The 2025 Austmine Mining Innovation Roadshow rolled into Newcastle’s McDonald Jones Stadium last month to showcase some of the incredible innovations companies are offering mines to make their work more productive, efficient, safer and better for everyone.
Austmine is the leading not-for-profit industry association for the Australian Mining Equipment, Technology and Services (METS) sector. Austmine has been advocating for the sector for more than 30 years and now represents over 750 companies across the country.
The Mining Innovation Roadshow in February focused on the Hunter Valley and highlighted local companies and their incredible innovations as well as discussions on the unique challenges and opportunities in the region.
Frank Fulham, the Chief Development Officer at Yancoal talked about implementing a mindset that embraces technology. Yancoal has rolled out the SAP S/4HANA across all nine of their mine sites which has streamlined operations.
Automation is a game changer and that’s exactly what the team at Robotic Systems live by. Robotic Systems is a Newcastle-based company that specialises in the rapid design and manufacture of industrial tech hardware.
They have created game changing software including a dynamic test unit that monitors forces associated with rock fall events underground, worked with companies like Orica to develop semi-autonomous mobile mixing and delivery of bulk explosives, and many other exciting innovations.
Founder Adam Amos came to the Roadshow with a brand new product to announce to the market called HORUS, which is basically a second set of eyes for trains. The artificial intelligence system assists train drivers in detecting hazards in the rail corridor.
Incredible right?
The keynote speaker for the event was the General Manager of Bengalla mine in Muswellbrook Cam Halfpenny. Cam has been in the role since 2016 and is a passionate advocator of the coal industry.
Cam focused on the people and the community they have created at Bengalla, how they all work together and how they try to make a positive impact on the community they mine in. He also reflected on “getting the right information to the right people at the right time” to ensure operations run smoothly.
Cam isn’t just passionate about his people, he’s passionate about the whole industry and talked about his firm belief that we are turning the economy upside down for a tiny 1 per cent of the global carbon impact we make.
There were several panel discussions on the day including one discussing how important it is to look outside of your business for solutions and work with everyone as one team towards the same goals.
The session that stood out the most on the day was ‘Innovation in Action’ where we heard from six innovative businesses who had about seven minutes each to tell us about what they do and why.
We heard about everything from fatigue management tech to an innovative belt scale, a wireless monitoring system, using AI to improve workflow and make systems more efficient and companies who are brought a problem and use technology and AI to solve it.
There were some incredible ideas, and it was even better to see the majority were born out of the Hunter.
