SPIEF 2019 to Discuss Mining Industry Challenges and Prospects
The ‘Global Mining Industry: Challenges and Prospects’ session is set to take place as part of SPIEF 2019. The session will be addressed by Chair of the Professorship in Mining and Surface Mining, Faculty of Geosciences, Geoengineering and Mining, Freiberg University of Mining and Technology Carsten Drebenstedt, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation and Head of the Federal Agency for Mineral Resources Evgeny Kiselev, Chief Executive Officer of Uralkali Dmitry Osipov, Vice Rector for Scientific Research, Doctor of Economics, and Professor of Saint-Petersburg Mining University Igor Sergeev, First Vice President of the Russian Copper Company Oleg Sienko, and President and Chief Executive Officer of Outotec Markku Terasvasara. Discussion will be moderated by President of the Mikhailov and Partners Group of Companies Marianna Maksimovskaya.
Population growth, urbanization, social and economic development, and even the demand for a green, low-carbon economy contribute to the growth of mineral and metal consumption. The development of new technologies also leads to a demand for special technological metals. One example is an increase in the production of electric cars, which leads experts to predict a copper shortage in the market by 2020 of 130 thousand tonnes. The number of electric vehicles in the world is expected to reach approximately 26 million units.
However, there are a number of challenges that face growing demand for basic materials today, such as depleted reserves in mined fields, the need to explore and develop new deposits in hard-to-reach places, limited resources for mining and mineral processing, and the need to innovate to maintain the profitability of mining and to keep up levels of global production of basic materials.
“Russia accounts for 7% of the world’s copper reserves. Our country occupies fourth place for this indicator. Meanwhile, in terms of production in 2018 (710,000 tonnes), Russia rounds out the top ten for countries with the largest copper reserves. It is obvious that the domestic copper industry has not yet reached the limit of its growth potential. Moreover, all forecasts indicate an increase in the consumption of this metal in the future”, Sienko said.
Discussion participants will consider what is being done today in the industry for the effective exploration and development of existing and new fields, what technologies are in demand among market participants, what effect the decisions made by owners have on meeting the growing demand for raw materials and solving sustainable development problems, and analyze the factors going into industry development in the future
