Dragons’ Den style competition for mining innovations coming to Toronto this March

#DisruptMining will be held Mar. 4 at the Carlu event hall in Toronto, and will include a showcase of 11 semi-finalists at a daytime expo. PHOTO: #DisruptMining

VANCOUVER—The mining industry will be showcasing innovation in Toronto this March.

Goldcorp Inc. and Integra Gold Corp. have announced the five finalists for #DisruptMining, an event held during the annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference that promotes disruptive technologies with the potential to revolutionize mining.

This Dragons’ Den style event will see finalists pitch their technology to a panel of judges, peopled by luminaries from the mining industry and Robert Herjavec, Dragon’s Den alumnus and judge on ABC’s Shark Tank.

Goldcorp has committed $1,000,000 for a proof of concept at one of its mines or investment in the winning technologies. The remaining four judges will represent $100,000 each.

Each presenter will have five minutes to pitch and defend their idea. Judges will have two minutes to respond and ask questions, and following each presentation, any judge will have the ability to send an entrepreneur to the deal room to negotiate an investment.

#DisruptMining will take place at the Carlu event hall in Toronto Mar. 5.

The five finalists for #DisruptMining are:

• Bio-Mine Ltd: Using a bio-intelligent, augmenting consortium of organisms designed specifically for “targeted” metal recovery and remediation, this environmentally-friendly technology is programmable to specific mineralogy in many different environmental conditions.
• Cementation Canada Inc: Using a combination of existing and proven crushing, pumping and slurry technologies, Cementation has developed a proof of concept model for process injection hoisting that would eliminate the need for mine shaft production hoisting or trucking, transporting ore to the surface using a pump driven pipeline loop.
• Goldspot Discoveries: developed a machine-learning algorithm capable of significantly improving mineral exploration targeting on both a regional and local scale.
• Kore Geosystems Inc: KORE plans to install instruments onto drill rigs that can provide real-time, automated data accelerating timelines for multiple mining stages and decision-making intelligence.
• TradeWind Markets Inc: a new electronic trading, settlement and custody platform for physical gold bullion.

In addition to the five finalists, 11 semi-finalists have been chosen for the #DisruptMining daytime expo. The expo will take place on Mar. 5 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST at the Carlu event hall.