Which technologies will drive mining growth?

Emerging technologies will play an important role in delivering future production growth in mining, with automation offering the biggest potential gains, a survey by Mining Journal Intelligence (MJI) showed.

The Leadership Survey 2025, completed by 181 industry professionals in May and early June, showed nearly all (98.1%) respondents believed emerging technologies would help deliver production growth by 2030.

While there was near-unanimous agreement that tech has a part to play, opinions over the scale of its role were divided. Among the proponents, more than one in 10 (11.8%) said technology would be the single biggest factor driving growth. 

A further 39.1% said tech would be a significant factor. Almost a third expected emerging technologies to have a moderate role in boosting production, while 18.0% forecast a small role.

Just 1.9% said emerging technologies would not have a significant role in production growth over the coming years.

 

Automation: the top-pick tech

About six in 10 (60.3%) of respondents selected automation as the technology that would play the most significant role in unlocking production growth by 2030.

Automation – alongside electrification - was identified as a top-priority technology for the industry by global tech company ABB this month. In addition to potential production and efficiency gains, automation could deliver significant safety improvements by removing people from dangerous areas, according to the company.

Efficiency gains using AI was the second top-pick technology in the Leadership Survey, selected by 48.5%, followed by real-time monitoring and data collection at 47.8% (respondents were able to select more than one option).

More than a third (37.3%) of respondents chose power generation/storage technologies as having the biggest positive role, followed by 32.3% who chose load/haul/ore transportation technologies.

More than one in 10 (11.2%) selected the ‘other' option. Of those, respondents mentioned other technologies involved in processing/ore sorting, or unspecified technologies deployed in exploration, among others.

 

The full survey results will be published in MJI's Leadership Report 2025: Unlocking Growth, due out in July, and available for free for Premium subscribers.

In addition to the survey, the report features exclusive interviews with CEOs and senior executives of more than 15 large mining companies on the growth theme.

Many mentioned the importance of innovative technology to deliver growth.

"The mindset of the industry needs to change to focus more on investments in technology to bring on copper production in the future, as opposed to relying on traditional exploration," Freeport-McMoran CEO Kathleen Quirk said in her interview.

The company is deploying innovative leach technologies to recover additional copper from historical stockpiles at several US assets.

By Celia Aspden

Edited by Sam Williams

 

 

 

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Please email sam.williams@aspermont.com with any questions, suggestions, or comments about our research.