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Paradoxical though it may seem that an industry as extractive in nature as mining would be so important to making the world more sustainable, that’s exactly the case. Partly that’s because of the need to reduce its own impact – bringing down its emissions and reducing its waste – but also because most other energy transition technologies rely on metals that need to be mined.
Today I’m speaking to Bruno Arcadier, head of Vale Ventures, the CVC for Brazil’s largest mining company, which is one of the largest in the world, Vale, which also happens to be the largest producer of iron ore and one of the largest producers of nickel in the world, both of which are crucial to building renewable technology at scale.
He talks about, among other things, how the unit has organised the challenges in the mining sector into a set of investment themes that spans sustainability and the future of mining, as well as the subcategories that fall into those, and how the mining sector’s biggest challenge when it comes to innovating is how to scale that innovation when you’re talking about enormous volumes in the millions of tons.
We also talk about the lessons he’s learned as the head of a relatively young CVC that only launched in the latter half of 2022, including the importance of networking, how getting the why of your CVC is crucial before you get onto the how, and much more.