mechanisms that recognize and embrace “open innovation.” New approaches to test innovations must be implemented to limit disruption to ongoing production activities and manage risk. The future of metallurgical processing is likely to be vastly different from today’s operations given the emerging engineering innovations in advanced materials, electronics, robotics, synthetic biology, energy, and information technology.