Mining companies face growing pressure to innovate amid volatile markets and sustainability demands. This study explores adoption of a innovation management systems (IMS) approach based on the ISO56002 standard in an established mining company. Through a longitudinal case study involving interviews, workshops, and participant observations, we capture the implementation process and identify critical tensions, emerging enablers, and barriers. We identified enthusiasm, conceptual ambiguities, cultural and structural frictions, and adjustments in scope. Key themes such as leadership and strategic ambiguity, challenges in organizational learning, and system-level frictions that impeded implementation emerged. Adopting a critical perspective, the paper discusses how a generic innovation management standard was navigated in a conservative industrial context, and what this implies for practitioners and scholars. The study contributes with actionable insights for building innovation capabilities in complex organizations and reflects on the broader relevance of IMS in traditional industries.