How digital leadership, automation, and new rules are rewiring the world’s mines. Oversupply, Simandou, and the Race Toward Low-Carbon Steel
Barnsley Boy Returns Mining Statue Becomes Beacon of Resilience
23 China Caps Coal Output to Halt Price :Slide as Oversupply Bites
29 ADB Approves $410m Financing for Reko Diq Copper Mine
29 U.S. Rare Earth Breakthrough: Energy Fuels Produces First 99.9% Dysprosium Oxide
30 Rock Falls Remain the #1 Killer in Underground Mining :The Question Is: Why Are We Still Responding Like It’s 1995?
32 Can Tata Steel Dodge America’s 50% Tariff Shock?
34 Silver Breaks Free Is 2025 the Start of a New Bull Run?
35 Why Copper and Potash Just Landed on the US Critical
40 Top 10 Essential Mining Equipment in 2025
44 UNESCO Exit, Uranium Ambition: 46 Stastistics
47 steelChallenge-20 registration open
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Madhya Pradesh Gold Mine Discovery Could Shift Global Supply Chains, Says GSI
Agold discovery in central India’s Madhya Pradesh could influence global bullion flows if early estimates hold true, adding a new source of supply to a market dominated by a handful of producing nations. But India’s Geological Survey is urging restraint until the deposit’s size and economic viability are proven.
Geologists have confirmed the presence of gold-bearing soil in the Mahgawan Keolari area of Jabalpur district, a site spanning about 100 hectares and situated near the established Imliya gold block in neighbouring Katni. Preliminary data
suggest reserves could reach into lakhs of tonnes, potentially ranking among the largest finds in recent Indian history.
“This is an encouraging start, but it would be premature to speak of a large-scale mine,” said Asit Saha, Director General of the Geological Survey of India (GSI).
He noted that mining is commercially viable only when the concentration of recoverable gold outweighs the costs of extraction - a determination that will require months of drilling and laboratory analysis. The discovery comes at a time when gold miners worldwide are under
pressure to replace aging deposits. Global production has plateaued in recent years, while demand - driven by central bank purchases, retail investment and industrial use - remains strong.
India, a major gold consumer but a minor producer, could alter its role in the market if Jabalpur’s reserves prove significant.
A viable mine could reduce import dependence, ease the country’s trade deficit and feed directly into the global supply chain, especially in Asia, where most bullion is refined and traded.
because you asked about biodiesel
Rajani Modiyani, one of Chevron’s leading experts in the mining sector, answered eight pressing questions from owners and managers in the industry. Scan the QR code for the full Q&A.
GLOBAL BRIEFING
Six signals your ops team needs now
Iron ore - plan the corridor, not a point.
China’s iron-ore imports in 1H-2025 were modestly lower year on year, and prices have eased from their Q1 peak. Treat pellet/DR-grade premiums separately from fines and budget with bands to absorb shipping and weather noise.
If you supply DR-grade into EAF growth, assume the premium stays sticky even when headline prices soften. Lock rail and port slots early; delivered-cost variance, not mine-gate price, is what breaks budgets.
Copper
- TC/RCs are the truest early
signal.
Spot treatment and refining charges turned negative this year and mid-year talks hovered around zero. Read TC/RCs before LME: when smelters are paying for feed, concentrate availability-not headline price-drives near-term cash cost.
For sellers, optionality in moisture/penalty bands is worth more than chasing a few dollars on headline; for buyers, keep provisional-pricing windows wide enough to ride the squeeze without re-papering contracts.
Gold - real yields matter, but official buying matters more.
Despite positive real rates, steady central-bank accumulation and ETF inflows kept the market firm. Build scenarios that weight policy and official-sector flows, not rates alone.
On the cost side, pair price hedges with energy-input hedges so AISC doesn’t whipsaw when diesel and power spike;
investors punish weak cost control faster than they reward lucky price timing.
Nickel - still two markets in one.
Indonesia’s dominance keeps the benchmark oversupplied, pressuring ferronickel and matte, while battery supply chains still prize Class-1/sulphate quality. Run separate procurement playbooks for stainless and EV demand.
Stainless buyers should treat FeNi/NPI as a distinct lane with different risk triggers; EV buyers should monitor MHP/matte conversion and sulphate specs, where purity and delivery windows trump headline price.
Freight - paperwork beats luck.
The Baltic Dry Index has been whipsawing on weather and port cycles, with week-to-week swings big enough to dent voyage economics. Update laytime and demurrage clauses now; one extra planned port day often pays for itself. Revisit bunker-adjustment language
and pick time-charter vs voyage contracts deliberately - most Q4 surprises are buried in the appendix, not the rate.
Tailings - the GISTM clock just rang.
With the industry standard’s August 2025 milestone in force, boards and auditors want evidence: instrumentation density, alert logic, and independent verification cadence. Fund the instruments, publish the thresholds, enforce the rules. Put your Trigger-Action-Response Plans (TARPs) at the portal, train withdrawal timing on shift, and report “alert → cleared” minutes like a safety KPI-not a story.
Three numbers that move budgets this month:
Diesel index - feeds $/t moved; keep a buffer. • Explosives basket - AN/emulsion pass-through hits drill-and-blast cost per tonne broken.
• Lime/reagents- recovery and environmental compliance ride on these; don’t starve the circuit.
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Prices And Spreads That Move Mine Plans This Quarter
The noise is loud; your mine plan needs guardrails. This month’s picture is four signals that actually hit the budget: iron ore trading in a corridor rather than a point, copper TC/RCs flirting with zero and leading costs, gold holding firm as policy and official buying offset rates, and freight whipsawing through the Baltic Dry Index.
Each panel marks the 12-month high/ low, the three-month change, and where we are now. Use the shaded bands to set ranges, not targets; quote pellet/DR premiums separately; and buy flexibility in contracts before Q4 lift.
If you do one thing this week, publish your price bands to the ops team - and stick to them.
Iron ore - budget the corridor, not a point
Steel margins and inventory cycles are setting a range, not a target. Keep pellet/ DR-grade premiums separate from fines. The biggest risk remains delivered cost:
rail/port slots and weather disruptions move the realized number more than mine-gate price. Action: publish a Q4 price band to teams; quote a separate DR premium if you sell into EAF growth.
Copper -TC/RCs lead, LME lags
Spot TC/RCs near zero/negative signal tight clean-concentrate availability. In that squeeze, contract flexibility (moisture/penalty bands, cargo windows) is worth more than a headline dollar. Sellers: prize optionality; buyers: widen provisional-pricing windows so invoices don’t need re-papering mid-voyage.
QUICK ACTIONS THIS WEEK
Publish an iron-ore price band and a separate DR premium to ops. For copper, prioritize TC/RC-driven clauses over headline price.
Pair gold hedges with energy hedges to stabilize AISC.
Refresh laytime/demurrage and bunker terms on risky freight lanes.
Gold - price supported beyond rates
Positive real rates haven’t sunk gold while official-sector buying and portfolio hedging stay firm. Treat gold scenarios as
a two-engine model: policy/flows plus rates. On costs, pair price hedges with diesel/power hedges; investors punish AISC volatility faster than they reward lucky price timing.
Met coal - contracts vs spot, and the coke bottleneck
Hard coking coal contracts diverged from spot just enough to make renegotiation tempting, but coke-oven throughput and logistics remain the limiting reagent. Keep blends flexible; protect deliveries with vessel/rail buffers rather than gambling on last-minute spot. If you do reopen terms, tie price relief and delivery windows to trigger bands on coke-oven utilization and port queues—not fixed
dates—so the contract flexes automatically when the system tightens.
FX & Freight - paperwork beats luck
A stronger USD quietly taxes EM opex and debt service. Capesize/Panamax lanes are range-bound but whipsaw on weather and maintenance.
Update laytime/demurrage terms now; one planned buffer port day often costs less than penalties. Revisit bunker adjustment language before Q4 schedules lock.
Bottom line
The picture isn’t screaming boom or bust—it’s telling you to plan with margins. Keep iron ore in a corridor, quote
pellet/DR premiums separately, and protect delivered cost. Let copper TC/ RCs lead your conversations, not the LME headline.
Treat gold as a two-engine market— policy/flows plus rates—and pair metal hedges with energy hedges to steady AISC. And don’t leave freight to luck: demurrage is a contract problem, not a weather problem.
If you change one habit this quarter, publish your price bands to the ops team and wire them into approvals. The mines that win Q4 aren’t guessing better; they’re pre-committing to ranges, flexibility, and response time.
Antimony in the U.S. Status and Near-Term Pathways
A critical mineral used in flame-retardants, lead-acid batteries and alloys remains largely import-reliant in the United States while one Idaho project advances with DOD support.
Antimony is designated critical in U.S. policy because of its roles in flame-retardant systems, alloys and ammunition. In 2024, the United States mined no marketable antimony and relied on imports for ~85% of apparent consumption; primary oxide/metal were produced domestically from imported feedstock and recycling supplied about 15%.
One Idaho project has received Defense Production Act funding to re-establish a domestic source.
The predominant ore mineral is stibnite (Sb₂S₃). Concentrates are commonly produced by crushing, grinding and froth flotation, with downstream pyrometallurgy (e.g., roasting to antimony trioxide, Sb₂O₃) or hydrometallurgy/electrowinning depending on impurity profiles and product targets.
In U.S. end-use, the leading segments in 2024 were metal products (including antimonial lead and ammunition) at ~40%, flame-retardants at ~39%, and nonmetal products at ~21%.
Policy developments affected pricing and trade. In August 2024 China announced export-license requirements for antimony products; by December 2024 it banned exports to the United States, and antimony prices rose markedly into late
2024. U.S. agencies cite supply-chain security as a driver for domestic steps.
The Stibnite Gold Project in Idaho (Perpetua Resources) is progressing with DPA Title III support totaling ~$59.4 million as of February 2024. Company disclosures indicate potential supply of antimony to Ambri for liquid-metal batteries used in stationary energy storage.
Quality control is the gating item between concentrate and saleable product. The commercial spec is often decided less by head grade than by what travels with it: arsenic, bismuth, lead and other penalties, plus moisture and particle size. Flowsheets are tuned accordingly—tight-
er flotation selectivity, staged cleaning, and conservative dewatering- in order to hit a repeatable acceptance test. Buyers typically require documented sampling protocols, third-party assay reconciliation, and clear remedy language if a lot misses spec.
Supply is shaped as much by secondary material as by new mines. Antimony moves through multiple value chainsantimony trioxide for flame-retardant systems, antimonial lead in batteries and ammunition, and smaller specialty alloys-so recycling and residues can provide steady input when primary tonnage is thin. Demand on the flame-retardant side tracks building products and con-
sumer goods; battery-related alloy demand follows replacement cycles. Trade policy and environmental rules affect both price and availability, which is why contracts increasingly include flexibility on delivery windows and substitute lots.
For U.S. sponsors looking to add domestic capacity, the practical advantages come from integration and siting rather than scale. Projects that pair a compact mining footprint with existing industrial infrastructure shorten timelines for power, water and logistics.
Early community agreements and public reporting on tailings, worker exposure controls and transport reduce permitting friction. On the commercial side, modest start-up volumes validated through
pilot or tolling runs, plus offtake that includes quality testing and rotation of small safety stocks, are the most credi-
ble near-term path to re-establishing a dependable U.S. slice of supply.
How Solar Waste Could Redefine Mining
The next major silver discovery may not come from a remote mine, but from rooftops in suburban Australia. Researchers at Macquarie University’s School of Engineering estimate that the silver embedded in millions of solar panels across the country could one day rival the output of some of Australia’s largest primary silver mines once those panels reach end-of-life.
Each panel contains roughly 20 grams of silver—worth about A$36 (US$23) at current spot prices. By 2035, Australia alone is projected to generate nearly 1 million tonnes of discarded solar panels, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Globally, panel waste could climb to between 60 and 78 million tonnes by 2050. Yet today, less than 15% of panels are recycled, largely because conventional processes destroy more material than they recover.
Mining Without the Mine
The potential turning point is a new method called Jet Electrochemical Silver Extraction (JESE). Developed by Dr. Binesh Puthen Veettil and Dr. David Payne at Macquarie, JESE uses a fine jet of dilute nitric acid powered by just five volts—less than a smartphone charger—to selectively dissolve silver. Unlike smelting furnaces that run at 1,400 °C or hydrofluoric acid baths, JESE requires minimal energy and avoids highly corrosive chemicals.
Coupled with Macquarie’s microwave delamination technology, which cleanly separates panel layers, JESE can recover high-purity silver with over 77% efficiency while preserving other valuable materials
such as silicon, aluminum, and glass. Researchers describe it as a “precision pressure washer for silver.”
Lithium Universe Steps In
In a pivotal step toward commercialization, Lithium Universe (ASX: LU7) has signed a 20-year exclusive licensing deal with Macquarie, valued at more than A$500,000 (US$320,000). The agreement secures global rights for JESE and provides for royalties on future product sales and licensing. For Lithium Universe, the move represents a strategic pivot at a time when lithium markets face price pressure. By 2032, the company expects JESE-enabled facilities to be deployed at industrial scale, offering both new revenue streams and alignment with the global shift to circular-economy practices.
Why It Matters for Silver
Global silver demand is rising at roughly 7% annually, fueled by electronics, photovoltaics, and the electric vehicle supply chain. The Silver Institute forecasts demand exceeding 20 million kilograms in 2025. Mining output, however, lags by an estimated 3.3 million kilograms, creating structural deficits. A scalable secondary source such as JESE could
relieve some of that pressure. For miners, this does not diminish the importance of primary production, but it does suggest new dynamics for pricing and recycling partnerships.
Governments are already acting. Victoria and South Australia have banned solar panels from landfill, and Canberra is considering a national stewardship program. Beyond silver, researchers believe JESE could be adapted to extract gallium, indium, and copper—broadening its role in critical minerals recovery.
The Road Ahead
Pilot projects will validate costs and refine supply chains. Industrial-scale plants are expected to combine JESE with microwave delamination. Installers, utilities, and local councils will need to integrate panel recovery networks, while regulators embed JESE into compliance frameworks. With waste volumes also surging in Europe, the U.S., and China, Australia’s model could be exported.
Skillings Analysis
Silver Market Impact: If JESE delivers at scale, it could moderate long-term supply deficits—but without displacing mine output.
Policy Timing: Australia’s landfill bans create a rare alignment of technology, regulation, and industry need.
Strategic Diversification: For Lithium Universe, JESE is more than a recycling play—it is a hedge against lithium volatility.
Conclusion
By turning solar waste into high-yield resource, Australia is positioning itself at the intersection of renewable energy and mining innovation. If pilot programs attract capital and secure feedstock, silver markets by 2032 may be shaped as much by rooftops as by rock faces.
Rooftop Silver
Iron Ore Mining: Global Outlook 2025–2030
Oversupply, Simandou, and the Race Toward Low-Carbon Steel
Four years ago, iron ore was the hottest commodity on earth. Prices surged above $220 a tonne in 2021, driven by stimulus-fuelled Chinese demand and pandemic-era supply disruptions. Miners pocketed record profits, and governments from Canberra to Brasília enjoyed windfall royalties. But by 2025 the landscape looks very different. Prices now hover near $100/t, Chinese steel demand has lost its swagger, and a mountain of new supply is looming on the horizon.
SIMANDOU BY THE NUMBERS
Reserves 2.4–2.8 billion tonnes
Grade ~65% Fe
Infrastructure $15 billion rail and port project
Timeline First shipment targeted late 2025; 60 Mtpa within 30 months
Risks
Political instability, safety incidents, financing gaps
For the global mining industry, and especially for the big four producers — BHP, Rio Tinto, Vale, and Fortescue — the question is no longer how to ride the super-cycle. It is how to survive, adapt, and thrive in an era defined by oversupply, geopolitics, and the low-carbon transition.
China: The Giant Slows, but Doesn’t Stop
No country has shaped the iron ore market like China. In 2024 its steel mills produced just over 1 billion tonnes of crude steel, roughly 55 percent of the world’s total. Nearly three-quarters of all seaborne iron ore still sails into Chinese ports. Yet the foundations of that dominance are shifting.
The property crisis continues to drag down construction demand, once the largest consumer of Chinese steel. Ghost cities, unfinished apartment towers, and insolvent developers are now symbols of a sector in retreat. Beijing has responded with fresh infrastructure spending, but the stimulus lacks the punch of the post-2008 era.
Still, China’s relatively young blast furnace fleet, with an average age of just 13–15 years, locks in a long-term appetite for iron ore. These furnaces are designed to run for decades, and Beijing is reluctant to decommission them prematurely. That means demand will not collapse, but neither will it grow
significantly. Analysts forecast Chinese steel output to plateau through the end of the decade, leaving the global industry searching for new growth engines in India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.
Supply: A Market Awash
On the supply side, the story is one of resilience bordering on stubbornness. Despite softer demand, miners have kept the tonnes flowing. In 2025 the seaborne market faces a 20–30 Mt surplus, pared back from earlier forecasts of 50 Mt thanks to weather-related disruptions in Australia and Brazil.
Global market value $275–290bn (2024–25); projected $313bn by 2030
Chinese share of seaborne trade ~75%
Average cash costs Pilbara <$20/t; Brazil ~$25/t
Carbon premium
Simandou potential
$15–25/t for 65% Fe ore
60 Mtpa by 2028; 120 Mtpa long term
IRON ORE BY THE NUMBERS
Iron Ore (Fe-content)
45 Countries (World Mining Data 2024, 2022)
Country Usable Ore (Mt)
Australia 584
Brazil 250
China 212
India 158
Russia 56
Canada 42
South Africa 41
Iran 36
U.S.A 24
Ukraine 22
Sweden 18
Peru 12
Kazakhstan 12 Turkiye 11
Chile 11
Australia’s Pilbara giants remain the industry’s benchmark. With costs below $20/t, they can weather downturns that would bankrupt smaller rivals.
Brazil’s Vale, still recovering from the legacy of its tailings disasters, has trimmed its pellet and briquette guidance, citing maintenance at its São Luís plant. Yet Brazil remains the indispensable supplier of high-grade ore, essential for decarbonisation pathways.
And then there is Guinea’s Simandou. The world’s largest untapped iron ore deposit has the potential to transform the market. With reserves of more than 2 billion tonnes grading around 65% Fe, Simandou could add 60 Mtpa by 2028, eventually doubling that figure. Its West African location also offers shipping advantages into both Europe and Asia.
But the risks are legion: political instability under a military junta, multibillion-dollar infrastructure needs, and
recent safety incidents, including an August 2025 fatality that temporarily halted work.
Strategic Recommendations
Cost Leadership & Discipline
Diversification into Critical Minerals
Selective ESG Differentiation
Operational Resilience
Company Strategies: Adapting or Retreating
Each of the majors has responded to the new reality in its own way.
BHP remains the industry’s cost leader, reporting Pilbara unit costs of just $17.29/t. But even it has not been immune, with FY2025 profit down 26 percent to US$10.16bn.
Rather than doubling down on iron ore, BHP is diversifying aggressively - into copper in Chile and Peru, lithium in Argentina, and potash in Canada’s Jansen project. Its bet is that the world’s energy transition metals will offer more durable growth than a mature iron ore market.
Rio Tinto , under its newly appointed CEO Simon Trott, is in the middle of a structural shake-up. In August 2025 the company reorganised into three product groups - Iron Ore; Aluminium & Lithium; and Copper - while launching a review of non-core assets. Cyclones battered
BHP capping Pilbara volumes; Rio restructuring; Vale deferring premium output.
Rio expanding copper, lithium; BHP investing in potash and copper; Fortescue exploring green steel.
Fortescue’s green iron trial; premium ore producers target eco-conscious steelmakers.
Automation investments (Rio, BHP) to cut costs, enhance safety.
to
quality positions it well for future demand shifts (e.g., DRI).
its Pilbara network earlier in the year, cutting shipments by 9 percent, but Rio’s longer-term wager is on Simandou.
The company is ploughing billions into a 650-kilometre railway and a deep-water port to bring the Guinean ore to market. Investors, however, remain wary of pouring money into one of the world’s most volatile jurisdictions.
Vale has taken a more defensive stance. Its 2025 agglomerates guidance was cut from 38–42 Mt to just 31–35 Mt, reflecting operational constraints and a cautious outlook. Vale’s strategy is to leverage its naturally high-grade deposits to serve the premium DRI and pellet markets, particularly in Europe and the Middle East, where decarbonisation targets are biting hardest.
Fortescue Metals Group, once the brash disruptor of the Pilbara, is now feeling the squeeze. Its 2025 profit of US$3.37bn was its lowest in five years, forcing a dividend cut. Yet FMG is determined to reinvent itself as a “green iron” pioneer, promising pilot production by 2026 and investing heavily in hydrogen and renewable energy projects. Whether this branding play can offset its vulnerability to lower-grade ore pricing remains to be seen.
Geopolitics: The Battle for Supply Security
Iron ore has never been just about geology; it is about geopolitics. China’s dependence on Australian ore has been a strategic vulnerability, one Beijing is desperate to reduce. Simandou, in which Chinese state-backed Chinalco holds
a stake, is part of that diversification strategy. So too are efforts to secure African supply chains more broadly, from Liberia to Cameroon.
For Western miners, Africa represents both opportunity and risk. Political instability, shifting tax regimes, and infrastructure bottlenecks are constant headaches. Yet the rewards - access to high-grade ore at scale - are too large to ignore.
Meanwhile, shipping routes themselves are under scrutiny. Brazilian ore faces long voyages to China, while Simandou’s Atlantic positioning could give it a freight advantage. In an era of rising shipping costs and carbon accounting, these logistics differentials could reshape cost curves as much as geology.
Decarbonisation: From Volume to Value
Perhaps the most profound shift in iron ore markets is the rise of carbon premiums. As steelmakers race to meet net-zero commitments, ore quality is becoming as important as ore quantity.
High-grade ores (>65% Fe) command premiums of $15–25/t over the 62% benchmark. Vale is the clear beneficiary, while Simandou’s ore is perfectly positioned for the emerging direct-reduced iron (DRI) route. By contrast, the Pilbara’s mid-grade blends may struggle unless paired with technological solutions such as carbon capture.
Europe has announced dozens of DRIEAF projects, but many are delayed by high hydrogen costs. The Middle East, with cheaper gas, and India, with soaring steel demand, may become the true hubs of low-carbon steel.
For miners, the message is clear: the market is no longer rewarding just tonnes shipped. It is rewarding tonnes that lower steel’s carbon footprint.
Investment Landscape: The Money Moves
For investors, the next five years are less about chasing growth and more about protecting margins.
Price forecasts: Citi expects an average of $95/t in 2025, sliding toward $85/t by 2027. UBS is more bearish, predicting mid-$80s by decade’s end if Simandou delivers on schedule. Wood Mackenzie offers a more optimistic scenario, with prices holding near $100–110/t supported by high-grade premiums.
Capital allocation: The majors are prioritising shareholder returns and diversification rather than new iron ore growth.
DESPITE FALTERING DOMESTIC DEMAND,
CHINA’S relatively young blast furnace fleet-with multi-decade operational horizons-supports demand continuity and buffers longer-term market slack.
M&A trends: Mid-tier miners are struggling to attract capital unless they can demonstrate either very low costs or ESG differentiation.
Skillings Analysis: Winners and Losers
The iron ore industry is moving toward a two-speed world. At the front of the pack are the Pilbara’s low-cost giants and the high-grade producers like Vale and, potentially, Simandou.
Lagging behind are the higher-cost, lower-grade miners, who face existential pressure if prices slide toward $80/t.
The wildcard is Simandou. If Guinea succeeds in bringing the project online, chronic oversupply may return. If politics or infrastructure setbacks delay it, Pilbara and Brazil will remain secure.
Either way, the decarbonisation agenda ensures that ore quality will dominate the next cycle. By 2030, success will be defined not by who ships the most tonnes, but by who ships the cleanest, most carbon-efficient tonnes.
Outlook to 2030
Between now and 2028, turbulence is inevitable. Chinese demand will plateau, new supply will flood the market, and prices will remain volatile. By 2030, however, the winners will be clear: those who kept costs low, diversified portfolios, and aligned with the low-carbon steel economy.
Iron ore has always been cyclical. The difference this time is that the cycle is no longer just about demand and supply. It is about carbon, cost, and credibility.
China’s Grip on Rare Earths
How Price Dictation Shapes the Global Economy-and What the U.S. Can Learn from Japan
When China produces over 70% of global rare earths and refines more than 85% of the world’s rare earth magnets, it controls more than just materials - it controls leverage. The metals in question - neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, terbium - power everything from Tesla EV motors to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jets.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, global rare earth consumption rose to 171,000 metric tons in 2023, with demand projected to climb steadily as clean energy and defense build-outs accelerate. For mining companies and analysts, this dominance is not just a trade statistic. It represents a strategic chokehold where pricing, investment timelines, and industrial policy intersect.
How China Dictates Rare Earth Prices
Supply Chain Control: China’s edge lies in its dominance of processing and separation capacity, not just mining. While Australia’s Lynas Rare Earths produces roughly 8% of global supply, most ore mined outside China still requires processing inside its borders. This makes non-Chinese producers captive to Beijing’s midstream monopoly.
Export Quotas and Price Manipulation: Through export quotas introduced in the early 2000s, China repeatedly created scarcity outside its borders.
A 2012 WTO ruling found that these quotas violated trade law, but the practice of price influence continues through licensing, tax rebates, and domestic incentives. Global buyers face higher and more volatile prices than Chinese manufacturers, tilting competitiveness toward local firms.
Weaponization of Trade: The 2010 East China Sea dispute with Japan demonstrated the geopolitical utility of rare earths. Beijing unofficially halted exports to Tokyo, triggering a 10fold price spike in some oxides and igniting panic among manufacturers.
More recently, restrictions on gallium and germanium exports in 2023 signaled China’s readiness to extend resource leverage beyond rare earths into adjacent strategic materials.
Price Volatility as Strategy: Cycles of high prices followed by sudden collapses have repeatedly undermined foreign entrants. U.S. producer Molycorp, which went bankrupt in 2015 after rare earth prices collapsed, serves as a cautionary tale.
The message: challenging China without insulation against volatility is commercially fatal.
Economic and Strategic ImpactGlobal Manufacturing Dependence
Electronics firms in Korea, German automakers, and U.S. defense contractors are tied to magnet supply chains. Even temporary disruptions ripple through procurement, leading to higher costs and delayed projects.
Bargaining Power in Trade Disputes: During the U.S.–China trade war, Beijing’s rare earth dominance was floated as a bargaining chip. The Pentagon has since classified REEs as critical to national security, underscoring their geopolitical weight.
Innovation Risk: High dependency breeds complacency. When exports resume, manufacturers often abandon costly diversification efforts, leaving the system vulnerable to the next disruption cycle.
Japan’s Strategic Adaptation
Japan’s strategic adaptation after the 2010 rare earth crisis offers one of the clearest case studies in resource security policy. When Beijing cut off shipments during a territorial dispute, Tokyo - then more than 90% dependent on Chinese imports - moved decisively.
Guided by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan launched a coordinated, multi-pronged plan: financing overseas producers like Lynas Rare Earths in Australia to diversify supply; investing heavily in recycling infrastructure to recover rare earths from end-of-life hybrid motors and electronics; incentivizing manufacturers to reduce the intensity of rare earth use in critical components; and funding R&D into substitute materials.
This integrated public-private strategy reduced China’s share of Japan’s supply to around 60% today, with a goal of below 50% by 2025. For miners outside China, Japan has emerged as a reliable partner with long-term offtake agreements and financing support.
Lessons for the United States
The U.S., by contrast, has responded in a fragmented, reactive fashion- leaning on market forces and a single major producer, MP Materials, while still sending ore to China for processing.
Washington has yet to establish the type of centralized policy coordination that Japan achieved through METI, and its reliance on short-term political cycles often leaves rare earth strategy hostage to shifting priorities.
Without sustained industrial planning, long-term investment guarantees, and stronger partnerships with allies such as Canada, Australia, and the EU, the U.S. risks repeating cycles of dependency. The lesson is clear: Japan’s success shows that only a whole-of-government effort - supported by industry and allies - can counterbalance Beijing’s dominance and build genuine supply chain resilience.
Skillings Analysis
• “China’s pricing strategy is less about immediate profit and more about maintaining long-term dominance. This makes it difficult for newcomers to survive normal market cycles.”
• “Japan’s lesson is that government-industry alignment is non-negotiable in resource security. Washington’s piecemeal approach remains its weakest link.”
• “For miners, the opportunity lies in becoming part of the diversified supply chain Japan and the EU are actively underwriting.”
Looking Ahead
With renewable energy demand accelerating into the Christmas quarter and beyond, rare earth procurement will remain a frontline concern for automotive OEMs and defense suppliers.
Unless the U.S. shifts toward Japan-style coordination, the next geopolitical flashpoint could once again see Beijing dictating not just rare earth prices—but the pace of Western industrial growth.
Barnsley Boy Returns Mining Statue Becomes Beacon of Resilience
Amid Town’s Regeneration
Barnsley’s proud coal heritage was once again placed firmly at the centre of civic life this week as the Barnsley Boy statue returned to the town centre after four years in storage. The sixmetre column sculpture, created by Scottish artist Kenny Hunter, now stands on Midland Street beside the Tommy Taylor Memorial Bridge, overlooking Oakwell Stadium and facing the site of the Oaks Colliery disaster of 1866.
The statue’s reinstallation is more than an aesthetic decision. It embodies Barnsley’s ability to reconcile a mining past that built the community, with a regeneration agenda designed to carry it into a more diversified future.
Mining Made This Town
First unveiled in 2012, the Barnsley Boy portrays a child atop a column representing the Barnsley Seam, one of Britain’s most productive coal deposits. At the base, Yorkstone paving stones engraved with the names of local collieries remind residents of a network of pits that once sustained entire villages.
At Thursday’s rededication, Sir Stephen Houghton, leader of Barnsley Council, stressed the importance of embedding history in modern identity: “Mining made this town, made this borough, made us the people we are – we must not forget that.”
The event featured the Made2Measure Brass Band, echoing the colliery brass band tradition, and was attended by representatives from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). The NUM’s continued presence in Barnsley highlights how deeply coal remains woven into the civic fabric, even decades after pit closures.
Symbolism and Memory
Artist Kenny Hunter described himself as “delighted” at the Barnsley Boy’s return to such a “prestigious and prominent position.”
The decision to place the figure facing Oakwell Stadium, home of Barnsley FC, reinforces the interplay between mining culture, football culture, and civic pride. Fittingly, the boy was unveiled wearing a Barnsley FC scarf.
Yet the statue is not only about resilience - it is also about remembrance. Chris Skidmore, Yorkshire area chair of the NUM, pointed out that the boy gazes toward the site of the Oaks Colliery disaster, where 361 men and boys perished in a methane explosion in 1866 - the worst mining accident in England’s history.
“Far too many kids got killed underground,” Skidmore said. “It is unwise to forget about what happened in those villages and the people not only who worked there, but the people who died there.”
By connecting children, football, and mining tragedies, the Barnsley Boy captures the community’s layered identity: endurance, pride, and loss.
Barnsley’s Regeneration: Past Anchored in the Future
The statue’s reinstatement coincides with Barnsley’s town centre regeneration programme, notably The Glass Works, a £210 million retail and leisure hub completed in 2021. While the Glass Works signals a forward-looking economy built around retail, leisure, and creative industries, the Barnsley Boy ensures that industrial history remains visible within that landscape.
Like other northern towns, Barnsley faces the challenge of post-industrial transformation. Once dependent on coal, its economy today is shifting toward digital services, health, and education.
Heritage remains a strategic asset: attractions such as the Elsecar Heritage Centre and the preserved Barnsley Main colliery headgear reinforce identity while contributing to tourism and education.
The Barnsley Boy demonstrates how a mining past can complement - not conflict with - economic renewal. It offers a blueprint for how industrial memory can be integrated into regeneration strategies, ensuring communities do not lose cultural anchors while pursuing future growth.
The return of the Barnsley Boy is more than symbolic. It marks a moment when Barnsley embraces both its mining past and its post-industrial present, showing residents and investors that regeneration can build without severing roots.
China Caps Coal Output to Halt Price
Slide as Oversupply Bites
China, the world’s largest coal consumer and producer, is capping output after a first-half supply surge kneecapped prices and profits. Officials at China Coal Energy said regulators tightened inspections and forced mines to remain within approved capacity, reversing a more-than-5% year-on-year rise in H1 2025 output.
By June, regional prices were down nearly 30% from a year earlier; in July, national production fell to its lowest level in over a year, underscoring Beijing’s readiness to steady markets even
as decarbonization targets and weak demand bite.
Production Caps After an Oversupply Shock
The sharpest curbs are in Shanxi, China’s top coal province, where Mysteel counts 54 coking coal mines- equal to 61.1 million tonnes a year- suspended or throttled. Beijing’s “anti-involution” drive to cool self-defeating competition, paired with tougher safety enforcement, is redrawing the supply map. Industry sources say regulators also sought to minimize accident risk ahead of the 3
September military parade in Beijing. Mysteel reported the five-million-tonper-year Wanbolin mine in Taiyuan was shut for safety, while national planners have yet to comment publicly.
Global Coal and Steel: Who Gains, Who Hurts
Asian seaborne demand remains firm, led by India and Southeast Asia; if sustained, Chinese curbs could tighten coking coal balances and lift exporters in Australia, Indonesia and Mongolia. For Chinese steelmakers, any rebound will squeeze margins. Net: nearer-term price stability, longer-term policy and investment volatility.
Billions Buried in Waste U.S. Mines Discard Rare Earths Worth More Than the Imports They Replace
U
.S. mines are discarding billions of dollars’ worth of rare earths and other critical minerals every year, according to new research from the Colorado School of Mines. The findings suggest that tailings - long treated as an environmental liability - could instead be a domestic treasure trove capable of displacing imports and reshaping supply chains.
The study analyzed annual production data from U.S. metal mines and paired it with geochemical surveys of 70 minerals. Researchers concluded that if even 1% of unrecovered byproducts were reclaimed, it would be enough to meet U.S. demand for most critical minerals - from cobalt and gallium to germanium and rare earths like neodymium. Only platinum and palladium would remain short.
Rare Earths in U.S. Tailings: An Untapped Resource
The scale is striking. Less than 10% recovery of discarded cobalt would cover the entire U.S. electric vehicle battery market.
A fraction of germanium recovery - under 1% - could meet all domestic needs in fiber optics and infrared systems. These minerals are currently lost as waste in gold, copper, zinc, and nickel mining operations.
“Metals such as cobalt, lithium, gallium, and rare earth elements like neodymium and yttrium are discarded as tailings,” said Elizabeth Holley, the study’s lead re-
RECOVERING JUST 1% OF CRITICAL MINERALS FROM U.S. mine tailings could meet most domestic demandtransforming an environmental liability into a strategic supply.
searcher. “The challenge lies in recovery. We need more research, development, and policy support to make it feasible.”
Earlier Skillings coverage on cobalt pricing volatility underscores how dependent U.S. manufacturers remain on fragile global supply chains dominated by China and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Economic Value Lost to Imports
The U.S. imported more than $320 million of cobalt in 2024, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, along with significant volumes of gallium, germanium, and rare earth oxides. All of these already exist in domestic mine waste streams.
Reclaiming even a portion would add a secondary revenue channel for miners, while reducing national import bills. “The novelty of this study is its mathematical treatment of new datasets,” said Frances Wall, mineralogist at the University of Exeter. “It was surprising to see how little recovery would be needed to meet raw material requirements.”
For operators, the economics are twofold: tailings storage is a cost center requiring decades of monitoring, while byproduct recovery could convert those liabilities into saleable concentrates.
Incentives and Infrastructure Still Missing
The bottleneck is investment. Retrofitting existing circuits or building new
recovery plants requires capital that current mineral prices do not justify. “Although these elements are needed, their market value may not be sufficient to motivate operators to invest without the right policies in place,” Holley said.
Industry observers note that tax incentives or guaranteed offtake agreements - similar to those in the Inflation Reduction Act’s battery provisions - may be required to shift the cost-benefit calculation.
Expert Perspectives
Frances Wall, University of Exeter: “Even if potential is there, recovering byproduct elements from complex ore bodies is not straightforward. They may occur in multiple minerals at very low grades.”
Colin Church, IOM3 (London): “There is significant value in U.S. mining waste, but commercial, chemical, and environmental barriers remain formidable.”
Skillings Analysis
Value Leakage: U.S. mines are discarding billions in critical minerals annually - a major missed opportunity.
Economic Trigger: Federal intervention, not just market forces, will determine whether byproduct recovery is viable.
First Movers: Companies that pioneer pilot projects could secure long-term supply agreements and reputational advantage in ESG reporting.
MANAGEMENT & TECHNOLOGY IN MINING: A STRATEGIC INFLECTION POINT
How digital leadership, automation, and new rules are rewiring the world’s mines
Mining is crossing a decisive threshold. Senior leaders are weaving advanced technologies into exploration, extraction, maintenance, logistics, and safety - turning site data into decisions, pilots into platforms, and efficiency into competitive advantage.
Integrated remote operations, AI-enabled autonomy, electrified fleets, and circular-economy initiatives are moving from edge experiments to the operating backbone of producers determined to win the energy transition and strengthen their social license.
From Data to Autonomy: The New Operating Model
Digital integration & smart operations. Cloud-enabled data platforms, advanced analytics, and integrated/remote operations centers (IOCs/ROCs) now fuse geology, maintenance, and production into a single, real-time decision loop. The result is shorter signal-to-action
cycles, greater schedule adherence, and a sustained, data-driven culture.
AI, automation, robotics & IoT.
Autonomous haulage, machine guidance, drone surveys, and predictive maintenance are consolidating into a mine-wide automation layer. In open pits, autonomy optimizes dispatching, routing, and payloads. In plants, models flag upsets before quality or safety is affected. Underground, robots extend sensing into previously risky headings. The direction of travel is clear: higher throughput, tighter cost control, and improved safety governance.
Fleet Autonomy & HighPrecision Operations
Haulage remains the cost and risk center of many operations. Precision coordination of trucks, shovels, and crushers delivers outsized returns.
Fleet optimization suites.
Integrated platforms for fleet management, high-precision guidance, and asset health combine GNSS, wonboard computing, and resilient wireless networks to orchestrate loading, cycle times, and maintenance windows. Results include reduced queuing, lower rehandle, and better situational awareness.
From
guidance to full autonomy.
Guidance and real-time KPIs are stepping stones to autonomous haulage and shovel assist - enabled by multi-sensor fusion that performs in dust, fog, and night conditions.
Drones + AI: Safer Skies, Smarter Mines
AI-enabled drones equipped with LiDAR, thermal imaging, and magnetometers are transforming survey and inspection.
Critically, the newest autonomy stacks operate beyond visual line of sight and in GPS-denied environments - mapping
IO models place geologists, metallurgists, mine planners, dispatchers, and maintainers in the same digital cockpit. Shared visualizations, live constraints, and clear decision rights shorten cross-functional loops and stabilize tonnage and recovery.
stopes, stockpiles, and voids without sending people into hazardous zones.
Quadruped robots carrying gas sensors and LiDAR augment this “go-anywhere” capability, creating high-fidelity point clouds and actionable situational awareness.
Sustainability at Speed: Electrification & Partnerships
Fleet and rail electrification.
Partnerships with battery manufacturers and charging specialists are accelerating the shift away from diesel.
Pilots for battery-electric haul trucks, fast-charging infrastructure, and regenerative rail are coalescing into site-wide roadmaps. The payoff is twofold: lower emissions and more stable energy costs.
Circular economy & tailings revalorization.
Policy tailwinds and maturing technologies are pushing reprocessing of tailings, slags, and waste streams from “nice-tohave” to core business. Remote sensing, process analytics, and modern separation techniques are unlocking by-products and shrinking liabilities.
Workforce reskilling.
Technology is outpacing traditional role definitions. Companies that invest in digital fluency, data governance, and human-machine teaming - across operators, maintainers, and technical experts - convert tools into outcomes. Change leadership and incentives are as important as the sensors themselves.
Regulation & Global Resource Governance
Rare-earth stewardship.
Producer-country oversight of rare-earth mining, separation, and quotas is tightening- reflecting their strategic role in EVs, wind turbines, and defense. Buyers should expect stricter compliance and
What a Modern Integrated Operations Center Looks Like
• Remote coordination of haul trucks, drills, trains, and plant equipment
• Live pit-to-port scheduling with active constraint management
• An integrated safety view that consolidates collision, fatigue, and gas alerts
• A single-source-of-truth (SSOT) data layer spanning geology, fleet, maintenance, and ESG
• Cross-functional playbooks that turn alerts into immediate actions
continued efforts to localize or diversify supply chains.
Digital coordination in permitting. State-level mineral data platforms linked to national infrastructure portals are streamlining planning and cutting interdepartmental friction.
Transparent, geospatially grounded processes are improving investor confidence and shortening lead times for compliant projects.
The International Seabed Authority’s Mining Code is still in negotiation. Pilot activities and environmental baselines are advancing, yet exploitation rules remain unsettled amid scientific and societal scrutiny.
Company-sponsored life-cycle assessments suggest significant greenhouse-gas advantages for some seabed metals versus certain land-based routes, but ecological uncertainties - benthic impacts and plume dynamics - require robust, independently verified safeguards. Ex-
Digital integration is no longer optional - it’s the operating system of modern mining.
Safety Tech You Can Deploy Now
• Smart wearables- Multi-gas detection, fall/impact alerts, location, and two-way comms surfaced in control-room dashboards
• Robots as scouts- Quadrupeds with LiDAR and gas payloads to clear headings before crews enter
• GPS-denied drones — Autonomous underground mapping for volumetrics, convergence, and geotechnical inspections
pect any first movers to face stringent monitoring, adaptive management, and high disclosure bars.
Connected helmets and wearables now integrate multi-gas detection (CO, CH₄, H₂S/LPG), fall and motion sensing, and location tracking - linking workers to control rooms for real-time intervention.
Robot-as-a-Sensor (RAAS).
Treating robots as mobile sensor nodes creates resilient, adaptive networks underground. Autonomous platforms extend environmental monitoring and inspection into areas too risky for people, feeding the same common operating picture as fixed IoT and fleet data.
Strategic Imperatives for ProMining Leadership
• Invest in the platform. Build clean, governed data layers that connect planning, dispatch, maintenance, ESG, and finance into a single source of truth anchored in an IO/ROC.
• Reorient workforce strategy. Make digital literacy, process control, and AI oversight core competencies at every level.
• Forge tech alliances. Partner with battery, autonomy, and drone providers to compress decarbonization timelines without sacrificing productivity.
• Lead on policy. Engage early on rare-earth stewardship, tailings regulation, deep-sea standards, and data transparency to shape pragmatic, science-based pathways.
• Scale innovation nodes. Treat innovation centers as deployment pipelines that move from pilots to portfolio standards with clear ROI gates.
BY THE END OF THE DECADE, THE BEST mines will be defined less by their pit shells than by their data shells.”
Looking Ahead
Near term (2025–2028): Digital becomes default. Digital twins, autonomous fleets, and predictive analytics progress from pilots to baseline practice at tier-one producers; mid-tiers follow via subscription and managed-service models. Financing terms increasingly hinge on credible emissions trajectories and digital governance.
Mid-term (2028–2032): Dense sensor webs and selective new frontiers. Undergrounds and plants operate as continuous
sensing ecosystems - drones, robots, wearables, and fixed IoT feeding unified operational pictures. Deep-sea mining’s commercial shape depends on final rules and science-based thresholds.
By 2030: Holistic digital convergence. RAAS, AI-driven safety, and remote-first IOCs underpin proactive governance. Circular-economy plays - tailings reprocessing and by-product recovery - are mainstream, reshaping cost curves and community expectations.
ADB Approves $410m Financing for
Reko Diq
Copper Mine
The Asian Development Bank approved a $410 million package for Pakistan’s Reko Diq copper-gold mine, advancing the country’s largest prospective FDI and one of Asia’s flagship critical-minerals projects. The deal pairs $300 million in senior loans to Reko Diq Mining Company with a $110 million partial credit guarantee for Balochistan’s equity, blending debt and risk protection to move a politically sensitive asset.
Located in Balochistan’s Chagai district, Reko Diq is slated to become the world’s fifth-largest copper operation. Phase one targets 800,000 tons a year of copper concentrate - relief for a market facing deficits as EVs, grids, data centers, and electrification raise demand. ADB’s role also anchors ESG standards under its Critical Minerals-to-Manufacturing framework.
The venture balances foreign and domestic ownership: Barrick Gold 50% (builder-operator); Government of Balochistan 25%; Pakistani SOEs OGDCL, PPL, and GHPL 25%. After years of arbitration and macro stress, multilateral backing signals improved investment risk, supports reserves, and catalyzes infrastructure.
Construction is now underway. First concentrate is expected by late 2028; mine life is planned at 37 years. As Chinese smelters face tight treatment charges, Reko Diq could ease concentrate scarcity.
For global supply chains, copper remains the bottleneck metal - and this project a pivotal new spigot.
U.S. Rare Earth Breakthrough: Energy Fuels Produces First 99.9% Dysprosium Oxide
For the first time in modern history, a U.S. company has produced a kilogram of dysprosium oxide at 99.9% purity on American soil. Energy Fuels announced the achievement at its White Mesa Mill in Utah, marking the re-emergence of heavy rare earth separation after decades of absence. Unlike laboratory samples, this is pre-commercial material produced on a demonstration-scale solvent-extraction circuit designed in-house - proof that domestic process know-how can be rebuilt.
Why Energy Fuels’ Breakthrough Matters
Dysprosium and terbium are essential for high-temperature permanent magnets used in EV motors, offshore wind turbines, and precision defense systems. More than 90% of global supply still comes from China, and the United States today yields virtually no Dy or Tb in meaningful volumes. Several recent “first dysprosium” claims in the U.S. were laboratory scale or relied on legacy ion-exchange methods with poor economics.
Energy Fuels’ solvent-extraction platform, by contrast, extends proven light-rare-earth separation work into the heavy rare earths and discloses both material and method. While MP Materials has outlined ambitions for heavy rare earths and Lynas is building a U.S. facility with Department of Defense support, Energy Fuels is the only operator to confirm high-purity dysprosium oxide output with traceable process detail.
Feedstock Is the Bottleneck
Separation capacity is only half the equation; America lacks heavy-rare-earth ore. Mountain Pass is rich in light rare earths such as neodymium-praseodymium but scant in Dy and Tb, and U.S. mines produce negligible heavy units. Energy Fuels’ pathway therefore hinges on feed from the Donald mineral-sands project in Victoria, Australia, where the xenotime fraction averages about 2.15% dysprosium and 0.37% terbium on a TREO basis.
At planned Phase-1 output of roughly 7,100 tonnes of concentrate annually, Donald could yield around 92 tonnes of dysprosium oxide and 16 tonnes of terbium oxide—enough to cover roughly one-third of U.S. dysprosium demand and nearly one-quarter of terbium demand.
By pairing White Mesa’s separation capability with contracted monazite and xenotime feed from Donald, Energy Fuels could deliver the first vertically integrated heavy-rare-earth supply chain anchored in the United States. The milestone is real; the next test is sustained feed and scale.
Rock Falls Remain the #1 Killer in Underground Mining
The Question Is: Why Are We Still Responding Like It’s 1995?
In May 2025, a miner in New South Wales was injured by a 2–3 tonne slab of rock that detached from an unsupported underground development face.
The incident - documented in Safety Alert SA25-02 issued by the NSW Resources Regulator - was not triggered by seismicity, nor was it unpredictable. Scaling had been done. The rock was still there. It still fell.
This wasn’t a statistical anomaly. It was a pattern we know well. Ground falls remain the leading cause of fatalities and serious injuries in underground mining
worldwide. And yet, the level of industry action - in budget, in modeling, in monitoring - doesn’t reflect that reality.
What the Numbers Show - and What They Don’t
Public safety data from agencies like MSHA, WorkSafeBC, and SERNAGEOMIN consistently report that falls of ground represent a top category for lost-time injuries and fatalities underground.
The NSW incident is just one of many in 2025 alone. The true number of near-misses - undocumented or unofficially logged - is almost certainly higher.
And that’s the point: most rock falls don’t kill. But they could. They just haven’tyet. And that has created a culture where ground control is still seen as a compliance item, not a critical control.
The Failure Isn’t Technological. It’s Strategic.
Yes, we have mesh, bolts, yielding arches, and shotcrete. Yes, we’ve improved digital design tools and introduced LiDAR scans in many operations.
But most underground mines still treat unsupported or legacy headings as stable unless proven otherwise.
Collapse of a gold mine in northeastern South Africa. Pic: Barberton Times
Predictive modeling tools exist. A 2025 study in Scientific Reports by Khoshmagham et al. modeled time-dependent deterioration of tunnel roofs due to mining-induced stress and moisture.
Their results show measurable roof deformation over time - a creeping failure that doesn’t trigger until long after excavation.
But modeling like this is rarely part of operational planning. It lives in research labs or high-profile Tier 1 mines. For most mid-tier or regional operators, the standard risk model is still visual inspection and bolt pattern conformity.
Seeing What Fell - Without Entering the Void
One area of promise is remote reconstruction. Research from Asteriou et al. (2025) demonstrates how photogrammetry and structure-from-motion techniques - using drone imagery or even crowdsourced photography - can reconstruct a 3D model of a collapse zone without requiring re-entry.
Though currently applied in surface mining and civil rock slopes, the potential exists for underground applications, particularly in block caves or large stopes where entry post-collapse is unsafe or impossible.
But again, these tools are not standard. Their usage is ad hoc - not part of most jurisdictions’ post-incident protocols.
Real Case: What LKAB Is Doing Differently
One verifiable example of proactive monitoring is Sweden’s LKAB, which uses real-time deformation radar in its Kiruna underground iron ore mine to detect movement in the hanging wall and footwall zones. Their published case studies in collaboration with GroundProbe show
how radar velocity monitoring has been used to predict deformation events in advance - allowing for withdrawal of equipment and personnel.
This isn’t hypothetical. It’s operational. And it shows what’s possible.
Skillings Commentary
“Underground rock falls aren’t random. They’re what happens when stress, geology, and human planning intersect - and no one’s watching close enough. We know the risk. We know the science. The only thing we haven’t figured out is how to treat prediction as prevention — not just a paper exercise.”— Skillings Mining Review Editorial Board
Conclusion
Underground mine rock falls are not yesterday’s problem. They are today’s quietest risk. As the NSW incident showed, even in regulated, developed settings, it takes only one wedge, one decision, one oversight.
The tools exist. The science exists. The examples exist. What’s missing is the mandate.
Skillings will continue to track verified incidents, policy changes, and geotechnical innovations - and report not just what happened, but what should have happened sooner.
Recommendations: What the Industry Can Do Now
Priority Recommendation
Publish all rockfall data, not just fatalities
Fund predictive modeling as part of CAPEX
Audit unsupported headings
Use remote sensing post-collapse
Tie executive incentives to ground performance
Transparency drives accountability. Hidden near-misses help no one.
Not just mesh and bolts - fund the software and expertise to run stress-time models.
Re-inspect all legacy crosscuts, backfilled stopes, and intersections - especially in aging mines.
Drones and image-based reconstructions can aid incident investigations without endangering teams.
Not just “safe days” - but geotechnical audit results, predictive tool adoption, and near-miss reduction.
Can Tata Steel Dodge America’s 50% Tariff Shock?
Tata Steel Ltd. has pumped inr 3,100 crore into its Singaporebased holding arm, T Steel Holdings (TSHP), as the company braces for turbulent trade conditions following the United States’ surprise decision to impose a 50% tariff on Indian imports. While the levy has rattled Indian equities - particularly metals - Tata Steel’s leadership insists its core domestic business remains insulated.
Tata Steel Infuses Capital into T Steel Holdings
In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on August 26, Tata Steel confirmed the subscription of 353.23 crore equity shares of TSHP at a face value of USD 0.1005 per share, translating into USD 355 million (INR3,104 crore). The Singapore entity functions as a strategic offshore hub for Tata Steel’s international investments and financing activities.
“Post this acquisition, TSHP will continue to be a wholly owned foreign subsidiary of the Company,” the company stated. The move is consistent with Tata Steel’s in-
ternational growth blueprint, which has included recent expansions in Southeast Asia and restructuring efforts in Europe.
For analysts, the injection underscores the group’s intent to maintain liquidity buffers overseas at a time when global supply chains and pricing power are under pressure.
Market Response: Metal Stocks Under Pressure
Tata Steel’s announcement came after trading hours, but investor sentiment had already turned cautious. The stock closed 2.9% lower at INR 155, extending a 4% decline over five sessions. Despite
this, Tata Steel shares remain up nearly 12% in the past six months and 13% year-to-date, outperforming some sector peers. According to NSE data, Tata Steel currently trades at a price-to-earnings ratio above 44, reflecting both optimism around India’s infrastructure-driven demand cycle and concern over global margin headwinds.
For broader context, the BSE Metal Index fell 3.2% in the past week, weighed down not only by Tata Steel but also by Hindalco and JSW Steel.
Market commentators attribute this to U.S. trade policy rather than company-specific fundamentals.
CEO Narendran: "U.S. Tariff Won’t Hit Domestic Steel"
Tata Steel CEO & Managing Director T.V. Narendran addressed the tariff issue directly during a media briefing on August 27, reassuring stakeholders that U.S. policy would not directly dent India’s steel market.
“The U.S. tariff will not have much direct impact on the domestic steel sector as we don’t export steel to the U.S.,” Narendran said.
However, he conceded that European operations, particularly the IJmuiden works in the Netherlands and UK downstream units, could feel the pinch.
Tata Steel Europe accounted for about 14 million tonnes of crude steel capacity in FY24, and roughly 15–20% of that output is exposed to U.S. buyers, according to company reports.
Narendran added that other Indian industries such as textiles, leather, and gems & jewellery were far more vulnerable to the tariff and would likely require government intervention.
Domestic Outlook: Demand Momentum Intact
Despite global uncertainty, Narendran struck an upbeat note on India’s growth trajectory. Steel demand in India grew 11% in FY24 and is forecast by the World Steel Association to expand another 7–8% in FY25, led by government spending on highways, railways, and renewable energy.
“Our growth rate is strong, and domestic demand is increasing. But we need to stay competitive,” Narendran said, hinting that cost pressures from iron ore, coking coal, and energy remain a challenge.
The CEO acknowledged ongoing policy consultations, with Delhi considering targeted GST reforms and production-linked incentives to cushion strategic sectors from U.S. trade shocks.
Tata Legacy & Community Engagement
Narendran’s remarks came on the 166th birth anniversary of Sir Dorabji Tata, the group’s second chairman. The occasion highlighted the Tata Group’s historic positioning as both an industrial pioneer and a social institution.
“There’s much to learn from Sir Dorabji Tata’s leadership. The Tata Group will continue to focus on nation-building,” Narendran said.
Tata Steel continues to invest in community programs across Jharkhand and Odisha, including skill development, housing, and green energy initiatives.
Skillings Analysis
Tata Steel’s fresh infusion into TSHP is less about expansion and more about financial fortification, ensuring offshore resilience if trade frictions intensify. The 50% U.S. tariff is unlikely to disrupt
Indian steel supply-demand balance but could sharpen price competition in Europe, forcing efficiency gains at Tata’s IJmuiden plant. For investors, the immediate watchpoint is not U.S. demand but China’s export stance, which could sway global pricing more sharply than American tariffs.
Outlook: What’s Next for Tata Steel?
Markets will reopen after the Ganesh Chaturthi holiday, and Tata Steel’s stock reaction will be a barometer for broader sentiment in the Indian metals complex. Investors are also watching for clarity on U.S.-India trade talks, which could define tariff duration.
Looking forward, Tata Steel’s capital allocation suggests management is positioning for a volatile global cycle but remains anchored to India’s robust domestic growth story.
With infrastructure projects peaking ahead of the festive season and into Q4, the company’s near-term fortunes may hinge more on domestic cement and construction demand than Washington’s trade policy.
THE U.S. TARIFF will not have much direct impact on the domestic steel sector as we don’t export steel to the U.S.,” Narendran said.
Silver Breaks Free Is 2025 the Start of a New Bull Run?
Silver has surged more than 33% year-to-date in 2025, hitting levels not seen since 2011. Spot prices are now above $37/oz, according to LBMA data, outperforming gold and many major equity benchmarks. For mining professionals and investors alike, the rally is raising a key question: does silver’s industrial backbone make it a stronger long-term bet than gold?
Gold made headlines in 2024 with record highs, but silver has outshone its rival this year. According to Bloomberg Metals data, silver’s 33% rally has eclipsed gold’s 19% gain so far in 2025. Analysts attribute this divergence to the dual nature of silver—part precious, part industrial.
“Silver is over 50% industrial today, with high-end electronics and photovoltaics driving demand,” said Robert Crayfourd, portfolio manager of Golden Prospect Precious Metals Trust, in comments to MoneyWeek.
Supply Crunch Deepens
Figures from The Silver Institute highlight a widening supply deficit. Annual demand grew from 993 million ounces in 2016 to 1.16 billion ounces in 2024,
while mine supply slipped from 1.06 billion to 1.02 billion ounces. The result is a persistent shortfall that miners have struggled to offset despite higher prices.
Industrial silver use hit 680.5 million ounces in 2024, with solar PV installations alone consuming nearly 30% of that volume. The Institute projects another 9% rise in 2025, as new solar capacity expands in the U.S., China, and India.
For miners, this represents a structural demand tailwind, but also a challenge. Many high-grade silver deposits are depleting, and new projects face permitting bottlenecks. Skillings recently reported on how regulatory timelines in Latin America are constraining new silver supply.
Investor Appetite: “Gold on Crack”
Silver’s volatility remains its defining feature. “You can think of silver as gold on crack—more irrational, more volatile, more dangerous, but also more rewarding,” said Adrian Ash, head of research at BullionVault.
That volatility has earned silver the nickname “the devil’s metal” among futures traders. While physical bullion investors may escape some of the sharpest moves, silver has historically overshot both on the way up and the way down.
Still, survey data suggests optimism. In July, BullionVault polled over 1,000 clients, with respondents forecasting $41.18/oz by year-end 2025—a further 42% upside from January levels.
The Gold-Silver Ratio
The gold-silver ratio - one of the oldest financial yardsticks - currently sits near 87:1, according to LBMA figures. Historically, levels above 80 suggested silver was undervalued.
“Repeated deficits in silver supply versus soaring demand should support a rebalancing of this ratio,” Ash said. For miners, a narrowing ratio could increase capital flows into silver-focused exploration and mid-tier producers, potentially improving financing conditions after several lean years.
Routes to Silver Exposure
Investors have multiple ways to play the silver trade:
Physical bullion: Coins and bars remain popular, though VAT and dealer spreads reduce returns.
Mining equities: Shares in primary silver miners or ETFs such as Global X Silver Miners (LON: SILV) offer leveraged exposure but add company-specific risks.
Golden Prospect Precious Metals Trust, for example, allocates 7.9% of its portfolio to silver miners, compared to 88.5% gold.
For professional investors, the choice often depends on whether silver is seen as a safe-haven hedge or an industrial growth proxy.
Skillings Analysis
Industrial demand is now silver’s main price engine. Unlike gold, where central bank demand dominates, silver’s fortunes rise and fall with solar, EV, and electronics cycles.
Volatility should not be underestimated. Silver rallies can deliver windfall gains for miners, but also expose investors to sharp drawdowns when speculative froth unwinds. Mining supply remains the structural bottleneck. Without new investment in high-grade projects, deficits are likely to deepen, supporting prices over the medium term.
Outlook: Can the Rally Last?
Heading into Q4 2025, silver’s trajectory hinges on two forces: industrial growth and global trade risks. If renewable energy and AI hardware continue to expand, demand could keep silver well bid. But geopolitical shocks—such as renewed tariffs or energy policy reversals—could weigh on consumption.
For miners, this environment underscores the strategic value of silver. With deficits widening and prices at 14-year highs, operators positioned in high-demand regions such as Mexico, Peru, and Canada could be set for outsized gains—if they can bring new supply online.
Why Copper and Potash Just Landed on the US Critical
The U.S. Department of the Interior, via the U.S. Geological Survey, has released its draft 2025 List of Critical Minerals, a blueprint for channeling federal investment, tax incentives, and permitting reforms. Updated every three years under the Energy Act of 2020, the list anchors U.S. supply-chain security and competitiveness as mineral demand accelerates across energy, defense, and consumer markets.
The draft identifies 54 mineral commodities, with 50 selected through a new economic-disruption model. USGS simulated more than 1,200 trade-shock scenarios across 84 commodities and 402 U.S. industries, weighting results by probability and severity. Zirconium is added owing to single-point-of-failure risks in domestic supply, while arsenic and tellurium are proposed for removal. Copper, lead, potash, rhenium, silicon, and silver - vital to infrastructure, batteries, and consumer goods - are recommended for inclusion.
The department stresses practical impact: the list guides tax credits, accelerates mine permitting, and shapes recycling initiatives. Ripple effects will reach packaging (aluminum, silicon), fertilizer (potash), and consumer electronics (gallium, germanium).
National Security and Industrial Competitiveness
First outlined in a 2017 executive order, the list has matured into a baseline risk-management tool for policymakers and investors. The highest probability-weighted supply-risk commodities include rare earths - dysprosium, terbium, samarium, lutetium, gadolinium - plus niobium, rhodium, gallium, germanium, and tungsten, indispensable for magnets, semiconductors, and automotive catalysts.
For consumer-facing sectors, exposure is immediate: volatility in cobalt, lithium, copper, and nickel lifts the cost of refrigerated logistics, shelf lighting, pointof-sale systems, and packaging infrastructure, ultimately feeding through to household prices.
Interior has broadened focus to mine-waste and by-product recovery. In July, USGS was tasked with cataloging federal mine-waste sites for recovery potential. Early pilots suggest tailings from uranium, phosphate, and base-metal mines could yield rare earths and other strategic by-products—converting long-term liabilities into revenue streams while stabilizing inputs for manufacturers. European and Canadian peers offer incentives; U.S. investors are watching for comparable signals. The draft is open for public comment before final publication later this year.
Hardware Moves Tonnes, Software Makes Margins
Inside the ecosystems reshaping safety, cost, and ESG performance. Mining Hardware, Software & Mobile
Apps: Building the Digital Mine Stack.
MINING’S competitive edge is shifting from horsepower to code. The winners are standardizing a stack that fuses autonomous, electric, and sensorrich hardware with planning software, AI, and mobile apps in the hands of every worker.
The digital acceleration of mining
From Western Australia’s Pilbara to the Canadian Shield and the Andes, the industry is quietly undergoing one of its most consequential upgrades in a century. Autonomous haul trucks now criss-cross ironore pits without drivers. Machine-learning models speed up geological interpretation once measured in months. Mobile apps replace clipboards for safety, compliance, and production reporting.
The rationale is blunt: mines that fully adopt digital technologies can lift EBITDA margins materially by cutting downtime, optimizing haul cycles and shovel utilization, trimming fuel/energy costs, and tightening ESG control.
For operators pressed by commodity volatility and investor scrutiny, the “digital mine” is no longer a pilot—it’s a profit center.
Hardware: from horsepower to intelligence
Autonomous haulage becomes standard. At Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri in Western Australia, a large autonomous truck fleet - coordinated through Caterpillar’s MineStar Command - has demonstrated double-digit productivity gains versus conventional operations by minimizing idle time, smoothing queues, and keeping average speeds consistent.
Electrification pays underground. Newmont’s Borden mine in Ontario popularized the “all-electric” underground workflow: battery-electric loaders and drill rigs from Epiroc/Sandvik reduce diesel particulate exposure, slash ventilation loads, and improve the working environment.
The ventilation savings alone are strategically important as mines chase both cost and carbon targets.
Hydrogen enters the pit wall. Anglo American’s hydrogen-powered haul truck prototype at Mogalakwena (South Africa) illustrates a path to decarbonizing high-tonnage open-pit fleets. If scaled, hydrogen could carve out a share of Scope 1 reductions for large pits where battery energy density remains a constraint.
Sensors make uptime a controllable variable. Across crushers, conveyors, and mills, vibration/temperature/pressure sensing plus edge analytics feeds predictive maintenance workflows. Programs like BHP’s in Chile show how early-warning signals can cut unplanned downtime significantly and bring planned maintenance into tighter windows.
THE MOST IMPORTANT tool in the pit today isn’t the shovel - it’s the sensor. Hardware moves tonnes; software moves margins.
Bottom line: hardware is no longer “dumb iron.” It’s a data-generation platform— and the quality of that data determines how much value downstream software can unlock.
Software: the invisible backbone
Mine planning & scheduling as the control tower. Deswik (now within Sandvik) and Dassault Systèmes’ GEOVIA family have gone from specialist tools to the operating brain of modern mines. Better pit designs, dynamic cut-over plans, and smarter ore-blending strategies convert directly into higher recoveries and lower strip ratios.
Real-time fleet optimization. Hexagon’s mine-wide systems integrate shovel, truck, and ore-flow telemetry to improve match factors and minimize hang time.
When coupled with autonomous fleets, sites report sustained, double-digit efficiency gains and a tighter spread between plan and actual.
Simulation to de-risk capex. With tools like RPMGlobal’s TALPAC, procurement teams model truck-shovel performance across topographies, duty cycles, and weather regimes - pressure-testing multi-hundred-million-dollar purchase decisions before the first unit ships.
ESG and governance by design. Post-Brumadinho, Vale and others embedded dam safety into digital control loops: real-time geotechnical inputs feed analytics that trigger alerts and reporting aligned with regulator and investor expectations. The lesson is clear - compliance is faster, cheaper, and more credible when it’s software-native.
Cloud, twins, and AI. Azure-based digital twins of processing plants, used by operators like Lundin Mining, let teams simulate flowsheets, spot bottlenecks, and tune energy use.
AI is no longer a science project; it’s embedded into grade control, blast design, and even drill-and-blast fragmentation prediction.
Why it matters: moving a tonne is table stakes; moving the right tonne, at the right time, to the right stockpile - at the lowest energy per tonne - is where the margin lives.
Mobile apps: the last mile of digitalization
If hardware is the body and software the brain, mobile is the set of hands and eyes that actually changes behavior on shift.
Safety/compliance on a screen. At operations like Gold Fields’ South Deep, mobile apps tied to IoT beacons automate
PPE checks, geo-fence hazard zones, and turn paper safety checklists into time-stamped digital records - cutting reporting time dramatically and improving auditability.
Workforce orchestration. Pilots at AngloGold Ashanti and others align shift schedules, digital timekeeping, and work orders. The result: fewer bottlenecks, faster maintenance turnarounds, and improved alignment between people and machine availability.
Underground visibility. At mines such as Collahuasi, engineers carry live dashboards underground. Decisions that once waited for a control room update now happen in near-real time.
Contractor integration. With contractors comprising 30–40% of headcount on many sites, digitized onboarding, permit-to-work, and compliance workflows reduce administrative drag and mitigate risk.
Cultural shift: when every supervisorand eventually every worker - has production, safety, and maintenance context in their pocket, the site’s operating rhythm changes for good.
Case studies: integration delivers
Rio Tinto, Gudai-Darri (Australia). A multi-billion-dollar iron-ore mine run on an end-to-end digital stack: autonomous haulage, drone-based survey, cloud-hosted control, and data-driven planning have lifted productivity by roughly 20% over legacy operations.
Vale’s post-Brumadinho transformation (Brazil). More than a billion dollars directed into dam monitoring, AI-assisted risk detection, and ESG platforms. The outcome is faster detection, clearer re-
The competitive landscape: ecosystems, not point solutions
• Digital mining is coalescing into vertically integrated ecosystems:
• Autonomous haulage: Caterpillar MineStar vs. Komatsu FrontRunner
• Underground automation: Sandvik AutoMine vs. Epiroc Mobius
• Safety/fleet platforms: Hexagon’s integrated suite
• Planning & geology: Dassault Systèmes GEOVIA and Deswik
The risk is vendor lock-in. Once you choose a hardware platform, its software tends to follow. Procurement must now evaluate interoperability, insist on open APIs, and budget for integration layers that keep optionality alive over multi-decade mine lives.
Technology strategy is now as critical as your mining method.
porting, and rebuilding of trust with regulators and the market.
Newmont Borden (Canada). “Mine of the future” positioning backed by a fully electric underground fleet integrated with modern planning software. Diesel particulate exposure plummeted; ventilation loads and associated opex followed.
Freeport-McMoRan (US & South America). Collision-avoidance technology (Hexagon MineProtect) across a fleet of thousands has become a frontline safety layer—reducing incidents and reinforcing a safety-first culture. It delivers 360° proximity alerts and wearable tags that enhance vehicle-to-pedestrian awareness.
Skillings Analysis
Hardware is the ticket; software is the margin maker. Gains concentrate where planning, fleet, and plant software harmonize around clean, high-frequency data. Mobilize the frontline. Putting dashboards, permits, and work orders into pockets drives cultural change - and ROI - faster than any top-down program.
Guard against lock-in. Demand standards-based interfaces and contractual portability for data and models; negotiate de-coupling rights up front.
The near future: toward the cognitive mine
Edge computing: Terabytes per day require decisions at the pit wall and stope face - edge nodes will pre-process telemetry and close control loops without waiting on the cloud.
AR/VR for skills and safety: VR shortens learning curves; AR overlays simplify complex maintenance tasks and reduce error.
Chain-of-custody and traceability: As critical minerals regulation tightens, blockchain-backed provenance could become as common as fleet GPS - especially for copper, cobalt, nickel, and rare earths.
Closing: from drill-and-blast to click-and-analyze
Mining will always be about moving rock. But how rock is planned, blasted, hauled, and processed is now mediated by a stack of autonomous hardware, planning software, and mobile apps. Operators that
master the integration - technically and culturally - will run safer, cleaner, and more profitable mines while earning the confidence of regulators, investors, and communities.
• Instrument critical assets with Tier-1 sensors; architect edge gateways for low-latency streams.
• Stand up a cloud data lakehouse with role-based access and lineage.
Success metric: one source of truth for production, maintenance, and HSE data.
2) Planning & dispatch (6–12 months).
• Upgrade to an integrated planning suite (pit/UG, blend, schedule).
• Implement fleet dispatch with real-time KPIs (queue time, spot time, hang time).
Success metric: plan-vs-actual variance <5% across cycles.
3) Mobile workforce (3–9 months).
• Roll out safety/compliance apps, digital work orders, and permitto-work.
• Enable contractor onboarding and site access via the same stack.
Success metric: 30–40% reduction in manual admin; faster maintenance close-outs.
4) Advanced optimization (9–24 months).
• Pilot AI for grade control, blast design, and plant set-point tuning.
• Launch a processing-plant digital twin to experiment on virtual shifts.
Success metric: sustained energy-per-tonne and recovery improvements.
5) ESG by design (ongoing).
• Integrate tailings monitoring, air quality, and community commitments into the same data fabric.
Success metric: audit-ready reporting generated from operational data, not spreadsheets.
Top 10 Essential Mining Equipment in 2025
The global mining industry is entering 2025 with renewed urgency to modernize fleets, cut emissions, and extend productivity in the face of declining ore grades and rising ESG expectations. From the Pilbara iron ore mines of Australia to the lithium brine fields of South America, the pressure to produce more with fewer resources is reshaping investment in heavy equipment.
At the heart of this transformation is technology. Automation, electrification, and digital integration are no longer “future trends”- they are the competitive baseline. Operators who hesitate to upgrade risk not only lower productivity but also compliance penalties as governments demand higher safety and environmental performance.
This Skillings guide identifies the 10 most essential categories of mining equipment in 2025. From autonomous haul trucks to environmental monitoring systems, we examine what matters, why it matters this year, and how companies can position themselves for efficiency, safety, and compliance.
The Industry Context
Global mining capital expenditure is forecast to exceed USD 150 billion in 2025, with a growing share directed at equip-
ment replacement and fleet upgrades. The drivers are clear: Automation & Autonomy: Rio Tinto, BHP, and Vale continue to scale autonomous fleets, while mid-tier miners begin pilot adoption. Electrification & Hybrid Systems: Driven by ESG targets, miners are testing hydro-
gen fuel-cell trucks and electric loaders. Digital Integration: Predictive maintenance, real-time monitoring, and AI-driven drilling systems are now standard considerations in procurement. Regulatory & ESG Pressure: Air quality standards, worker safety mandates,
and carbon reporting frameworks are forcing new investment in ventilation, monitoring, and clean power.
Estimated CAPEX of Top 10 Essential Mining Equipment in 2025 - from autonomous haul trucks to tailings monitoring systems. The question is no longer whether to invest in modern equipment, but how quickly and in what categories.
The Top 10 Essential Mining Machines in 2025
1. Autonomous Haul Trucks:
Core Mining Equipment in 2025
Autonomy isn’t a novelty anymore; it’s how big pits keep tonnage predictable while labour stays tight. What started with early fleets in the Pilbara is now standard practice across iron ore and coal, with copper catching up. The win isn’t just “no drivers.” It’s fewer judgment errors, 24/7 utilisation, tighter spacing, and cycle times that stop yo-yoing when shifts change.
Finance teams like autonomy for a different reason: variance control. A truck that runs the plan every hour makes cost/tonne and cash-flow forecasting boring - in the best possible way.
Add in lower accident exposure and steadier tire wear, and the model starts paying for itself before Year 2.
Estimated Cost (2025): USD 3.5–5M per truck. Best For: Large open pits (iron ore, coal, copper) with haul cycle bottlenecks
Skillings Insight: Autonomy is really a variance product. The ROI doesn’t just live in saved headcount—it lives in the hours you stop losing to human variability, incidents, and shift change drift.
2. AI-Enhanced Drilling Rigs
If trucks set the pace at surface, drilling sets the truth of a mine. AI-controlled rigs cut mis-drilled metres, adjust bit pressure and angle in real time, and push clean data straight into geological models. That compresses the calendar: feasibility teams get higher-quality core sooner, and project financiers get fewer excuses later.
Underground, remote-capable rigs are solving a different pain: scarce specialists. One crew can supervise multiple machines from a safe bay, while auto-logging tools remove the clipboard errors that used to haunt resource models. The rigs don’t just drill better - they make the study economics sturdier.
Estimated Cost (2025): USD 0.8–1.2M per rig. Best For: Underground hard-rock and greenfield programs under time pressure
Skillings Insight: Don’t sell AI rigs as “cheaper metres.” Sell them as time compression. In markets where funding windows open and shut fast, weeks saved on drill-to-model can decide who actually builds.
3. Smart Crushers & Screening Machines
Processing has become a reliability business. Lower ore grades mean more tonnes must pass through the plant, while power prices and dust rules get stricter. “Smart” crushers and screens respond to feed hardness, vary speeds to cut kWh/t, and self-report wear before a liner ruins a shift.
The benefit is cumulative: a little less energy, a little more uptime, fewer emergency stops—and a plant that hits nameplate more days of the month. In 2025, that’s what lenders want to see in quarterly ops reports.
Estimated Cost (2025): USD 250k–700k (config dependent). Best For: Mid- to largescale plants, especially gold and copper
Skillings Insight: Plants don’t go down from one big mistake anymore—they go down from ten small ones you didn’t see coming. Predictive wear and variable drives turn those ten into none.
4. Battery-Electric Loaders: Mining Equipment in 2025 Goes Green
Diesel used to be the unavoidable cost of going underground: hot engines, thick particulates, and giant fans running around the clock just to keep headings breathable. By 2025, that math has flipped. Battery-electric loaders and trucks are no longer “pilot projects” in Scandinavia or Canada - they’re rolling into mainstream fleets from Sudbury to Santiago.
The economics are blunt. A battery loader may cost more upfront, but it slashes the megawatts needed for ventilation. Studies from Canada’s Goldcorp and Finland’s Boliden showed ventilation accounts for up to 40–50% of underground energy use. Swap out diesel, and those fans can be downsized - a capex saving on top of the opex in fuel. Epiroc’s ST14 Battery and Caterpillar’s R1700 XE are now marketed as much on ventilation deferral as on productivity.
Of course, batteries bring new headaches: charging bay fire protocols, thermal management, and supply bottlenecks for cells. But in an ESG-focused financing environment, “zero exhaust at face” plays better with lenders than another diesel fleet does.
Estimated Cost (2025): USD 2–3.5M per unit. Best For: Deep or expanding underground mines with high ventilation loads
Skillings Insight: These machines aren’t a “green premium.” They’re a financial hedge. Every megawatt not spent on ventilation is margin that stays in the bank — and in 2025, that’s what boards, lenders, and communities want to see.
5. High-Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGR)
Comminution has always been the silent energy sink in mining. By some estimates, crushing and grinding alone account for nearly 40% of a mine’s total energy bill.
In a world where power tariffs rise and ESG audits demand kWh/tonne disclosures, that’s no longer something a CFO can ignore.
That’s where high-pressure grinding rolls (HPGR) come in. Instead of tumbling tonnes through energy-hungry SAG mills, HPGRs squeeze ore between counter-rotating rolls, producing finer particles with less wasted energy.
The payoff isn’t just in electricity saved: downstream recovery often improves, meaning more metal per tonne of ore. Rio Tinto has quietly expanded HPGR use at iron ore operations in the Pilbara, while copper miners in Chile and Peru are weighing retrofits to cut both costs and emissions.
The drawback? HPGRs need feed consistency and wear-part discipline. Run them on variable ore without planning, and maintenance will eat the savings. But for operations under pressure from power regulators and investors, HPGRs are quickly shifting from “alternative” to baseline.
Estimated Cost (2025): USD 5–10M per unit. Best For: Copper, gold, and iron ore concentrators under energy/emissions scrutiny
Skillings Insight: Think of HPGRs less as “new crushers” and more as an energy hedge. In markets where electricity prices swing, locking in 15–20% savings per tonne can be the difference between hitting EBITDA targets - or explaining misses to the board.
6. In-Pit Crushing & Conveying (IPCC)
Haul trucks remain the workhorses of open-pit mining — but also its biggest cost centre. Diesel burn, tire wear, haul road maintenance, operator shifts: it all adds up. In many large copper and iron ore pits, haulage alone eats 30–50% of total mining costs. That’s why in-pit crushing and conveying (IPCC) has reemerged in 2025 as a serious alternative.
Instead of moving ore by truck over kilometres of haul roads, IPCC systems place crushers inside the pit and transfer ore via conveyors directly to the plant. The benefits are obvious: lower diesel use, fewer drivers, smaller carbon footprint. Companies like Codelco in Chile and Suncor in Canada have revisited IPCC not as a futuristic gamble, but as a hedge against rising diesel prices and stricter carbon accounting.
The catch? IPCC demands long-term planning discipline. Once a crusher and conveyor are installed, mine designs lose flexibility. Pushbacks and sequencing changes can quickly undermine the economics if geology shifts.
Estimated Cost (2025): USD 50–150M per installation. Best For: Large, deep, and geologically stable open-pit mines (copper, iron ore, coal)
Skillings Insight: IPCC isn’t just an equipment buy - it’s a planning culture shift. Mines that treat it as a one-off procurement project will struggle; those that align mine design, maintenance, and ESG reporting around it will bank decades of savings.
Underground mines live and die by ventilation. Fans are often the single largest consumer of electricity on site, and regulators are no longer tolerating
“one-size-fits-all” airflow. By 2025, ventilation-on-demand (VoD) has moved from pilot projects to operational necessity, driven by both ESG scrutiny and brutal power tariffs.
Instead of running fans at full tilt 24/7, VoD systems adjust airflow in real time using sensors, tracking beacons, and machine data. If only two crews are working on one level, airflow can be dialed back; if a battery loader goes deeper, fans ramp automatically. This isn’t just an energy play - it improves safety by giving planners a live map of where fresh air is going, and where it isn’t.
Mines in Canada, South Africa, and Australia have reported 20–50% ventilation power savings with VoD rollouts. For companies chasing net-zero targets, that’s the kind of number that shows up not only in ESG reports but in quarterly earnings.
Estimated Cost (2025): USD 2–6M for full-site rollout. Best For: Deep or expanding underground mines with high energy intensity
Skillings Insight: Ventilation-on-demand becomes truly powerful when paired with BEVs. Less diesel heat plus smarter airflow isn’t additive - it’s multiplicative. Mines that run the numbers right see payback in months, not years.
8. Fleet Management & Dispatch Systems
For years, mining companies threw money at bigger trucks and faster shovels. By 2025, the smarter money is flowing into software. Fleet management and dispatch systems don’t dig ore, but they determine whether your existing fleet works like a clock - or like a traffic jam.
These platforms track every truck, shovel, and drill in real time. They calculate
optimum haul routes, adjust dispatch on the fly, and flag underutilized assets. A truck waiting five minutes at a shovel doesn’t sound catastrophic - until you multiply it across 40 units, three shifts, and a month of production. The gains add up fast: studies from Australia’s Pilbara iron ore region report 5–15% productivity lifts when FMS is fully adopted.
The challenge isn’t the tech. The challenge is cultural. Operators don’t like tablets telling them how to drive, and supervisors resist software second-guessing their judgment. Mines that tackle the change management head-on unlock millions; those that don’t, end up with expensive dashboards no one trusts.
Estimated Cost (2025): USD 500k–5M depending on fleet size and modules. Best For: Mid- to large-scale open pits with multi-shovel fleets
Skillings Insight: The ROI isn’t in the code — it’s in the culture. Mines that treat FMS as an IT project fail. Mines that treat it as an operations reboot win.
9. Hybrid Microgrids & Modular Power
Mines don’t run without power, and in 2025, power isn’t cheap or simple. Remote operations face soaring diesel logistics costs, while investors press hard on carbon intensity. The answer many miners are turning to is hybrid microgrids - modular power systems that mix renewables, batteries, and efficient thermal generation.
Think of it as hedging energy exposure. Solar and wind cut diesel dependence when the weather cooperates; battery storage smooths the gaps; gas or HFO gensets handle baseload. The result is a lower levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and fewer volatile fuel bills - a number CFOs can actually plan around. Aggre-
ko, Caterpillar, and Wärtsilä now offer “plug-and-play” modular solutions sized to mines, not cities, making the barrier to entry lower than ever.
But the technology alone doesn’t sell it. Lenders and communities want proof that mines are serious about long-term carbon reduction, not just power bills. That’s why hybrid systems are showing up in sustainability reports as much as in site engineering plans.
Estimated Cost (2025): USD 5–30M depending on mine size and storage capacity. Best For: Remote operations with high fuel transport costs or ESG reporting pressure
Skillings Insight: Hybrid microgrids are as much a finance instrument as an engineering fix. In volatile fuel markets, predictable LCOE can be the cleanest line item in the whole budget.
10. Tailings & Geotech Monitoring Systems
Tailings dams used to be “engineer’s business.” Then Brazil’s Brumadinho collapse in 2019 killed 270 people and wiped billions off Vale’s market cap. By 2025, no serious miner treats tailings as a line item to cut. Real-time monitoring of tailings storage facilities (TSFs), slopes, and geotechnical risks has become mandatory - not because regulators say so, but because insurers and lenders demand it.
Today’s systems go far beyond quarterly inspections. UAVs map volumes weekly, ground-based radar tracks slope stability in real time, and fiber-optic piezometers flag seepage or pressure changes long before failure. The cost isn’t trivial — a fully instrumented TSF monitoring system can run into millions — but compared to reputational damage, litigation, and loss of license, it’s the cheapest insurance a mine can buy.
Chile, Canada, and Australia have already tightened disclosure requirements, forcing operators to log and publish monitoring data. That shift is turning risk management into a transparency contest - and the mines that get ahead of it win credibility with both regulators and investors.
Estimated Cost (2025): UAV kits USD 20k–100k; full TSF monitoring USD 1–5M. Best For: Any mine with tailings dams or high-consequence slopes
Skillings Insight: Your ESG report is only as good as your tailings data. In 2025, the mines that survive reputationally are the ones that publish real-time dashboards — not glossy PDFs.
Closing the Loop: Mining Equipment in 2025 Is About Credibility
Mining equipment in 2025 is no longer just hardware - it’s the frontline of how companies balance cost, risk, and credibility. Every machine on this list, from autonomous trucks to tailings monitors, shows the same truth: efficiency and ESG are inseparable. Regulators, lenders, and communities all read the data, and it’s those numbers - not slogans - that decide who wins or loses.
The companies that succeed this decade won’t simply buy the biggest or newest machines. They’ll align equipment choices with finance and strategy, and they’ll prove it in transparent reporting.
For Skillings, the takeaway is clear: equipment is not only a capital expense. It’s a reputation expense. A poor fleet choice creates downtime and boardroom risk; the right one creates margin and staying power in volatile markets. As 2025 unfolds, Skillings will continue tracking these themes - from the rise of second-hand fleets to the copper tariff fallout reshaping parts supply.
UNESCO Exit, Uranium Ambition: What Trump’s Withdrawal Means for Mining
President Donald Trump has ordered the United States to withdraw from UNESCO, effective December 31, 2026, reversing the Biden administration’s 2023 re-entry and marking the third U.S. departure since the agency’s creation.
For the mining sector, the question is practical: how does the loss of multilateral cultural oversight reshape risk and opportunity at projects beside iconic landscapes, starting with uranium near the Grand Canyon?
UNESCO’s Soft Power, Hard Consequences
UNESCO designations carry no binding force in U.S. courts, yet the agency’s warnings have altered outcomes on the ground. In 2012, the Interior Department imposed a twenty-year withdrawal on new uranium claims north of the park, reflecting international, tribal, scientific, and conservation concerns.
That order left valid existing rights intact. Energy Fuels’ Pinyon Plain mine - formerly Canyon - advanced under pre-existing approvals and, on February 12, 2025, resumed ore hauling after discussions with the Navajo Nation over transport routes.
Yellowstone offers a precedent: when UNESCO placed the park on its “in danger” list in 1995, momentum built toward the 1996 New World Mine agreement that halted a gold project near the boundary.
The lesson is clear: UNESCO’s soft power has historically reinforced domestic caution around extraction at iconic sites.
Industry Sees a Window- With Strings Attached
With uranium prices holding above ninety dollars per pound, proponents argue that Canyon-adjacent ore would harden a supply chain otherwise reliant on Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The market case is strong, but policy nuance matters. Uranium is not on the Department of Energy’s 2023 Critical Materials List because the Energy Act treats it as a fuel, even as national-security planners prioritize resilient nuclear fuel cycles.
Investors will still price reputational exposure. ESG screens increasingly penalize projects that encroach on Indigenous lands or cultural landscapes, and the industry still wears scars from Rio Tinto’s 2020 destruction of Juukan Gorge. Several European funds exclude uranium.
In other words, exiting UNESCO may lower one form of pressure while raising the premium on social license and transparent impact management.
From Multilateral Pressure to Domestic Crosswinds
Expect the fight to sharpen inside U.S. institutions. Arizona lawmakers continue to challenge the 2012 withdrawal on national-security grounds, while litigation under NEPA and the Endangered Species
Act keeps environmental guardrails in place. Agencies can revisit the withdrawal, but reversal invites lawsuits and consumes time - a constraint schedules cannot ignore. Abroad, Washington’s exit narrows its influence when other countries weigh World Heritage listings that intersect with American miners’ interests, reducing a venue where the United States once argued for balanced standards.
For companies, the trade-off means fewer multilateral roadblocks at home but less diplomatic cover overseas.
Skillings Analysis
Near term, miners gain a tactical opening as international condemnation recedes. Mid-cycle, investor, insurer, and media scrutiny replaces UNESCO as the binding check, especially where tribal consent is contested. Long term, the United States cedes a forum that once helped set norms its companies must navigate abroad.
Outlook
Between now and December 2026, expect intensified lobbying to loosen the Grand Canyon buffer and accelerated permitting moves at projects with valid rights. Whether new tons emerge will be decided by law, economics, and reputational stamina- not by UNESCO alone.
With the UNESCO clock winding down toward December 31, 2026, only projects that de-risk through genuine tribal consent, watertight permitting, and verifiable ESG metrics can convert policy openings into bankable tons.
JULY 2025 CRUDE STEEL PRODUCTION
World crude steel production for the 70 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) was 150.1 million tonnes (Mt) in July 2025, a 1.3% decrease compared to July 2024. Africa produced 1.9 Mt in July 2025, down 2.0% on July 2024. Asia and Oceania produced 110.4 Mt, down 1.9%. The EU (27) produced 10.2 Mt, down 7.0%. Europe, Other produced 3.6 Mt, up 2.6%. The Middle East produced 4.4 Mt, up 27.7%. North America produced 9.4 Mt, up 5.8%. Russia & other CIS + Ukraine produced 6.7 Mt, down 5.1%. South America produced 3.6 Mt, down 4.5%. The 70 countries included in this table accounted for approximately 98% of total world crude steel production in 2024. Regions and countries covered by the table: Africa, Asia and Oceania, European Union (27), Europe,other, Middle East, North America, Russia & other CIS + Ukraine, South America.
Top 10 steel-producing countries
China produced 79.7 Mt in July 2025, down 4.0% on July 2024. India produced 14.0 Mt, up 14.0%. Japan produced 6.9 Mt, down 2.5%. The United States produced 7.1 Mt, up 4.8%. Russia is estimated to
have produced 5.7 Mt, down 2.4%. South Korea produced 5.3 Mt, down 4.7%. Türkiye produced 3.2 Mt, up 4.2%. Germany produced 2.7 Mt, down 13.7%. Brazil is estimated to have produced 2.9 Mt, down 5.5%. Iran produced 2.2 Mt, up 29.7%.
Table 2. Top 10 steel-producing countries
The 70 countries included in this table accounted for approximately 98% of total world crude steel production in 2024.Regions and countries covered by the table:Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Africa, Tunisia. Asia and Oceania: Australia, China, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Korea, Taiwan (China), Thailand, Viet Nam. European Union (27): Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden. Europe, Other: Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Türkiye, United Kingdom. Middle East: Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen. North America: Canada, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, United States. Russia & other CIS + Ukraine: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine. South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela.
Table 1. Crude steel production by region
2024 GLOBAL CRUDE STEEL PRODUCTION TOTALS
Source – World Steel Association
e – annual figure estimated using partial data or non-worldsteel resources. * The world total production figure in this table includes estimates of other countries that only report annually.
steelChallenge-20 registration open
Steeluniversity, the education and training programme of the World Steel Association (worldsteel), is pleased to announce the opening of registrations for the 20th edition of steelChallenge. The Regional Championship will be on 25th November 2025 from 12.00 UTC. All entrants are tasked to produce a grade of steel in our steelmaking simulators
that meets technical requirements at the lowest cost per tonne while also meeting carbon footprint requirements They will have 24 hours to complete successful runs to have the chance of being selected as the champion of one of our five regions – Americas, Europe & Africa, Asia – West, Asia- North, and Asia – East and Oceania. For the first time, there
are three categories: Industry, University Student, and High School Student. The High School Student category is a closed pilot delivered in collaboration with Techint Group and Hadeed. The category will open to everyone in 2026.
For more details, please visit steeluniversity.org.
