Alan is the co-founder and Managing Director of Imvelo.ai. He has extensive experience in senior operational, corporate and academic roles in the resources industry and has worked in 15 countries covering 9 commodities. Board roles include Chair of Orexplore, NED of Ideon, AIM Intelligent Machines and a member of the Federal Government’s Critical Minerals advisory board.

Alan was previously the Vice President Technology at BHP, in his global role he was accountable for the execution of major technology and innovation programs across 5 commodity value chains. Designing and de-risking BHP’s future mining operations, establishing strategic partnerships and implementing digital and extractive technologies.

Academic roles have included the Professor of Digital Value Chains at Curtin University and Professor of Mining and Geology at the University of Queensland

Alan founded the Cooperative Research Centre for Optimising Resource Extraction (CRC ORE) as Chief Executive. CRC ORE was a $150m venture involving 34 partners with the purpose of ‘Transforming Mining to an Advanced Manufacturing Industry’. He has a PhD in mining engineering, a BSc in geology and is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology Science and Engineering.

Designing and Operating Automated, Connected and Electric Mines

As an industry how do we improve productivity and deliver on our decarbonisation goals?

Capital, labour and Multifactor Productivity has been in broad decline in the mining industry over the last 30 years. One of the main drivers for this is the declining grades of ore bodies and associated increase in waste mining, water and energy intensity. Perhaps most importantly, our growing social and environmental responsibilities will need to be funded through productivity gains. There is currently a significant focus on renewable technologies which must be accompanied by an evolution in mine design, operating models and productivity, anchored in the deep understanding of our orebodies.