Connected Mining Market by Component (Solutions, Services)

Business May 10, 2021 at 11:44

Solution (Asset Tracking and Optimization, Fleet Management), Service (Professional, Managed), Mining Type (Surface, Underground), Application, Deployment Mode & Region – Global Forecast to 2027

MarketsandMarkets forecasts the Connected Mining Market size to grow from USD 12.7 billion in 2022 to USD 23.6 billion by 2027, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.3% during the forecast period. The presence of various key players in the ecosystem has led to competitive and diverse market. Mining 4.0 initiatives in industries is paving the way for connecting mining market. Increasing adoption of IoT to accelerate the use of digital solutions to develop connected mines is driving the market.

Market Dynamics

Driver: Mining 4.0 initiatives in industries, paving the way for connecting mining
Today, the increasing adoption of Mining 4.0 to transform the mining process has been increased. To resolve the challenges faced by the mining industries from 17th century, such as safety of mine workers, sustainability of equipment’s, and onsite and underground decision-making, various technological developments have been done in the last few decades, and today mining companies are heavily investing in implementing Mining 4.0 solutions. Industry 4.0 enables Mining 4.0, which is involved in big data, IoT, 5G, cloud, and AI technologies to integrate operations in the mining industry. Industry 4.0 methods are implemented using Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) process at mining companies to connect systems and assets such as manufacturing unit, grinding, exploration plant, mine operators, back-office team, and ERP. With the rapid advancements in technologies, there is a rise in digital solutions and the demand for connected devices and IoT systems. This rapid rise in the adoption of digital solutions has boosted for the growth of the connected mining market.

Restraint: Depletion of natural resources

Due to the rapid depletion of natural resources worldwide, miners would have to extract from deeper and remote mines. According to the World Counts, till today 13,047,408,900 tons resources has been extracted from the Earth and this number is increasing rapidly by every minutes. Every year 90 billion tons of fossil fuel, biomass, minerals, and metals are extracted from the Earth. However, the increasing population is responsible for the rising number of consumers and creating a big challenge in front of mining industries to increase their production.

Underground mining poses a different set of challenges on the technology front. Energy consumption increases as the depth of a mine increases. The temperature gets hotter, because of which air ventilation has to be increased. More energy is required to keep a reasonable temperature for people to work. Moreover, as the mine goes deeper, there is an increasing probability of rock bursts, damaging the tunnels, which act as entry/exit points to the ore.

Opportunity: Increasing demand for digitalization to boost the connected mining market

The mining industry is rapidly adopting digitalized solutions in this technological era. IoT, AI, cloud technologies are rapidly adopted by mining companies to survive and achieve high productivity target in this competitive era. Growing investment in IT infrastructure, virtual sensor, and AI tool is increasing opportunities in this market. Digital solutions provided by various companies enable mine operators to track health of assets, real-time visibility, predictive maintenance in the surface, and underground mining. New emerging trends of Industry 4.0 is boosting the adoption of technologies such as cloud computing, IoT, cybersecurity, big data, autonomous robots, additive manufacturing, and AR to support digital transformation of mining operations. Transformation of mines digitally is all about connecting every asset, equipment, and workforce and to support communication between mine operators leading to the increase in life cycle of asset by regularly monitoring asset health. Various companies have seen an incredible growth due to the adoption of digital solutions; for instance, Exxro has adopted digital solutions of Aviva to manage its mining operations and resolve the challenges related to digital transformation. In the beginning of 2018, Exxro has implemented digital and connected mine in Belfast Coal at South Africa and now they are able to operate mine with the help of digital twin. The company has observed 125% increase in the product quality.

Challenge: Shortage of skilled labor

The lack of qualified labor is the major issue faced by mining industries. According to Australian Mining, in June 2021, Silver Lake Resources has changed its strategy due to the unavailability of skilled labours at the Mount Monger gold mine. This issue has reduced the productivity and increased the overall cost. Mining companies were struggling and battling for the skilled professionals specially during the pandemic. Mine operators require experts to handle the transfer of huge amounts of critical data from remote sites. Companies are focusing on attracting skilled workers best talent to idealize, conceptualize, and innovate concrete solutions is this market. The necessity of today’s mining industry is skilled labor capable of developing and utilizing the tools necessary for greater return and increasing productivity. The increasing use of digital, automotive solutions in the mining industry is creating a skill gap in the present labor pool. Since automation is expected to replace the job of mine workers with automated equipment in the coming years, it is also creating new job opportunities aspiring a particular set of skills.

Asia Pacific to account for the highest market growth during the forecast period

APAC is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. In Asia Pacific, China, India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and the Philippines are expected to drive the market with China as the most potential player in smart mining initiatives. India can be considered to be the next high potential preference for the major global connected mining market vendors as the country has increasing demand for minerals. New investments will drive the Indian market, following the country’s ambitious target of adding USD 210 billion from the mining and mineral sectors to the country’s GDP by 2050. The increase in production capacities in the region is driven by investment programs. This region is witnessing a high rate of adoption of technologies, such as operational analytics and data processing, remote monitoring, and mine safety systems.