You are invited to the 9th “World Coking Coal Resources and Markets” forum. Like other industries in the 21st century, mining is seeing a growing number of start-up companies across mining-related operations: at the start of 2018 nearly 200 start-ups were operating in the sector, located all over the world.
What is a start-up? The Oxford Dictionary defines a start-up as “a newly established business”. Writing in Forbes, Natalie Robehmed notes that “the key attribute of a start-up is its ability to grow… it is a company designed to scale very quickly”, and that a start-up, by definition, does not have to be tech-oriented (Robehmed, 2013).
Start-ups are popular well beyond mining. Many innovative ideas come out of them, and traditional mining companies can draw on these in the near future. Investors see value in backing start-ups, and mining lags other sectors in digitalisation — so there is huge potential to bring cutting-edge technology and innovation into the sector through these companies.
Start-ups cover most mining activities, and the services, solutions and products they offer the wider industry are fascinating. Traditional miners should draw on them rather than invent everything themselves, accelerating their own progress towards sustainable mining — a vital consideration given rising expectations around the social licence to operate.
Working with start-ups also brings an outside perspective into the mining business, potentially leading to new, creative solutions to existing industry problems.
As Figure 1 shows, start-up investors have opened new start-ups gradually, and the upward trend of recent years is a positive sign for the health of the industry after the recent downturn: investors clearly see value in mining start-ups.