The world is becoming more conscious about how their behavior today affects generations of tomorrow. Today, more people demand for a reduced impact on the social and physical environment than ever before and this trend is increasing – starting at the top of the supply chain – the sourcing of products we so much desire.
Reduced impact in the earliest stages of sourcing, results in the need to increase the availability of non-invasive mineral exploration technologies and create awareness, as well as distribute know-how on topics such as social and environmental compatibility of operations in mineral exploration.
However, novel technologies claiming to detect raw materials more efficiently and with a higher accuracy flood the market with false promises, while know-how on responsive operations only settles slowly.
The value proposition of the ERS is to enable players from the mineral exploration industry to increase the know-how about their non-invasive technologies in the field and make better decisions related to the social engagement and environmental friendliness of the operations.
INFACT aims at addressing this problem, providing reference sites for demonstrating the abilities of a technology or method while offering consulting and skill development programs for social and environmental compatibility of operations.
Yet, while these are the project objectives, the INFACT consortium have been exploring ways to translate these goals into service and product offerings, that can outlast the funding period of INFACT and make a lasting impact in the future.
Throughout this process the seemingly simple question of ‘How can we build innovative sustainable capacity in the mineral exploration industry?’ was addressed from the perspective of geosciences, social sciences as well as in discussions with potential customers and stakeholder from politics and industry.
The result being a serious business model comprising of three distinct service offerings that design a more sustainable future not in isolation but in a collaborative effort. Reference Sites Services, Consultancy Services and Skill Development Services are the three service pillars on which the commercial pathway for INFACT’s collective objectives rests.
Now – what value proposition stands behind these services? Let’s switch seats and pretend we already have a business. This is what we as INFACT want to offer you – a technology developer, an exploration company or a consultant, aware of the requirement of less invasive and more responsible future.
Shorter Time to market
The reference sites serve the need for easy access to robust referencing grounds
Because developing reliable proof of concept of the performance of technologies used to be difficult to obtain, innovative technologies did not enter the market. Hence, even though less-invasive technologies are at high maturity level, lingering investment risks reduced their ability to penetrate the market. At the same time, such market entry barriers, reduce the potential for technology spillovers from other industries with similar functionalities and application cases.
Therefore, the ERS is a sustainability driven approach where companies can leverage INFACT’s unique combination of test grounds for demonstrating technological capabilities and geoscientific resources for technology transfer. The capabilities beyond the pure access to the test sites enable companies with little knowledge on mineral exploration practices to undertake cutting-edge research and product development and generate technology transfers to increase the innovative capacity of the industry.
One stop shop consultancy
Facilitating the search for know-how on novel practices in geo-, social-, and environmental sciences.
From time to time almost every company needs the support of an experienced consultant to screen new technologies, analyses the campaigning process and meet the requirements of the social and physical environment. These requirements are particularly high when the company is located abroad and different areas of knowledge are required. To minimize potentially high search costs for the right advice, ERS offers one-stop consulting and thus “a complete solution package” for sustainable and innovative capacity building in the company. Different to other consulting offerings, the ERS with its pool or renowned experts assists companies with all aspects identifying and understanding novel technologies to improving the social and environmental compatibility of their operation. Onsite and offsite consulting on novel less invasive mineral exploration technologies, social engagement and environmental friendliness can support the operations of companies beyond testing and demonstrating single methods or technologies.
Building capacity
Skills availability and development
In addition the ERS will be become a go to place for advancing the knowledge of individuals on the topics of high-end non-invasive mineral exploration technologies and renowned and effective practices for social engagement and environmental friendliness of operations. Offering personal certification courses and trainings for career entrants aiming to improve their CV’s and companies who thrive to increase their accumulated know-how on present topics. Trainings are provided on-site and off-site, ensuring that the theoretical knowledge obtained can be applied in the field.
What can we learn from this?
INFACT is a perfect example of a project with the huge potential for a new commercial solution that helps an entire industry to tackle systemic challenges by increasing the innovative power and the know-how of the entire industry. Watch our project to learn more about the Sustainability in Mineral Exploration as we wrap our heads around the present and future challenges of the industry and the society over the coming months ideating, benchmarking and testing innovative less invasive and fully acceptable solutions for mineral exploration!
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