The metallurgical industry has a poor record of starting-up new technology and new processes. Though we frequently hear complaints that the minerals industry is conservative, that record suggests otherwise. Many financiers think the minerals industry is serially over-optimistic and takes reckless risks with their funds. When considering whether to lend funds, the last words they want to hear are ‘innovative new technology’. Most industry professionals are familiar with McNulty curves (Figure 1) to summarise plant start-ups. McNulty (1998) said the bad start-ups, Type 4, are often innovative technology, do not have enough pilot testing, and may have cut corners cut in engineering. A Type 4 plant takes four years to reach 60 per cent of design. We will discuss some recent major Australian plants that eventually wrestled to a Type 4 performance. And some more recent examples that fell woefully short of even a Type 4 start-up.