The vital mining industry must look beyond geology to policy, capital, and productivity measures to unlock value.
Mine 2026, ambition to action
The pressure is on the global mining industry. The world is navigating an era of energy security challenges, geopolitical fragmentation, the impacts of a technology-fuelled fourth industrial revolution, and rising societal expectations. To meet the growing demand for metals and minerals, the industry needs to deliver more of them—and do so more efficiently. As we look to the future of mining, there’s a clear need to diversify production and processing. And that means working more effectively in an ecosystem that’s credible, investable, and resilient.
Meeting these challenges and capturing value from evolving global supply chains is a central imperative. To succeed, the many players and participants in the mining ecosystem—which includes mining and processing firms, policymakers, investors, end users, and companies in adjacent industries—need to collaborate as they move from ambition to action across three broad areas.
First, governments need to set policy in motion, developing the incentives and regulatory frameworks that support stable investment and mining profitability. Second, while geology determines who can participate in mining, the ability to make projects investable and the positioning of capital providers ultimately dictate who captures the most value. As a result, the ecosystem must set capital in motion to make projects operational and create greater upstream and midstream production capacity.
Third, operating companies must adopt technological solutions, notably AI, to enhance productivity at the mine face, while also improving efficiency and performance at a broader strategic level. The challenges throw into stark relief the need for greater collaboration across sector and industry boundaries.
These pressures come as the industry reports what was in many respects a solid year for the top 40 mining companies (by market capitalisation) that we analyse. Total revenues grew 3.3% to US$909 billion from US$880 billion in 2024, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation surged 23% to US$248 billion and net profit rose to US$120 billion. The improvement reflects two key factors: first, sharply higher prices for precious metals (including gold and silver), platinum group metals, and energy metals such as copper; and second, improved operational leverage and disciplined cost management.
