The youth perspective on the industry

The youngest presenter at this year‘s CIM Connect was Nivritti Vikram, a sixth grade student of Rotherglen School in Toronto, which gave a special presentation entitled “The Power of Sustainability: Responsible Mining and Resource Management (a 12-year-old‘s views)” during the CEO Lunch on May 13 and at the Delegates Lunch on May 15.

“It’s clear that I‘I am neither a CEO nor a subject matter expert, Nor as experienced as all of you are in this roomshe told the audience. “However, I hope you will see that what I lack in experience, I make up for in my passion and ambitions for a bright, positive and sustainable future for my generation and beyond.”

Vikramwhose parents are both engineers, heard about CIM Connect‘S call for abstracts and decided to put forward her ideas on responsible mining and resource management. “Personally, I think it would be a great opportunity for everyone in this room to understand what goes through the minds of kids like me when we talk about mining.,” she explained. “THe is important, just like my generation are the future miners, process plant operators or even mining CEOs.”

Before preparing her presentation, Vikram questioned her colleague sixth graders to see what her generation thinks about mining, and the results were not positive. Her classmates replied that they were thinking about mining is dangerous, dirty and That people work in bad conditions. Their perception is that mining destroys rainforests, emits carbon dioxide, destroys plant and animal life, destroys land that could otherwise be beneficial for food production or communities, and that it It uses water and leaves people without drinking water.

“It is clear that my generation has associated mining with an industry that is dirty, irresponsible and water-consuming and that produces carbon,” said Vikram. “Simply put: David Attenborough’s Antichrist.”

She asked her classmates what they thought our world should look like, and the answer was clear—they want a future where we live in harmony with nature.

Vikram noted that her father always tells her that if something wasn’t farmed, it was mined. “I explained to my friends that all things…by steel, solar panels and even the TV we watch David Attenborough on – all come from metals from mines, and mines are as important as the food we eat,” she said.

However, Vikram recognized that not all mines are equal, and that hair colleague sixth–graders I do have a point. “If (mining). is not sustainable, then it becomes irrelevant,” she said. “It’s time to listen to the sixth graders.”

Vikram had several ideas about how the mining industry could do that meet the expectations of her peersespecially in terms of land use, biodiversity, water and energy. She believes that in-situ mining needs to become more mainstream to reduce this mine waste, and so could selective mining an option where in-situ mining is not possible. “It could be easier to get tons of rock out of the ground hopes to get a few grams of gold out of it,” she said. “However, it makes little sense for sustainability.”

She also pointed to several sustainable technologies in the mining sector, including battery-electric vehicles, Anglo American’s hydrogen-powered transport trucks, Epiroc and BluVeins slotted e-rail system, gravity–based energy storage and small modular reactors for energy generation.

“All these technologies and innovations already exist, so what’s the problem?” Vikram asked. “I think are everything that has to do with industry. Governments, investors and communities all have different and sometimes mutually exclusive expectations.

“The only way I see mining becoming relevant is when all these stakeholders come together as one.”