Mining executives are too distracted to fix operations. Technology is not the answer. Surprising to hear from someone who markets mining technology, I know. But hear me out. Mining tech conferences are packed these days. Vendors pitch AI dashboards, autonomous trucks, and predictive-maintenance platforms. Boardrooms nod along, eager not to fall behind. Yet when Bain* recently asked executives from miners worth a combined $300bn to rank the factors most critical to improving site operations, technology came dead last. What topped the list was considerably less photogenic. Buy-in from the front line and management came first, followed by a strong understanding of what actually creates value and, in third place, stable leadership. The executives were saying that without the human scaffolding, even the cleverest tools amount to expensive furniture. Technology works just fine. The software does what it promises. The problem is rarely the tool. The problem is the system underneath it. And if that system is flawed, if decision rights are murky, if leadership turns over every eighteen months, if nobody on the front line was consulted before the rollout, then no amount of technology will fix it. You are just automating a broken process. You have to start from the beginning: people. The more conversations I have with stakeholders across this industry, the clearer a pattern becomes. There are two ways to bring innovation into mining. The first, which most choose, is to adapt to the existing audience. Sell to them the way they are used to buying. This is why mining tech startups begin with a consulting model before attempting to shift towards subscription or platform plays. It is pragmatic. It gets you in the door. But it also means you end up reinforcing the very system you set out to improve. The second way is to try to shift the industry's thinking altogether. This is harder, slower, and impossible for any single company or person to pull off alone. It requires a collective effort from operators, vendors, investors, and the growing number of voices in this sector who see that the old way of doing things is running out of road. The pressure to produce more from less is not going away, and adapting to an outdated operating model will not meet it. If you are a tech vendor, your leverage is limited. You build the best product you can and hope the buyer is ready for it. But there are plenty of people across this industry with platforms, experience, and credibility who could help change the narrative. Mining's greatest untapped resource remains the one that has always been there: people who know the operation, who stay long enough to see changes through, and who are trusted enough to be told the truth when things go wrong. The industry would do well to invest in them with the same enthusiasm it reserves for the latest AI. Whether enough of those voices choose to speak up is another question.