Mark Cutifani says innovation is the hottest word in mining at the moment “because we're not doing enough of it”. Yet veteran mining tech financiers say capital markets are cold. IMARC 2026 in Sydney, Australia, heard why money is generally tight but also how the mining-tech funding landscape is evolving fast to better enable a nascent mining and metals SME space to accelerate development of new technologies.
Catalysts for change include AI, China, Silicon Valley, mining’s dominant OEMs, corporate venture capital vehicles and miner-backed accelerators, “AARPs” and maybe even public markets.
Another from deeper in left field might be big-tech and other big users of minerals and metals. “I’m seeing less and less commitment to longer-term innovation [in mining] which I think is a real issue,” Cutifani, who has led Anglo American and other big miners in a 50-year career, said in Sydney. “It will be one of the reasons why major players outside the mining industry will start buying large mining companies.”
