By Tijana Mitrovic - 15 May 2025

Meet Hannah Lang: A Canadian Young Mining Leader Award-winner making an impact on the industry

There is often a tension between the desire for different outcomes and the willingness to make that change possible. Growing up in Massachusetts, Hannah Lang saw it play out first-hand, as people were ready to advocate for renewable energy but did not “[want] a solar panel farm in their backyard.”

Lang’s interest in this tension led her to explore how to make mining as sustainable as possible and tackle environmental problems during her undergraduate studies at Cornell University. After completing her Bachelor’s degree in geology, she pursued post-graduate studies in mineral exploration at Queen’s University. After receiving her Master of Science in 2020, Lang set her sights on the next step.

When she joined MineSense that same year, Lang was one of the first geoscience data analysts at the company. She started its digital solutions team, which uses data generated from MineSense’s ShovelSense and BeltSense products to help improve mining profitability and sustainability by enabling bulk ore sorting at the ore handling and conveying stages and improving downstream processing. As team lead and now manager of the department, Lang has led the implementation of machine learning algorithms for mine-to-mill optimization that is foundational to MineSense’s digital portfolio. She also played a pivotal role in developing and launching the company’s MineSense Data Portal, a client-facing platform for visualizing and analyzing product data, which is now deployed at more than 20 mine sites around the world. While her team has driven the adoption of its BeltSense and ShovelSense technologies throughout North and South, she is most excited about getting the technology to Collahuasi in northern Chile, the second largest copper producing mine in the world. “They are going to be one of the first mines to fully realize [MineSense’s] full mine-to-mill value,” Lang explained. “It has been super cool getting to work with them and seeing the impact we can have there.”

Lang has spoken to a range of technical and non-technical audiences to drive industry-wide change in long-term sustainability and environmental responsibility. She has also dedicated time to mentorship, having volunteered with the Lab of Misfits to help bring experiential science workshops to young children, including Indigenous youth, in Canada. In her role as a manager, Lang has enjoyed its leadership and mentorship aspects and is committed to learning how to be a good leader and building that skill set. “The most rewarding thing about being a manager and being a leader is really that your impact is so much greater,” she said. “But you also have the ability to uplift other people around you and have them have those ‘aha’ moments that you once had.”

Working with operations to adopt new tools inspires Lang as a technology provider. “A lot of the time you hear in mining, it’s a race to be second, and no companies want to take that leap to be the first,” she said. “But there actually are companies willing to be the first, and we need [them]. It's really exciting to see these companies willing to step into the unknown and embrace the change that’s needed in this industry.” Lang is determined to keep pushing the mining industry forward. “We need more leaders in mining who are willing to be bold, to have the tough conversations and drive the transformation of both the industry’s adoption of technology and the culture within it,” she says.

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