Everyday users of mobile phones aren’t the only ones awaiting the much-hyped arrival of universal fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks. The mining industry also sees an exciting opportunity for evolution as it continues to invest in new technologies, with high speeds and real-time connectivity opening the door to a revolution underground.

One major player facilitating the introduction of 5G is Verizon. Robert Le Busque, vice-president for the company’s Asia-Pacific operations, says the technology offers miners a unique and valuable opportunity to drive the sector towards a digital transformation, especially in core markets such as Australia.

“We know that Australia’s mining industry plays a huge role in the country’s economy. The mining sector is a perfect example of how new technologies, such as private 5G, can transform an entire industry and keep Australia at the global forefront.”

Le Busque says 5G has the potential to deliver the high-speed connections needed to support a wide range of new applications that require more performance than 4G can deliver.

“Over 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE), network latency – the time it takes for a data packet to make a round trip between two points – was cut in half from 3G, with response times from 15ms to 60ms versus 120ms. That remains the industry benchmark. But over a 5G network, latency could drop to 10ms, making lag times nearly undetectable.”

Combine this speed with scale and automation, and the technology comes into its own: 5G can support up to one million devices per square kilometre. These capabilities were unthinkable in a 4G world. “The shift from 4G to 5G is massive,” Le Busque says.

5G and automation could revolutionise mining

Morgan Rody is the senior project manager for automation and interoperability at the technology and digital division of equipment and infrastructure specialists Epiroc. He says 5G could revolutionise mining on a number of fronts, including accelerating ongoing efforts to implement automation.

“Fewer human workers underground always equals increased safety. As autonomy gains traction and proves to safely increase production, we will see fewer human workers in the underground environments and this will be a direct result of
the inclusion of 5G,” says Rody.

“This is not to say autonomy can’t happen without 5G, but for it to happen at scale, there needs to be more bandwidth available with increased reliability. A handful of machines can be successfully autonomous today using 4G or Wi-Fi, but if we are to increase that to a fleet of 20, 50 or more machines, 5G will be a vital component in that journey.”

Rody notes that the technology will also enable control rooms to move above ground. “Again, this is already happening today, but larger and more centralised control rooms – perhaps connected to and controlling a number of mine production sites globally – will become the new normal.”

Le Busque says 5G is the ideal technology to drive automation forward. “In its most basic sense, a simple boost in wireless speed and bandwidth improves responsiveness,” he explains. “Many machine-focused applications require a high level of integration
and interaction between individual devices and controllers or servers.”

The amount of data that must be transferred and aggregated to support real-time machine applications – such as industrial automation and autonomous vehicles – is enormous. As these application ecosystems evolve, it is likely that they will become even more hungry for bandwidth to deliver improved business outcomes.

Rody also flags the arrival of large-scale audio-visual technology. HD video, for example, could be transmitted from mining machines to control rooms with zero lag.

“By creating communication ‘lanes’ you can split video, telematics data, near real-time data and command critical data, creating an efficient network where the ‘lanes’ cannot interfere with one another,” he says.

This increased visibility and separation will further enhance safe and successful automation.

Le Busque points out that there are also significant benefits in terms of security. “5G itself doesn’t introduce new risks; it is simply a means of transporting internet protocol (IP) traffic,” he says. “One of the big differences with 5G is that a lot of the learnings from 3G and 4G when it came to security have been embedded into 5G architecture.”

The standard – created by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) – is centred on security. New capabilities and architecture concepts have been built into 3GPP and subsequently used for 5G to help safeguard network transport.

5G also enables Zero Trust, a concept that ensures no component of the network can execute an action or transmit data to another entity without authentication
and authorisation.

“Additionally, 5G incorporates comprehensive encryption standards and encryption methodologies, so data is secured and encrypted in transit,” says Le Busque.

Companies will also be able to use 5G to improve efficiencies. Le Busque says real-time data will be more readily available via mobile apps to facilitate predictive maintenance and cut equipment downtime. Improved connectivity and better data processing power across more devices will pave the way for more responsive supply chains that have greater visibility of production.

Helping companies reduce their carbon footprint is another positive benefit. “Mining sites can manage energy and control emissions by monitoring heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) and lighting systems, reduce unnecessary use and provide timely maintenance,” says Le Busque.

Local and national authorities will need to work together to ensure even coverage

Rody says some mining operators will be better placed to benefit from 5G technology than others, given the variance in local infrastructure standards. Cooperation and collaboration between the industry, governments and telecoms companies at a local level will be vital to a successful rollout.

“Any wireless network requires a number of access points or towers – or a mixture of both – and these need to be placed throughout the target environment so they offer the best coverage,” he says.

“We are seeing that the host country can provide the 5G network to the mine site and then it is up to the mine to supply the remaining infrastructure. So here we see a mix of host country public and private mine infrastructures working together. This is quite new in the mining industry and more telecoms operators are starting to see the opportunities here. Their participation in this is important.”

Le Busque agrees that this local buy-in is crucial and says policy is now keeping pace with innovation, with governments providing incentives for system integrators and solution providers to invest in the technology.

He cites 5G innovation grants in Singapore and the allocation of private 5G spectrum in Australia, Germany, the UK and Japan as examples of how governments, regulators and industry are working together.

Support has been particularly strong in Australia, a key market for Verizon and a global mining powerhouse. “The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is facilitating a variety of licence types in the 26GHz and 28GHz bands (mmWave) for the deployment of 5G technology,” says Le Busque.

“The regulator also plans to include area-wide apparatus licences (AWLs), class licences for low-power devices and spectrum licensing in the 26GHz band to cater to the deployment of dense networks in areas that are highly populated.”

It’s envisaged mmWave in the 26GHz and 28GHz bands will support a wide range of 5G uses across the transport, health and education sectors in addition to advanced manufacturing and mining. It will also be used for wireless broadband, satellite communications and the internet of things.

The rollout is ongoing but challenges remain

Since October 2020, Verizon has been working on an international private 5G business platform for Europe and Asia-Pacific. The launch project – in partnership with Nokia – promised businesses a private industrial grade dedicated 5G network capability on their own premises.

Each private network would be self-contained and house its own components – including micro-towers and small cells – on site. It would connect to a local area network (LAN) and other applications. It’s this type of setup that miners are looking to exploit. Currently testing is being done on 4G LTE hardware and networks.

“How that will differ from the final 5G infrastructure is not yet finalised and this is something that is evolving as the testing progresses,” says Rody.

While trials have been under way at various sites worldwide for a number of years, the actual pace of change has been slow. “This is normal in the mining industry – fast adoption of any new technology is not what the mining industry is known for,” Rody says.

“We see the main push coming from global players that have high ambitions for mining automation and have already trialled automation solutions for a decade or longer. In the past two years, interest in 5G technology has increased and there are more trials planned in 2021 and 2022. I think a wider uptake will be in direct connection to a mine’s autonomous ambitions.”

However, hurdles to the large-scale integration of 5G remain. Rody says that in addition to winning backing from telecoms operators at a national level, there’s a need to build up the right competencies in terms of using and understanding the technology.

“Although there are some similarities between a Wi-Fi network and a cellular network, there are still a great deal of new configurations available and here there is a
clear knowledge gap,” he says.

“Getting telecoms operators and mines talking together in the ‘same language’ is also an issue we face and here a lot of patience is required on both sides. A great deal of this is still new territory, but together we are taking huge steps forward towards a joint 5G future, which will help deliver safer mining sites with large scale autonomous fleets producing more ore than ever before.”

This article first appeared in World Mining Frontiers magazine, Vol. 1 2021.

The post Wide bandwidth and wide-ranging benefits: why miners are investing in 5G appeared first on NS Energy.

Finance Director Europe looks at how automation of accounts receivable can put a company’s data to work – and unlock new opportunities for value creation.

Everyone likes to get paid for their work – and the quicker they get paid, the happier they are. This is true on an individual level, and at enterprise level.

Swift and seamless payment of invoices enables a business to put its revenue to work and build towards the next stage in its growth.

Conversely, delays in payments from customers restrict cash flow, diminish working capital and, ultimately, hold back a business from pursuing its strategic goals.

The order-to-cash (O2C) process is where these pain points arise and is therefore a natural place for organisations to focus – with accounts receivable perhaps the most critical area of all. Until now, however, it has often been overlooked in the search for efficiency.

Enterprises may understand the need to avoid late payments, manage disputes effectively and keep days sales outstanding (DSO) to a minimum. But they often have highly inefficient processes in place.

Much of the AR process is still handled manually, workflows are complex and inefficient, and the collections process is frequently dogged by manual errors, inaccuracies and delays.

In other words, conventionally managing AR is by no means easy. There are numerous components to address, from multiple internal and external data feeds to the complex reporting obligations.

The importance of AR in accelerating cash flow, keeping a firm grip on DSO, improving invoice management and, fundamentally, creating stronger customer relationships nevertheless means that the complexity must be met head-on and conquered.

The question is how a company can quickly affect meaningful change to control DSO, increase the productivity of employees in the AR function, improve cash flow, manage disputes and improve customer engagement. The answer is automation.

Accelerating automation

The market for AR automation has already seen explosive growth in recent years, and the pace of that growth is set to quicken. Adroit Market Research estimates that the market could be worth $4bn by 2025, as companies wake up to the advantages of removing manual and paper-based processes.

As adoption continues to grow in key industry sectors such as manufacturing, finance, retail and consumer goods, the gains could be significant.

A study from Market Insights Reports, which has looked at the potential expansion of the market between 2021 and 2025, concludes that automation across returns processing, workflow management, customer support management, accounting and finance, ERP management and marketing, and consumer behaviour analysis could save as much as $2trn globally – by eliminating the human element from many key tasks.

The rapid growth of the e-commerce sector is also a powerful force driving AR automation. Online sales in the US, for instance, are expected to double by 2023, meaning they will account for as much as 25% of the retail sector.

Some of the growth in online sales – and in the digitalisation of transactions in general – has been driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has pushed businesses and their customers to increasingly virtual interactions.

In such an environment, finance leaders need to look at how digital transformation can be implemented in the AR process, and consider which technologies might help them to achieve results in the most efficient way.

The growth in the automation space has been fuelled partly by the efforts of solution providers to cater for growing demand.

Some of those companies have a very broad approach to enterprise processes, while others – notably HighRadius – are highly focused on the AR space and the application of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and workflow optimisation tools in the O2C process.

Ultimately a CFO needs to find a technology provider that will help unlock the value of internal and external data – and embed data-led intelligence into day-to-day finance practices like AR.

This requires a vendor with intimate knowledge of both processes and pain points, as well as the ability to combine both business and technological expertise to automate manual tasks and integrate all of the requisite data feeds.

Embracing digitalisation

The CFO can undertake a comprehensive review of the O2C process and identify where delays and disruption are caused by manual processes, thereby determining where automation might bring the greatest advantage.

However, the move to automation can only be made when they fully accept that the less human input there is in AR, the more efficiently the process will flow.

The technical aspects of improving productivity in the AR function and centralising key data feeds are simple enough for vendors like HighRadius – thanks to the ongoing development of solutions and a constant hunger for innovation.

Many financial institutions and retail businesses, along with other industry sectors, have proved this point already.

HighRadius has, for example, delivered tangible results to the likes of global nutrition brand Danone, ride-sharing giant Uber, and Swiss insurance company Zurich – whether to reduce days deductions outstanding (DDO) or days sales outstanding (DSO), or to accelerate cash application.

That said, it is not only large multinational enterprises that are benefitting from AR automation. SMEs are also seeing the opportunity to improve efficiency and optimise cash flow. A large proportion of US SMEs are reported to have integrated some workflow automation, or are considering it, and that trend is spreading fast around the world.

Though it counts many multinationals among its clients, HighRadius has also developed its solutions to suit middling enterprises that don’t have the IT resources to consolidate on an ERP platform but still want to automate and streamline their receivables and treasury processes.

The key to this is a suite of cloud-based, AI-driven solutions that help companies to get the best from their people – who it supports with tools designed to assist with better, faster, data-driven decision-making.

Finding the perfect partner

The philosophy of HighRadius is to find the synergies that arise when humans and machines work together, optimising the efficiencies of automation. The company’s autonomous collection solution is a prime example of this drive to data-driven decision support.

The solution manages workflow, optimises call lists and initiatives calls, captures essential features from customer interactions and creates action items, leaving the agent to do what they do best – engage with customers.

Behind that capability is the core of the company’s platform, which draws together multiple data feeds and formats from across the enterprise, integrating them with external data sources to identify and prioritise the customer calls that need to be made, or the disputes that need to be managed.

All of this is delivered using cloud-based, software-as-a-services (SaaS) technology, which gives organisations a central repository of AR information that can be easily and securely accessed from anywhere.

As the cloud, AI and ML increasingly pervade all aspects of forward-looking businesses, CFOs would do well to consider how they can transform the AR process – which is crucial to a company’s strategic planning and future growth.

CFOs will increasingly be required to make sure that customer touchpoints in the finance function are aligned with the broader digital transformation process that so many firms are starting to undertake.

“As the cloud, AI and ML increasingly pervade all aspects of forward-looking businesses, CFOs would do well to consider how they can transform the AR process – which is so crucial to a company’s strategic planning and future growth.”

The benefits for customers, meanwhile, will be the ease with which they can pay invoices – vital in a world where online businesses are taking customer service to the next level. Naturally, engagement with suppliers will improve too. For those suppliers, improved cash flow will be the foundation of their strategic development.

In the latest IDC MarketScape Report, one quote read: “Consider HighRadius when you are looking for an O2C platform capable of handling large, complex processes and IT landscapes,” proving the quality of service and partnership that HighRadius offers.

The right partner will have the tools to both take the strain of traditionally manual processes – and empower the humans in the loop to operate more effectively and actually apply their skills where they are most needed.

Embarking on a journey towards AR automation seems inevitable for many enterprises. But the first step – finding the right solution provider – is the most important of all.

Download the full, exclusive FDE supplement on AR Automation, produced in partnership with HighRadius.

This article originally appeared in FDE summer 2021.

The post The future of AR in a digital age appeared first on NS Energy.

The digital revolution has generated many new benefits for businesses. As organisations become more connected, internally and externally, they are able to tap into wider sources of data for greater depth and nuance, and can store, analyse and aggregate data to power predictive and prescriptive analytics.

Across a range of applications, from real-time supply chain monitoring to sentiment analysis, businesses can now get a view of their customer and operational trends in order to deliver hyper-personalised offerings and slicker user experiences. In short, businesses can now make more data-led decisions with CFOs leading the way.

Any CFOs determined to reach that point will recognise the challenges: siloes between functions need to be broken down and collaboration must improve – with feedback delivered quicker and more accurately to underpin strategic decisions with real rigour.

Achieve that, and the benefits – from better customer experiences to more efficient cash management and sustainable growth – will come into view.

Creating synergy 

“The big shift during the pandemic has been a greater focus on improving forecasts and prescriptive insights – everything in finance’s transformation journey is working towards that,” says Vivek Saxena, F&A service line leader at Genpact, who points to the removal of barriers between functions as a vital element in driving improvements in forecasting and other modelling functions.

“Rather than input coming from business functions and finance trying to interpret it, now finance can get a genuine conversation going where insight is shared between functions,” he says. So, what do these new data-led insights deliver across the business more broadly?

“When they become an integral part of operations, finance will be able to provide the business with better insight on demand,” says Saxena. “We see many other functions complain about having to wait until the end of the month for that, but if you can shorten the length of that cycle then business partnering will inevitably improve.”

“Leading finance functions are focused on making data intelligent,” he says, pointing to better collaboration, faster, better decisions, value creation, innovation and growth within the business, as well as an improvement in the quality of forecasts and risk modelling.

“And it should also – with the right approach – begin to improve integration and communication with suppliers, vendors and partners,” says Saxena.

“Running data analytics applications empowers finance teams. These teams will change shape and focus – they will understand their business segments better and they will combine knowledge of past events with a keen eye on future trends.” Saxena’s view is simple: CFOs must understand the past and present to predict the future.

This is where machine-based forecasting is coming to the fore. But he emphasises that technology alone can only process data faster, it can’t interpret it. This is why organisations still need their finance experts with an understanding of the business and industry to clarify how the forecasts will impact the business.

Intelligent decisions 

Genpact CFO Ed Fitzpatrick believes that to harness the transformative power of analytics, first organisations must consolidate, organise and make sense of data and then provide dashboards with insights that people can use to make more informed decisions. And new technology, particularly artificial intelligence and machine learning, are helping CFOs make sense of data in real time.

“One of the biggest benefits is that the volume of data is spreading across the organisation – now as CFO I’m looking at data across the business, not just internal but external data,” he says. “That might be industry-specific data, customer data, competitor data and so on. And, increasingly, we will use AI to organise the data and highlight potential challenges and opportunities.

“Think of accounts receivables,” he continues. “If we can highlight your top five customers that are likely to default based on the data you have access to, such as past performance and invoice discrepancies – pulling all that data together helps highlight where the receivable collection focus should be. Being able to get through such high volumes with speed is a game changer.”

And that’s not the only example of data married to intelligent analysis. “Touchless accounts payable is certainly possible, but it takes two to tango,” Fitzpatrick points out. Vendors also need to be up to speed in terms of automation. “It’s that combination of process and industry expertise coupled with the right technology that is essential.”

Because, as Andy Halford, CFO of Standard Chartered, explains, data for its own sake is close to useless. How it is used to improve the business represents the real step forward. “Ultimately, I think that finance functions will increasingly be judged by the quality of the advice that they’re giving to the management team and in a way the traditional processing of data will be done by default,” he says.

“So CFOs need to use data to deliver a 360º view of the business: about how you make information more forward-looking and less backward-looking, and how to determine if it could add value to what the business does, rather than simply presenting interesting facts.”

Working smart

Widening out the net to include internal and external data is a powerful way to secure competitive advantage. Companies across sectors must consider every piece of insight to help them to understand why customers behave the way they do, and how to deliver products and services to meet those needs. And increasingly that goes beyond simple quantitative data into unstructured, qualitative data gathered through, for example, social media and other sources.

This data provides the opportunity to see gaps in services, consumer needs and experiences and plug those with partnerships that benefit both parties. As a CFO working in financial services, Halford is well aware that the competition from the new digital challengers presents a great opportunity to drive growth, develop new income streams and provide the services and experience customers want and businesses can learn from.

Halford’s experience using technology to drive better strategy is especially compelling. Standard Charted has, in recent years, used a data-led approach to secure partnerships with competing players in the sector – many of which lack the necessary capability to meet rigorous regulatory requirements.

“Some of those businesses that have direct customer contact don’t want to actually get into the details of all that complex banking delivery,” Halford says, explaining that Standard Chartered have worked with retailers to integrate a wider set of financial services into their offering.

“If we can help them make the purchasing process simpler, through the use of a simple bolt-on which offers customers the chance to access credit facilities for other products, we can actually make that process seamless, and leave it with the other party to actually deliver.” That type of intelligent partnering, Halford believes, represents a benefit for all parties.

But of course, it relies on technology that can flex and scale as the business opens up new markets. In other words, innovation must sit at the heart of that process, as evidenced by one of Standard Chartered’s flagship projects currently running in Indonesia, where the bank has partnered with an online retailer to seamlessly offer credit products via the retailer’s website – offering the customer the chance to buy more with fewer clicks.

The aim is to combine Standard Chartered’s credit checking abilities with the retailer’s well-developed customer service offering, and the collaborative project then allows for increased credit availability among various consumer groups.

Halford adds, “The front end is seamless – why would a bank choose to not go down that route? It will still do the same credit vetting but with the right partner, it may source more interesting retail customers and therefore there could be a win-win in that situation.”

Predict and pre-empt

Halford is one of many CFOs who now prioritises the use of analytics to develop an understanding of public perceptions, a vital factor for a business in a ruthlessly competitive sector. “We monitor, as I’m sure many businesses do, feedback from customers which we take from samples on a regular basis,” he says. “We look at their propensity to recommend our brand, for instance, while we also track the positive or negative bias of the media articles.”

The bank also conducts extensive polling on the recognition of its brand in different places and communities, and through its Liverpool FC sponsorship, it does a lot of work to understand whether that is extending the company’s reach. “So we’ve got a number of tentacles out that are constantly feeding information back,” Halford says of the efforts to understand customer desires and adapt its offerings accordingly.

Ilkka Hara, CFO of Kone, a manufacturer and service provider of elevators, escalators and flow solutions, says that technology now makes it much easier for CFOs to track, not only customer sentiment but also to deliver a hyper-personalised customer experience. “We’ve been in a very good position to start using technology to provide something which is extremely valuable to our customers,” he explains.

Under Hara’s guidance, Kone has invested in technology that allows the business to tailor maintenance packages to meet individual customer needs. “So every individual contract that we sign today is unique, but then with that, we also get feedback every day,” notes Hara. “With a broader set of data coming in from the field we can better understand exactly the maintenance service that customers want to buy.”

Hara believes Kone is better equipped to gain foresight about what exactly the customer actually needs from the products or services, and where Kone can provide value and solve the issues around that directly.

Hara’s work at Kone is an example of how the use of AI-led analytics can really make a difference in how the business operates, as well as what it can offer for its various business partners.

With over 1.4 million elevators in its maintenance base across its many customers, the CFO says he needs to analyse high volumes of data to better understand how to offer service solutions to a fragmented and varied customer base.

“So, for example, robotic process automation is one which can be a solution to easily automate the data collection and analysis process around a diverse set of customers and their requirements.

“With our KONE 24/7 connected services solution, we are actually getting real-time feedback on the usage of those elevators. And the more data you get, the quicker you learn. I think that’s quite an exciting position to be in at this point,” he says.

This new method of accessing data analytics allows companies to respond and adapt immediately, allowing for greater – and faster – innovation than was previously possible. It is the CFOs willing to embrace this reality who find themselves most equipped to benefit.

Ultimately, Hara and his fellow CFOs are now in a far better position to deliver sharper insights and more accurate forecasting, and create a more agile, intelligent enterprise.

Read Genpact’s ‘CFOs Empowering Enterprise in the Age of Instinct’ report in full.

This article originally appeared in FDE summer 2021.

The post The big picture: How CFOs can develop smart strategies through analytics and insight appeared first on NS Energy.

CFOs are increasingly vital to these changes, using data to increase transparency, deliver insight on performance, and enable their companies to take a more ethical approach. With the help of senior finance leaders from across business, Finance Director Europe explores how the CFO can take the lead.

Traditionally, many CFOs might have answered questions about corporate purpose with a simple response: to control costs, increase revenue, manage risks and deliver value to shareholders, owners and investors.

However, it’s fair to say that the past decade has seen the emergence of a number of trends that now demand input from the finance function.

These questions include: what is long-term value? Who are we ultimately accountable to? What does the company exist for? And how are we developing our people so that they become well-rounded and fulfilled professionals able to make a genuine contribution to the company and beyond?

A defining question

It’s a question that Andy Halford, CFO of Standard Chartered, feels must involve the CFO.

“There’s no doubt we’ve moved on from the days when a corporation could just look at itself as a self-contained entity with just a few shareholders and say: ‘Let’s make some money and that is it.’”

Nowadays, however, society, customers and employees demand a great deal more from businesses. They are expecting a contribution to local communities through worthwhile employment and sustainable environmental practices such as paying the right level of tax and rooting out bribery and corruption.

In short, it’s clear that businesses that don’t adapt will soon suffer.

Halford believes the CFO is crucial in defining not only how the business plays its role in wider society – but also in how it views itself alongside the growing and improving competition.

“The whole issue of purpose is wrapped up in the question of what will help my business stand out from the crowd? What do we want to do that will resonate with our employees and will make them proud to work for us? How can we help our communities? The word ‘purpose’ is real – it’s not just something you put on the shelf and pick back up occasionally.”

These questions are at the heart of what Standard Chartered does in its environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting.

And it is leading to clear action: the bank recently launched its first sustainability bond, aiming to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges in underfunded regions, and bringing cheap and reliable financing to where it matters most, it seems clear that the bank is serious about its obligations.

Indeed, the majority of the €500m bond proceeds will finance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in emerging markets, including providing good jobs and growth, helping develop industry and infrastructure, and supporting affordable and clean energy.

“The whole question of purpose is wrapped up in that: what is it that’s going to make my business stand out from the crowd? What is it that we want to do that will resonate with our employees and will make them proud of working for us?”– Andy Halford, CFO, Standard Chartered

A broader perspective

Integrating a company’s purpose into how it plans to grow, where it wants to operate, and how it sees its place in the larger ecosystem are questions that few organisations might naturally direct towards finance.

But the explosion of new sources of data – and the ability to analyse how they affect both the bottom line and broader questions of sustainability – means that this is beginning to change.

“We are seeing companies making strides in areas like emissions and supply chain and clean energy,” says Vivek Saxena, F&A service line leader at Genpact.

“And it requires a clear framework in terms of disclosure and reporting. Because ESG is still quite a nebulous area with lots of different definitions, that framework still needs work and refinement.”

“Finance has a background in analysis,” continues Saxena, “so that means ownership of ESG analysis can be given to finance teams: they have reporting skills and experience working with regulators, so it’s a natural fit.”

CFO of Kone, a manufacturer and service provider of elevators, escalators and flow solutions, Ilkka Hara agrees that the CFO must lead on the question of purpose and that the uniqueness of the role makes that contribution even more vital.

“I think from a CFO perspective, you can bring into the game quite an interesting perspective: how do you make the mission live? How is our vision creating the best people for experience for people? And then also what is our actual performance on delivering that to our customers?  So, it creates a loop.

“But I think where CFOs can actually make a big contribution in this area is not only internally, but beyond that. We need to be working with the customer, but also more importantly we should be interacting with all of the investors and other stakeholders to find out what they expect of us.”

Painting the picture

Driving that external communication effectively requires an in-depth understanding of what makes the company tick, what risks it faces, and how it plans to mitigate them.

“I talk to investors all the time, and they want to know what we’re doing to drive ESG initiatives,” says Ed Fitzpatrick, CFO of Genpact.

“They want to know if we’re plugged into our communities around the globe and whether we’re making an impact on the environment – how are we governed?”

So the more that gets automated and put through into dashboards and measured, the more you can improve. And I think we’ve done a decent job at that, we’re thinking about diversity, inclusion and so on. And as the demands to see action from outside voices grow, we are already in a strong position to provide that insight.”

Fitzpatrick explains that every senior leader at the company has a role to play in delivering on Genpact’s purpose: “For example, while I’m the CFO, the infrastructure team also ultimately reports into me, which includes our transport facilities around the world. We are extremely focused on understanding and reducing our carbon footprint, for instance.”

All this is important: “We don’t just act on ESG because it’s the right thing to do, it also adds value.” Hara agrees that for many CFOs, the dialogue with investors, staff and other stakeholders has changed enormously in recent years.

“A few years ago, you tended to have discussions around ESG with experts from time to time,” he says. “Now you rarely have a meeting where you wouldn’t talk about ESG.”

“While we’ve been focused on making progress for many years already now, we have now taken a much more transformational approach on ESG topics. We want to see that as something where we can be a leader – not only in our industry but more broadly.”

Demanding more

The journey that many in finance will go on – from training and qualifying to mastering the basics of running the numbers in a responsive business – is becoming more intense and demanding as technology drives change.

Indeed, Fitzpatrick argues that the changes wrought by digital transformation represent both an opportunity and a challenge for the CFO to embed a sense of purpose across the organisation. And that requires moving beyond mission statements and offering career development options that get the best out of staff.

“As finance leaders in the past we have hired people with finance and accounting degrees and some level of expertise in management information systems,” explains Fitzpatrick, “but they’ve only used a fraction of those skillsets day-to-day because a lot of what they do involves pulling data from multiple disparate systems and consolidating it into a spreadsheet just in time for a meeting the next day.”

Now, with companies making more use of data-led analytics, employees are fully able to use the skills they gained at university and business experience they’ve acquired while working – that they’ve always wanted to apply – which can go a long way to improving recruitment and retention of talented staff.

The more fulfilled they are, the more likely they are to stay on with the business. With finance now expected to use data to deliver more strategic advice, it’s not surprising that more CFOs are focusing on harnessing technology to liberate staff from the ‘handle-turning’ duties.

A look in the mirror

Increasingly, CFOs must ask whether they are up to the task of empowering others to deliver on the business’s stated purpose? And do they know where their own strengths and weaknesses lie?

“I think increasingly we now have to step back and critically assess where improvements are necessary and where to focus our attention,” Fitzpatrick says.

By assessing company core competencies and identifying areas of weakness, CFOs can enhance their understanding of how technology can help the business and free up precious management time to address more strategic, purpose-led issues.

“I think the element of trust has risen in importance,” says Standard Chartered’s Halford. “It’s all very well having good systems but at the end of the day, most systems report on what’s just happened, whereas in fact what you need to be focusing on is what’s about to happen and that tends to be about how the team is doing.”

Many of the issues facing finance teams now tend to be about communication particularly since Covid hit – Halford says he focused the time previously spent elsewhere taking more calls with his people to allow for as much discourse and collaboration as possible.

“Many of those were quick check-ins; they didn’t have to be long calls, just ‘How are things going?’ Helping them to feel able, if they were troubled by something, to pick up the phone or get on the VC and talk about it. Our purpose was to explain that a problem shared was better solved by early interaction and teamwork.”

A new normal

Looking ahead, there’s no doubt that challenges will grow. But smart businesses can harness technology to better understand their place in the world and communicate to their stakeholders what they’re doing to make it a better place.

In doing so, businesses are able to not only ask the bigger, tougher questions, but they can also begin to find the answers.

Fitzpatrick firmly believes that in order to take a leading role in shaping the company’s purpose, the CFO has to get out of the traditional silo and grab the opportunity to demonstrate how finance – through the smart use of technology and careful business-wide implementation – can serve as an engine for change.

“It’s a lot to do with the allocation of my time and the ability to do certain things,” Fitzpatrick comments. “Thanks to automation and smarter tools, more tedious tasks are being left behind. And as things get easier, I’m able to get more focused on the bigger strategic questions that face the business, and to support the business in delivering on its purpose, which is exactly what the CFO of today should be doing.”

Read Genpact’s ‘CFOs Empowering Enterprise in the Age of Instinct’ report in full.

This article originally appeared in FDE summer 2021.

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The value of data to any business is now perhaps greater than any single commodity. The ability to aggregate huge amounts of information and turn it into digestible and actionable insight is the biggest breakthrough in business since the birth of the computer.

And while accountants and those entrusted with steering an organisation’s finances have always relied on the collection and management of basic information, the volume and sophistication of data available has increased exponentially – to become a genuine driver of competitive advantage across all business sectors.

It allows the CFO to not only understand how underlying factors are driving business performance, but also, through the use of AI, machine learning, and cloud computing, to make more informed and predictive decisions based on rigorous, clear metrics.

The role of the data guardian

By taking on the role of data guardian, the CFO is now more empowered to effect change. And an essential part of that role involves centralising and standardising high-quality, well-governed data and understanding how it can support the agile and responsive business in its growth journey.

In doing so, finance can become a key enabler in making sure the business has the right data and insight to drive better decisions.

In partnership with CDOs, CFOs face challenges to achieve this: the volume of data is ever-growing, there are disparate sources and types of data, while the availability, quality, standardisation of data demands a keen focus on where the business should direct its efforts.

Instead of relying on other business functions to report on disparate sources of data, “we now have a situation where CFOs have a direct view of enterprise-wide-data and they can really get that data-to-insight-to-action loop working, explains Vivek Saxena, F&A service line leader at Genpact.

“Insights are used to make better decisions and for the business to take action. But not only that, finance teams are now able to see if the data moved because of those actions – whether the insights led to the right actions and what are the learnings,” he says.

“CFOs are much more informed about the end-to-end journey, which was not possible before. And the time it takes for finance to understand the consequences of its actions is now quicker and more efficient.”

Many businesses are now entering a phase whereby data capture is running by default across business units. That means they can increasingly draw on a greater breadth of data sources.

While work to improve internal streams of performance data has been ongoing for some time, many CFOs are looking outward to capture a broader range of metrics, from customer experience and sentiment to ESG-related measures that give a truer picture of the company’s impact in its communities and on the environment.

Taming the data tiger

These new data types offer an exciting glimpse into the future of insight-driven business strategy. Businesses can now capture and analyse both structured and unstructured data, as well as more experiential and qualitative customer insights. This data may come from both within and outside the business.

Through digitech and the clever use of automation and AI tools such as RPA and natural language processing, capturing data of all types is now easier. The next step is to make sure that what is captured is accessible, digestible, and delivers value, and does so with minimal cost and time delay. And that requires building the right kind of systems and processes to create a flexible data infrastructure to deliver real value.

“We’ve done a lot to try to simplify the data that we have available to analyse within the business. Like many businesses over the years, we have probably grown to have data dotted around the place and actually getting that in more consistent shape has been a big challenge,” says Standard Chartered CFO Andy Halford, who works alongside 85,000 employees across a banking giant with a presence in 59 territories, serving customers in close to 150 markets.

Halford’s story – where finance takes the lead on centralising data – is increasingly typical. Acting as de facto director of data, the CFO is now able to bring the traditional finance disciplines to bear. That means prioritising standardisation and efficiency of process in order to improve the quality of the data pool and harvest more compelling data sets.

Installing systems that deliver clarity, however, isn’t always so simple. “I think sometimes some businesses can end up with so much data – and so much analysis – that it actually becomes quite confusing as to what you take away from it,” Halford reflects.

And he believes the CFO is in the perfect position to articulate to the business how data can underpin better strategic decision making by looking and asking, “what is going to be the thing that’s going to change; are we riding the crest of that wave; are we off the pace with that; what more do we need to do to position ourselves in the right way to take advantage of this?”

Releasing the power of data

Halford is clear about the next steps: “Now we can take unsorted data and derive insight from it,” he says. “I think knowledge has been important over many decades in taking businesses forward, and we are fortunate that, with technology, the ability to actually crunch very, very large amounts of data very, very fast is huge.”

And beyond that lies a further frontier, as finance uses its facility with data to empower other business units to make better decisions backed up by insight.

“As CFOs we have to understand that the ambition, as well as the demand from the business, is increasing every day,” says Ilkka Hara, CFO of Kone, a manufacturer and service provider of elevators, escalators and flow solutions.

In his view, the basic ‘ticket to play’ in the data sphere means steering the finance function to a position where it can deliver compliance, risk management and the capability to record what happened in the past. But that’s just the beginning.

“Then it’s a question of what you can do in terms of really helping the organisation to look forward and understand not only what happened, but also what you should do about it,” he says.

“You need to be in a position where you help the whole organisation by giving them visibility as well as an understanding of the data that is coming from finance.” For a seasoned CFO like Hara, it’s no longer enough to understand where the deviations or exceptions came from.

“Now, it’s really about saying what are the decisions we should take today – and tomorrow – based on the data we have available,” he explains. “I need to be able to understand how we should lead the business going forward. And I think that’s clearly more of an ask to finance than it ever has been before.”

“How we analyse and apply data is not only improving efficiency in projects and processes, but also enables finance to be a better business partner.

“That means we need to enable the people who are doing the work every day, maintaining the elevators and escalators, to make the right decisions; and they make thousands of decisions every day,” Hara explains. “It’s really important that we are enabling the transparency and availability of the right data to the right people.”

Automated service

Genpact CFO Ed Fitzpatrick believes that automation is the secret sauce to not only gathering data and turning it into actionable insights, but also liberating finance to deliver real value. “We want to drive automation to get more into the analytics so that business leaders can make better decisions,” he says.

Fitzpatrick’s discussions with Genpact clients across the world reveal that driving cost savings is now table stakes. “The real differentiation is to free up finance teams’ time to focus on crafting and delivering insight to help the business in a range of areas, from targeting new customers to pricing a deal more effectively.”

It’s a transformative idea, and one that resonates with Ilkka Hara – who has been working on his company’s finance journey in two key ways. “Firstly, it’s been about driving efficiency in our operations: that’s about harmonisation and also centralising work wherever possible, in terms of actual countries as well as the various service centres we operate in within those countries.

“Secondly, we see good opportunities for automating processes and also, then, improving the master data framework that we have in place.” Hara suggests trying smaller iterations of new policies first to see how they turn out.

“Clearly, from our perspective, we’ve identified where we can see the best opportunities, and for us it’s been about starting with ‘business first’: where do we see value for customers being created and how can we do it better? Ultimately, we see that in our overall processes, there lies a lot of opportunities in the long-run for automation as well as significant further efficiency improvements.”

Ultimately, there is no doubt that internal and external changes have to be made before any company can fully and confidently rely on a data-led approach. These changes can be structural, interpersonal and managerial – all must align for a data-led approach to be successful.

Every CFO will recognise that the journey towards a data-driven enterprise will not always be a smooth one, but the opportunity to harness the potency of data to power better decisions across the business is one too enticing to ignore.

Read Genpact’s ‘CFOs Empowering Enterprise in the Age of Instinct’ report in full.

This article originally appeared in FDE summer 2021.

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As society deals with the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic, organisations are accelerating digitisation to survive and thrive. This places more focus on operational systems, which are at the heart of value and revenue creation.

Adding to the challenges, cybersecurity is ranked by executives as the second-highest risk to enterprises, and attacks on critical infrastructure are rated as the fifth-highest global risk by the World Economic Forum.

A new report from Nozomi Networks Labs provides an overview of the most significant threats and vulnerability trends of recent months and provides actionable insights and recommendations for securing operational systems. In surveying the threat landscape, the company says that two types of threat stand out – supply chain and persistent ransomware.

Nozomi Networks says the most notable cyber operation of 2020 was the SolarWinds supply chain attack that resulted in the infection of thousands of organisations. The company believes this attack should re-iterate that now is the time for asset owners to re-evaluate the attack surfaces of their OT/IoT systems, and reassess supply chain risks.

The SolarWinds attack in December 2020 involved an advanced threat actor that compromised one of its network monitoring products widely used to manage IT infrastructure. 

Victims of the attack included US government agencies, critical infrastructure and manufacturing operations. The damage is described as being “sophisticated espionage”, with unknown impacts in the future.

“This report leaves no doubt that the time for action is now,” says Moreno Carullo, Nozomi Networks’ co-founder and chief technology officer.

“The recent water system attack in Oldsmar, Florida, and the ongoing SolarWinds investigation are dramatic reminders that the critical infrastructure and other systems that we rely on are vulnerable and at constant risk of attack. Understanding the effectiveness of defences against the emerging threat and vulnerability landscape is vital to success.”

Recommendations to improve defences against cyber threats to industrial and critical infrastructure

In the report, Nozomi Networks’ security research team gives cybersecurity professionals an overview and summarises the biggest threats and risks to OT and IoT environments.

The analysis provides information on 18 specific threats that IT and OT security teams should study as they model threat vectors and evaluate risks across operational technology systems. It includes 10 key recommendations and actionable insights to improve defences against the current threat landscape.

The report found:

• Ransomware activity continues to dominate the threat landscape, growing in sophistication and persistence. In addition to demanding financial payments, ransomware gangs are exfiltrating data and deeply compromising networks for future nefarious activities.
• Supply chain threats and vulnerabilities show no signs of slowing. The unprecedented SolarWinds attack demonstrates the massive potential for an attack via supply chain weaknesses.
• Analysis found memory corruption errors are the dominant vulnerability type for industrial devices.

“Urgency has never been higher,” said Nozomi Networks CEO Edgard Capdevielle. “As industrial organisations race toward digital transformation, threat actors are taking advantage of greater OT connectivity to create attacks that aim to disrupt operations and threaten the safety, profitability and reputation of enterprises around the globe.

“While threats may be on the rise, the technologies and practices to defeat them are available today. We encourage organisations to act quickly to implement the recommendations in this report.

“It’s never been more important or more possible to take the necessary steps to detect and defend critical infrastructure and industrial operations.”

This article originally appeared in International Water Power & Dam Construction magazine

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The analysis by GlobalData claims the industry, which has typically been slow to adopt connected technologies, is increasingly deploying digital twins to improve decision-making.

The data and analytics firm notes that the prevailing industry downturn from Covid-19 has heightened the need to reduce costs and make operations more sustainable through the use of technology.

“Companies have started to build models that will provide answers to ‘what if’ or ‘what will’ questions,” said Ravindra Puranik, oil and gas analyst at GlobalData. “By replicating an asset or a portion of it in the virtual world, companies can run simulation tests on real-world problems and visualise the results in 3D.

“This is helping project engineers to improve their understanding of the asset, thereby enabling them to optimise its performance as per the market requirements. Therefore, digital twins are gradually becoming integral to oil and gas operations.”

Digital twins key to identifying cost reduction areas for oil and gas companies

The lockdowns imposed by government’s all over the world have significantly impacted global energy demand over the past year, while also causing project delays due to supply chain disruptions.

GlobalData said the downturn has aggravated the need for improving the overall asset visibility to identify areas for cost reduction and believes digital twins are “key to achieving this objective and ensuring sustainable operations in the long run”.

It notes that the groundwork for the technology, which is used for monitoring, diagnostics and prognostics to optimise asset performance and utilisation, may have been in place for some time but its actual deployment has only been recognised once profitability was at risk.

Some of the major digital twins in the oil and gas industry were implemented after the oil price crash of 2014. UK oil major BP began wide-scale deployment of its APEX simulation and surveillance system in 2017.

Similar to Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, GlobalData’s report notes that a lack of standardisation has “hampered the adoption” of digital twins.

To overcome this limitation, consultancy DNV GL and technology provider TechnipFMC drafted a best practice guide for the creation and certification of digital twins in November 2020.

It provided a framework for developers and users to understand digital twins and extract the most out of their capabilities.

Puranik said newer oil and gas projects, such as Norwegian firm Equinor’s Johan Sverdrup and BP’s Clair Ridge, are emerging as “benchmarks in digital twin adoption”.

“Companies such as Shell, Chevron and Petrobras are launching initiatives to deploy digital twins across their global portfolio,” he added.

“With crucial support from oilfield technology and service companies, digital twins are likely to become a mainstay of oil and gas operations in the coming years.”

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The analysis by engineering company Weir Group calculates mining’s share of global energy consumption and identifies ways the industry can aid the transition to net-zero emissions in order to help reach the Paris Agreement goals.

The report analyses mine energy data from more than 40 published studies to give a comprehensive understanding of where energy is consumed in mining and minerals processing.

It shows that the total amount of power used by the mining industry – which plays an essential role in providing the metals used at the heart of the modern economy – is equal to 3.5% of global energy use.

“The mining industry is central to economic development globally, with critical minerals enabling the low-carbon transition required in the rest of the economy,” said Weir Group CEO Jon Stanton.

“But the environment in which it will operate in future will be very different from the past, requiring comprehensive change and investment.”

Stanton believes mining needs to become more sustainable and efficient if it is to provide essential resources the world needs for decarbonisation while reducing its own environmental impact.

Improved energy efficiency in comminution can help mining industry with its decarbonisation challenges

While the report recognises the importance of the metals produced by mining to the energy transition, it notes that without action, energy use in the industry itself is set to trend higher in the coming years as demand increases for metals like copper, nickel and zinc.

Weir Group suggests there are technologies available today that could make a significant difference to this trend.

It highlights that comminution – the process of crushing and grinding minerals – is the single largest user of energy at mine sites, typically accounting for 25% of mining’s final energy consumption.

This is equivalent to the power used by 221 million typical UK homes, or 1% of total consumption globally, according to the analysis. Comminution is therefore a natural target for the most impactful energy savings opportunities, it added.

Small improvements in comminution technologies can lead to relatively large savings in both energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

The report highlights that a 5% incremental improvement in energy efficiency across comminution could result in a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of more than 30 million tonnes of CO2.

It added that the replacement of traditional comminution equipment with new grinding technology also reduces indirect emissions in the mining value chain, for example by removing the need for the manufacture of emission-intensive steel grinding balls.

Of the remaining energy consumption by the mining industry, diesel in varied forms of mobile equipment accounts for 46%, electricity in mining (ventilation) 15% and “other electricity” makes up 14%.

Optimisation, big data and AI can help mining industry meet its decarbonisation challenges

Other significant opportunities identified by the report for reducing mining’s energy consumption include optimisation, big data and artificial intelligence.

It notes that if zero-emissions energy sources – such as renewable energy, energy storage and alternative fuels – are deployed for mining equipment, then the industry may well be able to achieve zero emissions, leaving a relatively small role for offsets and carbon credits to play.

The mining industry is under increasing pressure to produce essential minerals that support some of the biggest global structural trends, from population growth to urbanisation and decarbonisation.

Copper, nickel, steel and lithium are core components of electricity transmission and storage, electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure.

Weir Group said the move to a decarbonised economy will result in increased primary consumption of these mined commodities, even after factoring for recycling, so the company believes it is important mining itself becomes “more sustainable”.

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The analysis by non-profit environmental organisation Earthworks shows that effectively recycling end-of-life batteries could reduce global EV mineral demand by 55% for newly mined copper, 25% for lithium and 35% for cobalt and nickel by 2040.

The report, which was prepared by the University of Technology Sydney’s Institute for Sustainable Futures, highlights that given the pace of growth in demand for EVs, it will also be important to pursue other strategies in tandem with recycling, including policies to disincentive private car ownership and make forms of active and public transport more accessible.

“This research proves that we don’t need to dig new holes in the ground to power the clean energy transition,” said Payal Sampat, Earthworks’ mining programme director.

“We can accelerate the transition to a sustainable materials economy by ensuring that the minerals in electric vehicle batteries are sourced responsibly.”

Materials for electric vehicle batteries predominantly found in environmentally sensitive regions

Current battery technologies require a significant amount of materials that are found predominantly in environmentally sensitive and often socio-economically marginalised regions of the world.

One of the metals in question is cobalt, which is a key ingredient of the rechargeable batteries that are used to power EVs.

In 2019, 70% of the world’s entire cobalt production was estimated to be in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Central Africa, where a significant artisanal mining sector has bloomed in recent years, buoyed by growing demand for the metal.

There have been several examples of dangerous working conditions, human rights abuses including child labour, and environmental damage associated with Congolese cobalt – prompting many major companies who rely on the country’s supply chains to form initiatives aimed at promoting higher ethical standards.

But as demand for these materials increase, Earthworks highlights that the pressures on countries like DRC are “likely to be amplified”.

For clean energy to be truly clean, it believes socially just and ecologically sustainable, responsible options “must be developed and supported to reduce adverse effects along the minerals supply chain”.

Recycling of electric vehicle batteries limited by lack of strong economic drivers or policies

A key finding of the report is that it is technologically possible to recover all four of the assessed metals – copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt – at rates above 90%. But current recovery is limited by the lack of a strong economic driver or policy that could encourage the use of recycled materials.

In the future, the analysis also highlights that end-of-life EV batteries are likely to be the major source for secondary metals for cobalt, lithium and nickel, while copper is likely to come from general copper recycling routes.

While not yet broadly established, it notes that reuse schemes could allow batteries to have a second life in a new application once they are no longer considered suitable for EV use, with the most likely market coming in grid storage applications.

The report also found that reducing demand for private car ownership is an essential part of any strategy to limit new mining.

It highlights that public transportation and active transport, such as bikes, could reduce demand for private car ownership – but the primary barrier is a lack of the necessary policies and incentives to enable such a shift, particularly in North America.

“EV manufacturers have a critical role to play in ensuring responsible minerals sourcing,” said Earthworks. “They have a responsibility to demand the minerals used in their products are sourced responsibly, ideally through secondary sources, or through IRMA-compliant mines in the case of primary sourcing.”

Policies for managing recycling of EV batteries should align with circular economy

The report notes that best practice policies for managing EV batteries should align with circular economy principles that prioritise strategies for ensuring decreased material and energy, such as avoidance and reuse, before pursuing recycling and disposal options.

The EU has recently introduced new EV battery regulations in line with circular economy principles and Earthworks believes more industrial economies, including the US, must “follow suit”.

It also urges the adoption of strategies such as end-of-life takeback for EV batteries, traceability along the supply chain, standardisation of battery design, modular component replacement and extending battery life, and removing barriers to metals recirculation and battery takeback.

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The Anglo-Australian miner has reached an agreement with California-based start-up Heliogen, which will deploy its proprietary, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technology at the mining operation, where it will use heat from the sun to generate and store carbon-free energy to power the mine’s industrial processes.

The two companies will begin detailed planning and securing government permits for the project, with the aim of starting operations from 2022.

Rio Tinto exploring opportunities to use Heliogen’s solar technology across its global portfolio

The Boron installation will be used to explore the potential for deployments of Heliogen’s technology at Rio Tinto’s other operations around the world to supply process heat, which accounted for 14% of Scope 1 and 2 emissions from the world’s second-largest miner’s managed operations in 2020.

Rio Tinto CEO Jakob Stausholm said: “This partnership with Heliogen has the potential to significantly reduce our emissions at Boron by using this ground-breaking solar technology, and we look forward to exploring opportunities across our global portfolio.

“Addressing climate change effectively will require businesses, governments and society to work together through partnerships like this one, to explore innovative new solutions throughout the entire value chain.

“Our work with Heliogen is part of Rio Tinto’s commitment to spend approximately $1bn on emissions reduction initiatives through to 2025 and our commitment to work with world-leading technology providers to achieve this goal.”

Heliogen’s solar technology is designed to cost-effectively replace fossil fuels

Alongside Bill Gates, Heliogen is backed by Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, and former AOL boss Steve Case. The company’s high-temperature solar technology is designed to cost-effectively replace fossil fuels with sunlight for a range of industrial processes, including those used in mining.

At Rio Tinto’s Boron mine, the company’s proprietary technology will use AI to control a network of mirrors that concentrate sunlight to capture energy used to make steam.

Heliogen’s system will also store the captured energy in the form of heat, allowing it to power operations at night and provide the same uninterrupted energy stream offered by legacy fuels.

The Boron operation mines and refines borates into products ranging from fertilisers to construction materials and is producing lithium carbonate from a demonstration plant. The site currently generates steam using a natural gas cogeneration plant and natural gas-fired boilers.

Heliogen’s installation will supplement these energy sources by generating up to 35,000 pounds per hour of steam to power operations, with the potential to reduce carbon emissions at the Boron site by about 7% – equivalent to taking more than 5,000 cars off the road.

Rio Tinto will also be assessing the potential for larger-scale use of the Heliogen technology at Boron to reduce the site’s carbon footprint by up to 24%.

“Since its founding, Heliogen has been laser-focused on decarbonising industrial sectors, including mining,” said Heliogen CEO and founder Bill Gross. “As a result, this agreement with Rio Tinto is incredibly gratifying.

“We’re pleased to find a partner committed to cutting its contributions to climate change. We’re also pleased that Rio Tinto is exploring our technology to play an important role in helping reach its sustainability goals while dramatically reducing its energy costs.

“More broadly, we’re excited to take this important step as we pursue Heliogen’s goal of avoiding more than one gigatonne of CO2 emissions – 5% of the world’s annual total – from the global economy by turning sunlight into an industrial energy source.”

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