2026 Top 10 Trends and Priorities for Mining and Natural Resources
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Preview Another IndustryIndustry-Centric Innovation and Transformation
View Our Research and Analyst ServicesTop Priorities for 2026
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01
Digital transformation & operational efficiency
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02
Workforce transformation & skills development
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03
Enterprise risk management
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04
Health, safety & environmental risk management
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05
ESG reporting, community engagement & corporate transparency
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06
Secure IT-OT operations & cyber resilience
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07
Connectivity & the digital mine
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08
Asset management & performance
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09
Cost optimization and benefit realization
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10
Operating model refinement
Digital transformation & operational efficiency
The Challenge
Modernize operations to boost throughput and reduce costs
Mining operations rely on aging systems, manual processes, and disconnected data sources that limit productivity and increase variability across sites. Without cohesive digital transformation, especially around automation, analytics, and integrated planning, organizations struggle to optimize production cycles, reliability, and asset utilization.
Why It Matters
Cost pressures and production volatility demand higher efficiency
Commodity price swings, rising input costs, and increasing regulatory scrutiny require mining organizations to run leaner and more predictable operations. Improved digital capabilities directly support throughput, quality, and cost-per-ton performance.
The Solution
Develop the data and technology foundations for scale
A strong foundational layer reduces rework, accelerates future adoption, and enables scalable operational improvements across the business.
Align digital projects to measurable operational outcomes
Focus analytics and automation investments on reducing downtime, improving fleet utilization, and optimizing production flows, not on technology experimentation.
Establish the foundations for data access and analytics adoption
Standardize data architecture, integrate OT/IT sources, and deploy governance practices so analytics models can be trusted and scaled across sites.
Workforce transformation & skills development
The Challenge
Overcome technology skill gaps across field and corporate teams
Mining organizations face persistent difficulty in attracting, retaining, and upskilling workers in digital tools, automation systems, and analytics. Both field operators and back-office teams often lack the confidence, training, or capacity to adopt new technology at scale.
Why It Matters
Digital plans fail without a capable and engaged workforce
Technology ROI is lost when employees cannot – or do not want to – use new systems. Skills gaps slow transformation, weaken adoption, and reduce productivity gains in areas like maintenance, planning, and safety.
The Solution
Build a structured workforce transformation program
Create an intentional, multi-year approach to developing digital talent across the organization by aligning training, roles, and support systems to the needs of modern mining operations.
Develop role-specific digital competencies and learning paths
Define critical digital skills for operators, supervisors, and corporate teams, and build targeted training programs linked to operational goals.
Strengthen change management and employee engagement
Involve front-line workers early, provide clear communication on the “why,” and design training and support that match on-site realities and equipment constraints.
Enterprise risk management
The Challenge
Manage a growing portfolio of operational, cyber, and financial risks
Mining operations face risks across commodity markets, supply chains, equipment reliability, cybersecurity, regulatory shifts, and geopolitical constraints. Many companies lack integrated risk frameworks, leading to siloed identification, mitigation, and reporting across departments.
Why It Matters
Traditional risk approaches cannot keep pace with volatility
Better risk visibility enables more resilient planning, protects margins, and minimizes disruptions. Organizations with coordinated ERM practices respond faster to emerging threats and align risk mitigation with strategic goals.
The Solution
Implement an integrated and data-informed risk management framework
Strengthen risk oversight by unifying policies, processes, and decision-making across departments so risks are identified early and managed consistently.
Establish enterprise-wide risk governance and ownership
Clarify roles, standardize risk assessments, and integrate risk decision-making across finance, operations, and IT.
Use analytics to improve monitoring and forecasting
Strengthen risk analysis with scenario modeling, leading indicators, and dashboards that combine operational, financial, and external market data.
Health, safety & environmental risk management
The Challenge
Protect workers and communities in high-risk operating environments
Mining remains one of the most hazardous industries, with risks stemming from heavy equipment, blasting, underground operations, fatigue, and environmental exposure. Many organizations rely on manual reporting and inconsistent safety practices that reduce visibility into hazards.
Why It Matters
Safety performance is a fundamental license to operate
Improving HSE outcomes protects workers, reduces shutdowns, meets regulator expectations, and strengthens community and shareholder trust. Poor safety practices lead to severe regulatory, financial, and reputational consequences. This is further amplified in operations with substantial unionization.
The Solution
Build proactive, technology-enabled safety programs
Shift from reactive incident response to proactive risk prevention by embedding technology, structured processes, and real-time reporting into daily operations.
Standardize HSE processes and strengthen real-time hazard reporting
Unify incident management, inspections, and near-miss capture across sites with mobile tools and consistent workflows.
Leverage analytics and monitoring technologies for early risk detection
Adopt fatigue monitoring, environmental sensors, wearables, and predictive models to identify unsafe patterns before incidents occur.
ESG reporting, community engagement & corporate transparency
The Challenge
Deliver credible and consistent ESG reporting across complex operations
Mining companies must meet growing expectations for transparent ESG reporting, community engagement, and Indigenous relations. Managing relationships with these various stakeholder groups is increasingly demanding a systematic and verifiable approach that can adapt to evolving needs.
Why It Matters
ESG performance shapes investor confidence and social license
Effective reporting helps leaders make informed decisions, satisfies regulatory requirements, and strengthens relationships with local communities and governments. Further, building relationships with community stakeholders whose support validates your license to operate is a critical practice for navigating constraints.
The Solution
Build a unified ESG reporting and engagement framework
Create a consistent, organization-wide approach to collecting, validating, and communicating ESG information so leaders, regulators, and communities receive clear, trusted insights.
Standardize ESG metrics, data collection, and board-level reporting
Define clear KPIs, consolidate data sources, and create structured dashboards that help leaders understand progress and risks.
Strengthen community and stakeholder engagement practices
Implement coordinated outreach, transparent communication plans, and structured responses to community concerns to protect social license and maintain project viability.
Secure IT-OT operations & cyber resilience
The Challenge
Protect converged IT-OT environments from escalating cyber threats
Mining operations increasingly depend on connected control systems, remote operations centers, and automation platforms. As IT and OT networks converge, legacy equipment, patching gaps, and limited visibility across assets leave mines exposed to ransomware, production-halting attacks, and safety incidents.
Why It Matters
Cyber incidents now threaten uptime, safety, and ESG commitments
A successful attack can halt production, damage critical equipment, and compromise safety or environmental controls. Downtime in a mine is expensive, reputationally damaging, and can undermine regulatory and investor confidence in operational discipline and ESG performance.
The Solution
Strengthen protection though unified and OT-aware governance, and controls
Enhance cybersecurity by aligning IT and OT teams around shared standards, ensuring critical systems are monitored, segmented, and protected according to operational importance.
Establish unified IT-OT security governance and visibility
Create shared accountability between IT, OT, and operations leaders, inventory critical assets, and implement monitoring that spans both business and plant networks.
Prioritize safeguards for critical production and safety systems
Apply security controls, including network segmentation, access management, patching strategies, and incident response plans tailored to OT constraints to improve protection without disrupting production.
Connectivity & the digital mine
The Challenge
Ensure consistent, reliable connectivity across every part of the mine site
Mining operations are increasingly dependent on real-time data, remote operations, automation, IoT, video feeds, and sensor networks. Traditional networking (wired or patch-work radio) is often insufficient or impractical, especially in remote, rugged, or subterranean environments. Patchy coverage, dead zones, and network gaps that hinder data collection, process automation, and visibility are becoming increasingly problematic.
Why It Matters
Without robust connectivity, digital tools and optimization efforts remain stuck
Several of the technology-driven mining trends of today — autonomous machinery, environmental sensing, worker safety systems, remote operations — all depend on persistent, high-quality network connectivity. When networks fail or cannot reliably carry data, investments in automation or analytics become stranded assets. Reliable connectivity is the foundation enabling everything from safety and efficiency to ESG reporting and remote capabilities.
The Solution
Build a purpose-designed, scalable network architecture tailored to mining operations
Design and deploy connectivity solutions that account for the unique physical, environmental, and operational demands of both surface and underground sites.
Design and deploy a hybrid network infrastructure adaptive to site topology and use-case mix
Combine private cellular (e.g. 4G/5G), mesh, Wi-Fi, and other wireless technologies depending on site layout, underground vs. open-pit zones, mobility needs, and data workloads. Choose technology mix based on expected applications.
Build network governance, scalability planning, and continuous monitoring into operations
Define network capacity and coverage requirements based on present and future use cases (automation, IoT, remote ops), plan for scalability, and continuously monitor network health to ensure reliability as demand grows. This ensures connectivity remains a stable foundation rather than a constraint on digital initiatives.
Asset management & performance
The Challenge
Ensure reliable performance from aging, distributed, and mission-critical equipment
Mining organizations depend on fleets, plants, and fixed assets that operate in harsh environments and experience high wear. Fragmented maintenance practices, inconsistent asset data, and limited condition monitoring reduce reliability and make it difficult to optimize lifecycle decisions.
Why It Matters
Unplanned downtime increases costs, disrupts production, and limits throughput
When critical assets fail, production stops, safety risks increase, and maintenance teams shift into reactive mode. Improving asset reliability directly supports productivity, cost-per-ton efficiency, and long-term capital planning across the mining value chain.
The Solution
Improve asset reliability through standardized practices and data-driven insights
Strengthen maintenance performance by aligning teams around consistent processes and leveraging equipment condition data to inform interventions.
Establish consistent asset management processes and roles
Align maintenance strategies, inspections, and work management practices across sites to reduce variability and enhance performance.
Leverage sensors, analytics, and condition data to anticipate failures
Use monitoring tools and predictive insights to prioritize maintenance, extend asset life, and reduce unplanned downtime.
Cost optimization and benefit realization
The Challenge
Improve efficiency and extract greater value from current systems and processes
Mining organizations often run technology environments that have grown organically over time, resulting in overlapping tools, inconsistent processes, and underutilized capabilities. Without structured cost optimization and benefit tracking practices, organizations struggle to identify inefficiencies, eliminate waste, and improve performance within their existing operating model.
Why It Matters
Cost optimization frees up resources and strengthens the case for future investments
Effective optimization reduces run costs, improves system performance, and generates savings that can be redirected into higher-value digital initiatives. At the same time, strong benefit realization ensures that planned outcomes (de-risking, improved service and output, etc.) are actually delivered, creating a self-funding cycle that accelerates transformation.
The Solution
Drive efficiency through disciplined optimization and outcome tracking
Maximize the value of current systems and processes by identifying waste, improving utilization, and ensuring that projects deliver their intended benefits.
Evaluate and streamline existing systems, processes, and spend
Conduct structured reviews of applications, contracts, workflows, and service models to identify waste, maximize utilization, and improve efficiency without disrupting operations.
Establish benefit realization practices that reinvest savings into high-impact initiatives
Define expected outcomes for projects, measure results consistently, and channel realized benefits into strategic technology investments that advance future growth.
Operating model refinement
The Challenge
Align people, processes, and technology to support modern mining operations
As digital tools, automation, and remote operations expand, many mining organizations still rely on legacy roles, workflows, and decision-making structures. Misaligned responsibilities and siloed functions create inefficiencies and slow down adoption of new capabilities.
Why It Matters
An effective operating model accelerates transformation and improves execution
A refined operating model ensures clearer accountability, faster decisions, improved collaboration, and better integration between corporate, technical, and site-level teams. Without it, digital investments struggle to scale and operational improvement stalls.
The Solution
Redesign structures and workflows to enable agile, end-to-end operations
Refine the operating model so that teams, processes, and governance mechanisms work together to enable faster decisions, clearer accountability, and more effective use of digital tools.
Clarify governance, responsibilities, and cross-functional processes
Define decision rights, align processes across departments, and ensure teams understand how digital tools support their roles.
Create operating mechanisms that reinforce continuous improvement
Introduce structured routines, performance reviews, and collaboration forums that sustain transformation and drive consistent execution.
