Disruption wanted.

Not just a little disruption. Lots of it.

The kind that will turn the mining industry on its head, CEO and president Steve de Jong of Integra Gold Corp said in an interview Tuesday.

Disruption, as it has come to be known in recent years, is seen as a good thing when it comes to advancing new ways of thinking.

It’s about bringing forward ideas or methods that don’t just provide a little innovation in how business is done but rather revolutionizes industries, whether it’s mining, accounting or otherwise.

While many industries have already been disrupted, as they say, the mining industry is pretty much still doing things the way it’s been doing them for decades, or longer, de Jong readily acknowledges.

Integra Gold and Goldcorp have teamed up to formulate a plan to encourage submissions of disruptions that will be judged in March 2017 at the annual conference in Toronto hosted by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.

As part of the proposal, the winning applicant will be provided with up to $1 million to test-drive the disruption at one of Goldcorp’s operating gold mines.

“The thing is, it might not just be one of those ideas that win,” de Jong explained on behalf of the two companies. “It might be three or four of those ideas that come together.”

He said in addition to Goldcorp’s commitment, another $1 million is expected to be available to support other proposals that may not have topped the list but are still intriguing and worth pursuing.

In fact, in addition to the top five applicants, Integra and Goldcorp will be inviting 10 or so others to attend the conference and participate in something of an expo for the disrupters who will have the ears and eyes of the industry on hand.

“If you look at the audience we will have, you are looking at probably the best audience you will ever have that will help your idea.”

The deadline for submissions is Jan. 25. Interested disrupters can find out more at www.disruptmining.com.

Finalists will be notified Feb. 1.

The top 15 submissions will be showcased at the annual international conference the afternoon of March 5, followed that evening by the selection of the winning disruption.

The top five will be judged by a panel of five leaders in the industry, including Rob McEwen, described as one of the industry’s original disrupters.

de Jong said as the head of Goldcorp back in 2000, it was McEwen who decided to seek out a fresh look at all the data the company had compiled for its world-class gold district in Red Lake, Ont.

It made the information available to anybody who might suggest where to look next. That’s not something one would expect in an industry that is not known for collaboration, de Jong suggested.

“They ended up making some substantial discoveries.”

He said Integra Gold adopted the same approach following the acquisition in 2014 of two mine sites that came with a huge data base.

The company’s exploration team was already going 110 per cent with a new discovery at one of its Quebec properties.

So Integra put together what it called the Gold Rush Challenge in 2015, inviting parties to go through the data base for the two historic mines and offer up recommendations about where to next focus exploration efforts, with $1 million going to the winning suggestion.

Interest was shown from 1,400 individuals from 90 countries.

There were geophysicists, computer scientists and all kinds of non-traditional geologists.

“We ended up with 3,000 pages of exploration concepts,” de Jong said.

The company did a finale event for the top five submissions at last year’s conference.

de Jong said Integra Gold is currently drilling the new targets.

He said submissions for this year’s event might be about a new method of extracting ore, or the use of artificial intelligence to examine data. It might be about innovation in environmental technology.

Anything and everything that might disrupt the traditional approach to the industry is welcome, he suggested.

de Jong pointed out the event will also be used to raise money for charities as well as support scholarship programs.

Integra raised $250,000 in 2015 through ticket sales to the event and private sponsorship, money that was directed to charities in Val-d’Or, Que., where the company is operating, he said.

de Jong said they’ve already enlisted sponsorship support from some major companies for this year’s “Disrupt Mining” event.

“It’s going to be fun.”

At last year’s Gold Rush Challenge sponsored by Integra, company executive chairman George Salamis addressed the audience of 500: “... It’s time for us to Uberize the mining industry, and I promise you it can be done.... Act now.

“Innovation is what endows our natural resources and offers a new capacity to create wealth.”