Yes. Chile is a pioneer and a world leader. In 2017, through a public-private partnership coordinated by. Fundación ChileThe Technological Program for the Creation and Adoption of International Standards for Mining Interoperability (Interop) was created to reach a consensus on a worldwide standard to enable the technological integration of the industry, allow the entry of new players and improve productivity.
In September 2019, a Chilean delegation led by Interop director Juan Jara presented a draft standard to the International Society of Automation (ISA1OO). They proposed that the document be used as the basis for a global model, which was approved. According to Jara:
“Chile is a country with a high demand for technologies for the mining sector, which has historically been implementing new technologies coming from countries with a more developed technology industry. However, it had not been able to influence the development of these technologies until now.”
What can mining startups do?
Beyond the great institutional efforts that are being made, at Octopus we think that startups, from our own sidewalk, have a lot to contribute to the development of interoperability. How?
Whatever our field of action within the mining chain, we must always be alert and curious about processes that are beyond the reach of our technology. Continuous questioning:
What information from other upstream processes and systems could my technology use to add more value? Which downstream processes could benefit from consuming information handled by my system? Recognizing that we live in a much broader ecosystem than our own “home court” can open our eyes to unexplored opportunities that can generate additional value to our products and services.
Clearly define our value proposition, identifying our competitive advantages and also those tasks in which a third party could do it better, or perhaps, faster than us.
In the case of Octopus Mining for example, we define our niche in data mining (using artificial intelligence and machine learning models), but not in data generation. To this end, we are constantly looking for potential IoT expert partners with whom we can integrate to provide added value on the data generated.
Perhaps the most important: Collaborate and Interoperate with other suppliers and startups. Constantly ask (and look for): Is there another startup with which, if we interoperate, we could generate greater value together than if we acted individually? And the earlier this interaction takes place, the better, since compatible products can be designed from the very beginning.
In this sense, today there are open innovation platforms such as Expand and that represent a valuable space for mining-related startups, not only to connect with potential customers, but also precisely to connect with other ventures, with whom to explore the joint opportunities that interoperability can bring.
