"We believe that the Western Australian energy and mining sectors can become world leaders in digitalisation," resources lead for Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Ann Burns said.

 

"Crucial to this is a focus on what we refer to as ‘triple zero': ideas, design and technologies that help achieve zero harm to workers and machines, zero loss across the value chain, and zero waste for sustainability."

 

During a tour of the hub, she told Mining Journal zero waste was not just about recycling, energy and water efficiency but about how to find wealth in what was considered waste.

 

"This isn't a space where you come and look at lots and lots of demos, this is a space where we create time and space for you to think through these problems and approach them with a different perspective, taking into account design and advanced technologies," she said.

 

Once through the entrance to the hub, which was designed to be similar to the entrance to a mine site, users can also tap into expertise in Accenture's other 100 hubs around the world.

 

Global mining lead David Burns explained one of the solutions developed by an Accenture hub was a gesture control and voice recognition system for a copper producer, enabling workers to record the quality of copper cathode without risking hand injuries.

 

Digital mining lead ANZ George Long showcased the ability to test and simulate the mine of the future with various scenarios, including exploration and end-to-end optimisation, using DARQ technologies, namely distributed ledger technology, artificial intelligence, extended reality and quantum computing.

 

"This is really to inspire and get those creative juices thinking," he said.

 

"The DARQ technologies are the ones out that are sitting there on the bleeding edge but we know that there'll be new ones that are coming… and as such we can continue to scale.

 

"Digital technology is really the enabler for the transformation we're going through at the moment but if you're not actually looking at different technologies in relation to how you transform your business - transforming the core, growing the core and scaling the new, in a ratio that actually makes sense - there'll be missed opportunities."

 

Mining lead ANZ Dean Felton demonstrated the Connected Mine system, which could pull in data from a variety of sources from SAP to an excel document, which could provide an end-to-end overview of an operation, but also drill down to data on individual equipment and provide alerts when necessary, such as for truck maintenance.

 

Felton said mines often ran to plan, not their potential and the technology could bring visibility to losses in an operation and the way to push them out of the system.

 

Operational technology and cybersecurity lead Ray Griffiths touched on the risks facing the oil and gas industry, explaining the curated database Accenture could search to assess potential security threats.

 

The hub also includes a Liquid Studio to enable clients to rapidly develop prototypes, a 3D printing space and its mobile innovation studio is expected to launch in 2020 for developing and testing new products, services, and strategies.