Failure not option as tech champions push forward through rocky R&D terrain

Only 60% of the gold ore in South Africa’s rich Witwatersrand basin is accessed; 40% is left behind in pillars to protect against seismicity. The mining method then loses a further 25% to 30% of that 60% because blasting breaks the ore into so many pieces that not all of them can be recovered, with fractured sizes ranging from fine powder to large boulders.