#126 - Rob Adamson (RFC Ambrian): Why Most Mining Tech Fails (The Blueprint for Turning Science Into Scale)
Sweat CapitalShow Notes
This episode was recorded OnAir @ IMARC. For more information on the world's biggest mining conference and how to get involved, visit imarcglobal.com.
In this episode of Sweat Capital, we’re joined by Rob Adamson, Executive Chairman at RFC Ambrian, for a wide-ranging conversation across mining, deep tech, and career-building.
Rob takes us back to his first job as a 16-year-old on a diamond drill rig in Central Western Australia – and how brutal summers in the mines became the motivation to study engineering, fund uni through holiday shifts, and eventually take a leap overseas to deep-level underground gold mining in South Africa at the back end of apartheid.
From there, we unpack how Rob found his way into advisory, why RFC’s model is different to “spray and pray” venture capital, and how a disciplined venture-building approach helped bring game-changing technologies to market –including Chrysos (a modern alternative to fire assay), NextOre (MRI-style sensing for real-time ore grade detection), and MRead, where detection technology can identify landmines by sensing explosive compounds.
We finish with Rob’s practical advice for young professionals: build your skillset, build your network, and most importantly – build your own brand.
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