In This Article:
As 2024 draws to a close, we look back at some of the biggest trends that impacted the mining sector over the past 12 months.
Climate change and reducing emissions
The world’s biggest mining companies have set their sights on ambitious net-zero targets by 2050. In Rio Tinto’s 2023 climate change report, the company noted that it may not reach its planned 2025 target of a 15% decrease in scope 1 and scope 2 emissions from 2018 levels.
Rio Tinto CEO Jakob Stausholm noted that: “It takes time to deliver such complex and large-scale structural changes to our energy system, so the actual emissions reductions will lag this [target].”
BHP also set ambitious targets for its emissions reductions across all scopes, with a target of a 30% decrease in scope 1 and 2 emissions from 2020 levels by 2030, and a goal of net-zero operational emissions by 2050. At a national level, Australian mining companies continued to try to cut emissions.
Most miners have stipulated 2050 as the target year for achieving net-zero carbon emissions, according to Martina Raveni, a strategic analyst at GlobalData, Mining Technology’s parent company.
Shorter-term emission reduction goals “typically aim for around a 30% reduction by 2030”, she added, although some have more aggressive ambitions. “Mining is a difficult sector to decarbonise,” she said. “That said, shifting power sources is the main game in town for the mining industry.”
Digital innovation and AI
Mining companies continued to invest in AI to enhance productivity, safety, cost-efficiency and mineral discovery. AI enables mining companies to deploy autonomous machinery and use data analytics to enhance operational efficiency and productivity.
Rio Tinto partnered with space exploration company Fleet Space Technologies to map Argentina’s Rincon lithium project in 3D using AI, and the mining giant has already integrated the technology across its operations.
Dan Evans, Rio Tinto’s CIO, explained to Mining Technology that AI offers advantages such as helping to optimise the entire mining process by considering the constraints and bottlenecks throughout the value chain.
Automation
The robotics industry became an increasingly important element of the global mining sector in 2024, and will be worth $218bn by 2030, offering productivity and a solution to the talent shortage facing the mining sector.
Service robots will be the “growth engine” of the robotics sector, revealed GlobalData’s Robotics in Mining report, which noted that: “With the mining industry under pressure to cut costs and enhance efficiency and safety, automation is a potential solution.”