The metals and mining industry is looking at a digital technology-led transformation.

Mining companies are becoming more heavily scrutinized over the efficacy of their ESG policies, posing the question: Can the industry commit to responsible mining?

The metals and mining industry is looking at a digital technology-led transformation, making the processes efficient, safer, and more productive.

From new-age technologies to locate deposits to analytics for better customer experience, the path to success would be identifying the right technology and using data to enable management and workplace decisions.

Metals and mining companies are investing in digital technologies across the value chain, from operations to procurement to sales and marketing. Unfortunately, many of these investments have fallen far short of their potential. According to BCG’s Digital Acceleration Index (DAI), the metals and mining industry is roughly 30% to 40% less digitally mature than comparable industries, such as automotive or chemicals.

The importance of digital technologies to the mining industry is being increasingly recognized as organizations explore solutions to reduce geological uncertainty, market volatility, and operational risks. Big data analytics and the internet of things (IoT) provide unique opportunities to rethink existing processes to unlock additional value.

Advanced analytics has brought effective alternative methods of process optimization that unlock the potential of historical process data. These include expert systems that yield insights from snapshots of old data and the more recent and sophisticated expert execution systems (EES) that inductively find the complex relationships between process parameters and plant metrics to generate prescriptive remedial actions.

The metal and mining industry is now involved in linking operational technology (OT), devices and systems, and information technology (IT) that are currently not-connected for data exchange and operational efficiency through IT/OT convergence, integrated sales and operational planning, agile supply chain, digital monitoring of EHS, and performance parameters. The trends of reduction, reuse, remanufacture, and recycling will ensure that the society reduces the burden on nature by making sure the metal remains in use as long as possible.

Also, with the use of Augmented Reality/ Virtual Reality (AR/ VR)/ Drones, connected mobility, the hazardous site workers are empowered.

There is an increased tendency to adopt value-based pricing to overcome slow demand growth and ongoing overcapacity. The metal and mining industry is eager to provide the same level of “ease of purchase, customer support, flexibility in service, and mobility-based track and track capabilities” that B2-B customers get from a B2C experience. Digital platform tie-ups are demanding agile and flexible customer systems that will integrate with the larger ecosystem of buyers and sellers.

Over the years, most mining companies have also made significant investments in a range of back-end technology systems. In embracing a digital future, miners will probably need to modernize many legacy systems and migrate to the digital core, raising a range of considerations around moving to high-end solutions.