Annual Mining Report 2025 – Global trends for sustainable growth
Annual Mining Report 2025 – Global trends for sustainable growth
The mining industry has a key role in the energy transition, with a growing focus on critical minerals that are essential to meeting the global demand for renewable energy technologies. The demand for copper, nickel, rare earths, and lithium is projected to nearly triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2040.
BDO’s Annual Mining Report 2025 produced by BDO in the United Kingdom, highlights the industry’s ongoing transformation, addressing economic and social impacts, health and safety issues, and future workforce challenges. These key themes balance critical supply with sustainability and fostering innovation to support the energy transition and broader economic growth.
Key considerations
The report identifies four key considerations for mining companies to remain competitive. These include:
- Technological innovations - Advancements in robotics and automation are expected to profoundly impact the global mining industry. The adoption of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and data analytics, is enhancing efficiency and productivity. These innovations are crucial for improving safety, mining throughput, and reducing emissions.
- Economic and social impacts - Mining companies face significant reputational, operational and legal risks when they fail to address community interests. Proactive community engagement is essential for ensuring the long-term sustainability of their operations and mitigating disruptions that could arise from opposition.
- Health and safety - Significant progress has been made with advanced technologies to improve safety, such as drones for hazard identification and AI-powered monitoring systems. However, challenges like illegal mining and psychosocial problems remain. It’s imperative for Boards to lead with a culture of safety and to have appropriate governance and controls in place to promote and monitor health and safety.
- Future workforce - The mining industry needs to attract younger generations and address skills shortages. To ensure a reliable future workforce, companies are focusing on strategic workforce planning, enhancing employee value propositions, and promoting diversity and inclusion.
Transformation of the global mining industry
This report highlights the global mining industry's transformative journey. While sustainability remains a strategic priority, technological advancements, particularly in digitalisation, drive efficiency and productivity.
The industry’s commitment to decarbonisation, community investment and workforce development is crucial for long-term success. The mining sector can support economic growth and contribute to a sustainable future by embracing innovation and prioritising environmental and social governance.
Making the shift
Mining has long been associated with negative environmental and social impacts, such as pollution, deforestation and ecosystem degradation, which can harm local resident's health and quality of life. The industry is also often linked to forced relocations and the damage to cultural heritage. As of 2023, around 64 per cent of all allegations in transition mineral mining involved local community and environmental impacts, with the most common issues being attacks on human rights defenders, land rights violations, health issues and adverse effects on livelihoods and Indigenous communities.
However, the mining industry is responding to ambitious energy transition goals and negative public sentiment by shifting from fossil fuels to critical minerals needed for solar, wind and nuclear power generation systems and the transmission lines required to convey this power.
As the industry moves towards sustainability, future-proofing mining communities is essential to society, investors, and other stakeholders to ensure mining operations contribute to local development and economic wealth without worsening social inequalities.
Australia in focus
In June 2023, following intense pressure from the local community and over 1,500 complaints, two large mining companies withdrew their permit requests to explore minerals under the Jarrah forests in Western Australia.
The growing importance of promoting economic prosperity and social security for mining communities is evident in community investments, which rose from $0.3 billion to $1 billion globally over 2019-2022. However, while only 10 per cent of mining companies focus on communities in their innovation strategies, 24 per cent see community-related disruptions as a major risk along the mining value chain. To avoid future challenges and ensure sustainable industry development, mining players must prioritise investments in local infrastructure, employment and social services, ensuring long-term benefits for mining operations and surrounding areas.
In Australia, a large global miner invested in the Pilbara Air Quality Programme and partnered with Greening Australia to install wind fences to enhance air quality. Another is actively engaged in consultations with Traditional Owners on an Indigenous Land Use Agreement and cultural initiatives. Proactive community engagement is essential for ensuring the long-term sustainability of a mining company’s operations.
Looking ahead
By prioritising environmental and social governance, investing in advanced technologies, and planning for future skills requirements, the sector can meet the demand for critical minerals and contribute to a more sustainable and equitable future. The journey ahead is challenging, but with a strategic focus, the mining industry can play a critical role in the global shift towards renewable energy.