Top 10 mining industry trends in 2025: Deloitte

Staff Writer | January 29, 2025 | 12:46 pm Careers Intelligence News Suppliers & Equipment 
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With uncertainties rising in the world’s geopolitical sphere and supply chains being reworked to accommodate tensions and emerging relationships globally, the mining industry finds itself entering a new era.

A rapidly evolving global landscape means that industry leaders are now facing numerous challenges that they must navigate, as well as opportunities that could be capitalized on, in the near future.

With that in mind, Deloitte has released the latest edition of its annual report (Tracking the trends 2025) highlighting the top 10 trends that could shape the mining industry over the next 12 to 18 months.

Each of these trends, the firm says, has a role to play in guiding companies to help achieve their objectives as they seek to overcome today’s complex challenges and recognize opportunities:

  1. Leading in a new era of mining and metals: Companies should look to evolve in order to succeed amidst economic, social, and environmental changes, which may require a new style of leadership. Today’s leaders in mining and metals should be inclusive, respect diverse perspectives, embrace new technologies, help ensure workforce health and safety, and be comfortable with transformative change and navigating uncertainty.
  2. Shaping critical mineral supply chains: The limited diversification of global critical mineral supplies and increasing demands for value chain transparency are driving changes in the trade and investment landscape, making it complex for mining and metals companies to balance growth opportunities with supply chain risks while addressing economic growth, security, and infrastructure needs. To navigate these challenges, organizations are studying future scenarios, leveraging incentives and alliances, establishing leadership positions in new trade arrangements, and planning for agility.
  3. Driving growth and resilience: Surviving and thriving in today’s dynamic marketplaces may require active portfolio management, including regularly assessing assets for their fit, cost, and strategic contribution. This ongoing process necessitates senior-level buy-in and commitment to help better position companies against market developments and uncontrollable factors.
  4. Enhancing mineral exploration with AI: With potential global metal shortages looming, rapid mineral exploration and a steady pipeline of projects are crucial. Leveraging precompetitive geoscience data and applying AI to quality data can enhance efficiencies and speed up the identification of potential targets in the mineral exploration value chain.
  5. Transforming the digital core: Many mining and metals companies may need to replace their current enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms with next-generation ERP software. Strategically timing these implementations with key business events can help maximize ROI, leverage organizational synergies, and position companies for future growth by creating a clean digital core and building reusable cloud assets.
  6. Smart operations in mining and metals: Combining technology, data, and human experience enables businesses to work smarter by applying digital technologies like AI, digital twins, and predictive analytics at an enterprise scale. This blend can help optimize processes, boost productivity, make informed decisions across the value chain, and address challenges such as decarbonization through innovative designs.
  7. The impact of GenAI on the mining and metals workforce: By reskilling and upskilling their workforces to harness GenAI, mining and metals companies may gain a significant future advantage, including lowering costs, boosting safety, and reinvigorating recruitment. A targeted upskilling program for existing employees can help prepare the company to meet future challenges and opportunities with data-driven insights and new ways of working.
  8. Scaling progress toward net-zero: As mining and metal providers shift from preparation to execution in their decarbonization efforts, achieving net-zero is proving more complex due to concerns like energy and supply chain security and technological maturity. The pace of achieving net-zero can depend on factors such as access to finance, technological maturity, new business models for agility and resilience, and securing talent by highlighting the industry’s role in sustainability.
  9. Making ESG strategies more value-led: The mining and metals industry recognizes that good sustainability practices are essential for maintaining its social license to operate. A more focused approach, emphasizing value generation over metrics, could better integrate ESG into business strategy, yielding benefits like cost-saving sustainable energy, community investments, and an expanded talent pool through enhanced diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
  10. Generating a natural competitive advantage: The mining and metals industry has a significant financial imperative and opportunity to lead the transition to a more nature-positive economy by halting and reversing biodiversity loss. To achieve this, companies are exploring natural capital accounting and integrating nature-based solutions, but most will likely need to restructure their business models, requiring sufficient funding and strong leadership.

Click here to read the full report and learn more about the trends shaping the mining and metals industry.

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