While the mining industry does not yet seem to be in a crisis regarding innovation in mineral processing, it certainly seems to be on a downward trajectory, says former Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre director and emeritus professor Tim Napier-Munn, noting that, with innovation being nondiscretionary, there is an obligation as well as an opportunity for the industry to be more creative and to do so more efficiently. The decline is the result of increasing barriers to innovation, which Napier-Munn maintains are largely self-inflicted.
