How Wyloo is Using Technology for Transparency

This article, by Beth McLoughlin originally appeared on August 13, 2024 in Mining Magazine:

Wyloo is using technology to support its project of partnering with local and First Nation communities.

The company, which produces assets and projects in Australia and Canada, has developed a strategy termed ‘glass box' which aims for far greater transparency than is typical in mining. Instead of communicating through highly controlled storytelling or reporting select information after the event, the idea is that communities will be able to find out detailed information about operations almost as they happen.

Steve Crozier, vice president of sustainability at Wyloo, said the company is moving towards a regional development approach, working with communities from the outset. This contrasts with the traditional model of trying to attain ‘social licence' and build trust in communities.

Wyloo is advancing a greenfield project in a remote, relatively undeveloped area of Ontario, Canada. The community there is impoverished and has a legacy of neglect, Crozier said. "There are high levels of fear and distrust of industrial development," he added.

He observed that there is often a tension between those proposing development, such as the governments and companies who are set to benefit from it, and the community, who are likely to be those exposed most directly to its impacts.

"There is a lot of work being done on how we address that tension," Crozier said. Central to Wyloo's approach is partnering with those communities.

"The conversation starts from a different perspective," he said. "Let's address structural problems with a structural fix – because bolt-on solutions tend not to work, they are inefficient and costly."

Part of the challenge that the industry faces, according to Wyloo, is that miners tend to be guarded about revealing information on their operations.

"I respect that we need to be careful, but our glass box initiative is intended to empower people to understand what the implications of development will be in their traditional territories, in their communities, in their environments, on their weather, on where they live with their families.

"How far we can take this regional development approach will be limited by how much people know about what's being proposed."

The details of the glass box strategy are still being finalised, but Crozier said it will be a move towards "thoughtfully sharing things in a controlled manner" and allowing for a freer flow of information.

Interested parties will be able to see what is happening in a mine project, including information that is not flattering to the operator.

Communities could find out about near-miss incidents or if a worker narrowly escaped injury, highlighting a serious safety concern that warrants investigation and corrective measures, and not only when someone is injured and this has to be reported, for instance.

"You invite communities in so they can see you when you are not at your best," Crozier said.

Finding a way to make that information digestible and easy for communities to understand is key. The tech architecture is still being built, but Wyloo has already sought feedback from Marten Falls First Nation on its draft report on the glass box.

"It is important to speak in the language that they speak," said Alina Shams, manager of government relations and sustainability at Wyloo. "A lot of sustainability reports are guided by global frameworks, but that's not necessarily the metrics that local or indigenous communities care about."

Setting key performance indicators (KPIs) with communities from the beginning is one way to make sure a company's impact is being measured against baselines that make sense to them.

Improving trust

As large language model (LLM) tools evolve, they could play a role in summarising key information and delivering that in simple language, though Crozier pointed out that progress is needed on reliability before LLMs can be widely deployed in this way.

The next step for Wyloo is working with partners on how to present information in a way that useful and accessible.

Not everything will be open to external stakeholders, but Wyloo will include mechanisms where communities can influence what happens as well as review it.

"We are not the first to think of this. We are building on a theme," Crozier said. "It's about trust, being able to verify what's happening and promoting accountability.

He points to historical complacency around injury and fatality rates in the mining sector and how that began to change in the past three-four decades.

"People fought against that, and we had targets, but we did something else: we tracked everything in terms of risk, including near misses. The more you are honest with yourself about where you screwed up, the more you can improve.

"That is what has inspired the glass box theory: it's about showing ourselves to others, but also to ourselves, as that's how you improve."

He conceded that it is easier for new projects to incorporate that process from the beginning than for legacy projects to change their approach, but added, "That's the future of mining, that communities can be receptive to and embrace."

Although the glass box approach is in its early stages, Crozier said trust levels have already improved among local communities.

The role of Lynx Intelligence

Wyloo is using Lynx Global Intelligence for environmental data as part of its broader glass box strategy.

Lynx is a software platform that tracks various activities at the mine site.

Any data relating to the mine site can be uploaded, including health and safety and ESG data such as environmental monitoring, stakeholder and community engagement functions, and permitting and compliance.

Miners need to have the right data to hand so they can raise more money, achieve sustainability goals, communicate better with stakeholders and comply with regulations, said CEO Trevor Jones.

Lynx has a particular focus on junior miners. "They typically have good software for geomorphology and underground, but above-ground data has traditionally been stored in spreadsheets or manually, making it impossible to upload it to any kind of platform," Jones said.

And with the rise in AI and its capabilities, new features will soon be available with Lynx software.

"Pretty soon, we'll have things like integrated report writing, predictive analytics and the ability to query the data using natural language instead of going through data sets manually," he added.

Outside stakeholders will be able to query the data inside companies more easily once these features go live.

Lynx already includes a rich mapping function and dashboards to make visualising the data easier, along with an investor microsite portal.

Lynx has clients with projects in West Africa and ownership in Northern Europe and Canada, and there can be a big lag in getting the data they need for those companies.

The Lynx software can display data on issues such as human rights, artisanal mining, and demographic data almost in real time.

"It gets rid of that latency, and allows them to go ahead and dig into the data now versus later," Jones said.

The company works with a wide range of mining companies, including SPC Nickel and Ethiopia's Akobo Minerals, but Jones said the approach Northern Ontario's Wyloo has taken to technology stands out.

"Wyloo has taken an incredibly forward-thinking digital-first strategy towards transparency. We are helping them capture information from operational data to surface water, groundwater and wildlife," Jones said.

"I am really sympathetic to the fact that miners have been tracking this data for decades," Jones said. "At the same time, there is some real pressure coming down the pike from investors, especially a new generation that requires new tools to help people understand the context around mining, and sustainability is one of the important metrics they use."

There is also an advisory side of Lynx, helping companies decide what metrics they need to capture, what to prioritise, and how to get started.

"We are here to support miners and help them capture data more effectively as we transition to green energy," he added.