South32 CEO Graham Kerr says generative AI to boost miner’s productivity

Graham Kerr is focused on using generative AI to drive productivity, for example through the development of large language models to enhance interactions with safety data.

South32 CEO Graham Kerr. Picture: NewsWire / Christian Gilles

CEO SURVEY 2025: FULL COVERAGE

Economy

How would you rate the momentum of the Australian economy as we head into 2025? Official forecasts have Australia trimming interest rates from the first half of calendar 2025, is that consistent with your view? What are you seeing around inflation in your own business?

We’ve seen some central banks have started to cut rates as inflationary pressures ease. In Australia, labour market tightness and Australian dollar weakness poses some risk to the domestic inflation outlook, potentially limiting the central bank’s ability to ease monetary policy.

Given these factors, we expect the RBA’s rate cutting cycle to commence in 2025 at a moderate pace, as there is not a strong impetus to match the pace of other central banks with Australian GDP growth forecast to be relatively robust.

Outlook

What excites you heading into 2025? Are you likely to increase, hold steady, or trim your investment spend?

We’re excited by the potential of our Hermosa project in Arizona, which is currently the only advanced mine development project in the United States that could produce two federally designated critical minerals – zinc and manganese.

In 2025, we will continue to progress construction of Hermosa’s Taylor deposit, which has the potential to be a top 10 global producer of zinc. In our view, the industry’s ability to meet

future demand for zinc represents an industry challenge similar in magnitude to copper, and Taylor is the only major zinc discovery in the past decade.

In addition to Taylor, we continue to progress work on our high-quality development and exploration options around the world.

Reform

As we move into an election year, in your mind, what’s the single biggest lever that can/should be used to lift Australia’s competitiveness or productivity? This could be across

any area from labour market, tax reform, training or other areas to encourage investment.

Australia has benefited greatly from a prolonged period of opportunity and success linked to the development of its natural resources.

However, we’re now seeing regulatory burdens associated with environmental approvals, industrial relations, and skilled labour availability placing higher costs on Australian projects. At a time when more commodities are required to support the energy transition, we view this as negative.

Australia must tackle cost and productivity impairments linked with increased regulatory burdens. This would help to support investment in our natural resources industry and the transition to a low-carbon world.

Geopolitics

Will a Donald Trump presidency have a potential impact on your business or sector (tariffs or streamlined regulation)? Does geopolitics drive a bigger part of your decision-making?

We expect President-elect Trump to continue support for the development of domestic critical mineral supply chains. In relation to our Hermosa project, there’s been broad bipartisan support for the project to date, and we also expect this to continue.

Regarding geopolitics, the tragic conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have impacted the global economy and this is something we continue to monitor closely, along with the imposition of any trade tariffs.

People

Has your organisation’s approach to flexible working – including working from home – evolved during the year. Is this likely to change further into 2025?

Our view on flexible working remains the same, recognising that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t suit our diverse workforce.

While bringing people together face-to-face enables opportunities for growth, learning, collaboration and a sense of belonging, the last few years have shown we can achieve great outcomes through flexible working too. The key is finding and facilitating the balance of what works for each person, their role, and the business.

Technology

Where is your organisation along the AI journey – is it in the developmental stage, or are you now using the technology at scale across your business? If so, are benefits matching the promise?

We recognise the potential of safe and well-governed artificial intelligence (AI) in improving aspects of our lives, and the safety and productivity of our business. While our approach on

the use of AI at South32 is developing, we are pursuing specific areas where we believe we can deliver both near and long-term improvements.

In FY24, our focus was primarily on machine learning/AI advisory systems, leading to the development of systems to support improved output and waste reduction at Australia Manganese and optimise energy usage at Cerro Matoso.

Our focus in FY25 includes using generative AI to drive improved safety outcomes and productivity, for example through the development of large language models to enhance interactions with safety data.

We are also investigating the potential to use vision AI to reduce risk in vehicle interactions, and the scaling of machine learning models to improve operational productivity across operations and projects.