A relay race or an ironman? A systematic review of the literature on innovation in the mining sector

Abstract

As global demand for minerals and metals surges, the mining industry is faced with the triple challenge of finite resources, societal resistance, and environmental considerations. To address these challenges the mining sector is relying on innovation and technological advancements to enable exploitation of so far inaccessible deposits, minimize energy consumption, and improve sustainability. This study presents a systematic review of the literature on innovation in mining and the unique management approach being adopted to respond to the above challenges. From an initial corpus of 4059 scientific articles, a reproducible process filtered out 222 documents, published between 1996 and 2023. The analysis reveals that the literature on innovation in the mining industry, predominantly qualitative and exploratory in nature, is showing a shift towards empirical validation using advanced quantitative methods. Mining innovation appears to be shaped by the industry's inherent features such as a conservative culture, market volatility, emphasis on productivity, and profitability. While the industry somewhat risk-averse approach favours stability and specialization which could hamper innovation, its simultaneous focus on productivity encourages innovation to achieve cost reductions, enhanced processes, and implementation of new technology. However, the uniformity of ore and the position of miners in the value chain is not favorable to product innovation and the focus tends to be on —mainly supplier-led— process innovation. The review also shows the potential benefits of non-technological innovations, including marketing and organizational changes although these are infrequent. The study concludes by addressing conceptualizations of innovation and mining management and highlighting gaps in research that focuses on regions, minerals, and innovation types. It also discusses the knowledge management implications in this context.