Technological and Intellectual Transition to Mining 4.0: A Review

Abstract

Ensuring a sustainable supply for humankind with mineral raw materials and preventing fuel and energy crises, minimizing human-made accidents and the negative impact of industry on the environment, the inflow of funds and innovations into the mining sector should be expanding in time and space. To do this, new mining platforms should have not only innovative and technological, but also social-and-economic coverage of the latest competencies, which Mining 4.0 fully corresponds to. The achievements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, embodied in “end-to-end” digital and convergent technologies, are able to ensure the stable development of the mineral resource sector in the face of fluctuations in raw material demand and the profitability of mining enterprises, strengthening environmental safety legislation. Mining 4.0 is also a response to the technological shocks associated with the accelerated digital modernization of the manufacturing and infrastructure industries. This article attempts to give a multilateral overview of mining industries transformation in the course of the diffusion of Industry 4.0 technologies, to highlight the core and frontiers of Mining 4.0 expansion, to show the opportunities and threats of replacing physical systems and humans in mining with cyber-physical systems. Further, the technological, economic and social horizons of the transformation of Mining 4.0 into Mining 5.0 with specific threats of total digitalization are discussed.