Over 100 Information technology experts from mining firms, and IT solution providers gathered in Vancouver yesterday for the opening day of the 3rd Annual Global Mining IT and Communication Summit, at the Rosewood Hotel Georgia. Organized annually by Fleming Gulf Conferences, the summit showcases the importance of information and communication technology to accelerate productivity and optimize costs in mining.

Day 1 of the summit yesterday was dedicated to presentations on integration of operational and information technology. David M. Cefai, Vice President, Information Technology & CIO of Kinross Gold opened the summit with his presentation on leveraging business intelligence to close the IT-OT gap, followed by David Hood of Teck Resources who presented on social and technical challenges of achieving IT-OT fusion.

Platinum Sponsor Illumiti made a jont keynote presentation with Pinto Valley Mining which spoke about the evolving landscape of business intelligence. Lorraine Howell, VP – Research and Development and Charlotte Aragorn, SAP Business Process & Data Lead represented Illumiti and Pinto Valley Mining respectively.

After a brief networking break, the summit recommenced with presentations from Wesizwe Platinum, Premium Gold Sponsor - Hitachi Consulting Ltd and Bronze Sponsor - Schneider Electric. First panel discussion for the day saw engaging dialogue between panelists from Hitachi, Illumiti, Vale, Kinross Gold, Agnico Eagle Mines, First Majestic, Wesizwe Platinum and New Gold.

Post lunch sessions featured a session by Martin Palacios, CIO of First Majestic on effectively using BI to monitor cost and productivity, while Silver Sponsor Airbus Defense and Space presented on “Evolving IT in Mning” Didier Zeller, Head of Marketing & Strategy at Airbus Defence and Space, ventured into the possibilities of IT for space exploration along with its applicabilites and challenges.

Goldcorp and Silver Sponsor – Spatial Dimension shared their vendor-client experience on Goldcorp‘s Enterprise Land and Contract Compliance Management System, where Mike Baumgartner, Managing Director & Senior Consultant spoke on behalf of Spatial Dimension and Mark Spencer, Director Technology and Communications Systems represented Goldcorp. “Being a strategic CIO” and “Recent developments in low point wireless communications” were additional presentation topics yesterday.

Day 2 of the conference begins today with Dr. Tobias Frank, Chief Technology Officer at Vale speaking about the importance of investing in innovation. Today's sessions will be led by the Canadian Association of IT Professionals, Hudbay Minerals, Cisco Canada, Canadian IT Law Association, Illumiti and Molycorp Minerals.

A. Paul Gill, Chief Executive Officer at Lomiko Metals will present the CEO's vision, highlighting the opportunites in 3D printing and the future of 3D printing in mining. Unique feature today will be peer-to-peer roundtable discussions on 'Organizational design towards meeting site support needs”, 'Retaining the IT talent working at remote sites” and “KPIs to help IT perform better”. The summit will conclude with an interactive wrap up session and cocktail reception.

The 3rd Global Mining IT and Communication Summit is officially supported by: Canadian Association of IT Professionals, Information and Communication Technology Council of Canada, British Columbia Innovation Council, British Columbia Technology Industry Association and the Vancouver Economic Commission. Summit Sponsors include: Illumiti (Platinum Sponsor), Hitachi (Premium Gold Sponsor), Airbus Defense and Space(Silver Sponsor), Spatial Dimension (Silver Sponsor), Schneider Electric (Bronze Sponsor), ITC Global (Bronze Sponsor), Cisco (Associate Partner), Geosoft (Supporting Partner), AppCentrica (Logo Partner), Silver Peak (Exhibitor) and OBP Consulting (Exhibitor).