Global mining outlook “stable”
01 Dec 2020
Long Read
As the mining industry awaits India’s largest mining trade fair, starting tomorrow, Fitch Ratings gives the global mining industry a 'stable' outlook. Risks of pandemic-related supply disruptions and slower-than-forecast economic growth will linger next year, but their impact on the sector will be moderate compared with the downturn in the first half of 2020.
Fitch says China's economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and sizeable infrastructure-focused government stimulus boosted global metals and mining prices, helping to stabilise its expectations for the sector's performance in 2021.
Making mining smart
Various technologies and equipment being developed over the years have played an inevitable role in scaling down the challenges at mining sites and improve mining efficiency, productivity and safety. Advanced equipment and machinery have opened up environment-friendly mining methods from age-old methods that create a lot of dust and smoke resulting in health hazards to workers. Internet of Things (IoT)-based digital technologies promote safe and productive operations of mines and these also play a major role in the safety of mines and people working inside the mines. Digital technologies today offer complete solutions in the entire mine operation starting from mine prospecting till the ore production.
Advanced mining nations have made mining industry “smart” with the help of these technologies. Some of these nations have even reached level of autonomous operations in mining. At the same time, mining industry in India largely continues to use old traditional methods and equipment in mine operations. While private miners are using new methods and advanced equipment, public sector (PSU) mining companies which constitute the lion’s share of Indian mining sector still to catch up momentum in adopting new methods and technologies in mining.
After the recent amendments in the mining policies, the trend is picking up among the PSU miners as Coal India is now exploring the possibilities of digitalising some of their large mines in the coming years. In spite of all these, the pace of technology adoption at Indian mines continues to be slow which is hampering the output at Indian mines in spite of huge deposits of coal and non-coal minerals. While the mining policy in the country is progressing in the right direction, a proactive step is needed from the policy front for the adoption of advanced technologies and equipment in a big way that will make mining more efficient, productive and safe.
Coming up: Global Mining Summit and 15th IMME
The
15th edition of the International Mining and Machinery Exhibition (IMME), the largest trade fair in the mining industry in India. The event, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), will be held from 2 December 2020 to 1 February 2021 on a virtual platform. The Global Mining Summit 2020 (GMS) will also be organised concurrently on the same platform between 2 to 4 December 2020 with the theme "Revitalising natural resources to achieve 5 trillion economy".
