I've been thinking about why innovation in mining moves at such a glacial pace compared to tech, and it comes down to a fundamental reality that many industry consultants miss: mining is a small market with unique constraints that require different innovation approaches. When Apple first reached a $1 trillion valuation, every major mining company was about 1/8 its size. Fast forward to 2021, and BHP (the largest mining company in the world) had become 1/19th the size of Apple. Today in 2025, Apple sits at around $3 trillion while the largest mining companies have not grown in comparison. When Apple allocates just 1% of its value to R&D, that's $30 billion, more than many mining companies' entire market capitalization. They can afford to have centralized innovation teams with thousands of specialists working on next-generation technologies. They can afford to fail repeatedly because the successes will more than pay for the failures. Mining companies don't have that luxury. We can't use the same processes as Apple or Google or any tech giant because we don't have the same resources or market dynamics. For us to imagine that we can compete with Apple on a level playing field for innovation is ridiculous. This reality creates several challenges that are unique to mining innovation: First, we can't afford the same failure rates. When a technology company launches ten innovations and two succeed wildly, that's considered a massive win. In mining, we need eight or nine out of ten to succeed just to justify the investment. Second, we can't afford specialized innovation teams at the same scale. While technology companies have thousands of people focused solely on innovation, mining companies might have a handful, if they have dedicated innovation staff at all. Third, our innovation cycles are necessarily longer. We can't just push a software update to millions of users overnight. Implementing new technologies in mining involves physical infrastructure, regulatory approvals, and operational changes that take time. Fourth, our market for any specific innovation is minuscule. A tech company can sell a successful product to billions of enthusiastic consumers or millions of businesses. A mass market innovation can also be funded completely by advertising allowing it to be “free”. A mining innovation might only have a few hundred potential customers distributed around the world. It doesn't mean we should give up on innovation, quite the opposite. Instead of imitating models from tech industries that operate under entirely different dynamics, mining needs frameworks tailored to our specific constraints. Rather than criticizing ourselves for not innovating like Apple or Google, we must embrace our industry’s realities. Mining innovation should serve clear value creation, not become an end in itself.