Indian Mining Industry Research Articles

A Benchmarking Model for HRM Elements of Large Mining Industry: ISM-Based Approach

While human resource management (HRM) elements concerning the expansive mining industry have been acknowledged, they still need to be explored. This paper presents a novel and strategic endeavour to construct a benchmark model linking HRM elements specific to the large mining industry. Drawing from an extensive literature review, crucial HRM elements pertinent to the mineral industry are systematically identified and thoroughly examined. The study utilises the interpretive structural modelling (ISM) technique within the context of major Indian mining industries to unveil latent relationships among these HRM-related elements. Through six-phased interactions, a foundational model is established, illuminating these relationships. The findings are poised to positively impact the mining industry, contributing to enhanced system sustainability. Furthermore, this paper represents a pioneering effort as the first research to elucidate the relationship model of HRM elements within the mining industry. It encourages HRM researchers to delve further into the mining industry to address its challenges. This research serves as a foundational study and provides a platform for further investigations by HRM experts, researchers and field personnel, enabling a multifaceted exploration of HRM perspectives.

An Examination of the Effectiveness of Various Performance Appraisal Objectives in the Indian Mining Industry

Mining plays a vital role in Indian industry. In the 1990s it accounted for around 3% of GDP, but now it is around 2%. The Indian state of Goa has a thriving mining industry as it has a billion tonnes of iron ore reserves. It exports around 30 million tonnes of iron ore per year. Mineral-based industries include the steel industry and heavy machinery industry. These industries also use minerals and metals as raw materials. Performance appraisal systems have become an important tool for companies to evaluate and maximize employee performance. The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of performance appraisal systems. Performance appraisal has become increasingly part of a more strategic approach to integrating HR activities with company policies and is now regarded as a general term covering a range of activities through which companies attempt to evaluate their employees and develop their capabilities to improve performance and reward.

Indian mining industry: A balancing act? Social accounting and the path to sustainable corporate social responsibility

Indian mining industry: A balancing act? Social accounting and the path to sustainable corporate social responsibility

Promoting safety of underground machinery operators through participatory ergonomics and fuzzy model analysis to foster sustainable mining practices

One of the most vital parameters to achieve sustainability in any field is encompassing the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) of the workers. In mining industry where heavy earth moving machineries are largely employed, ergonomic hazards turn out to be significant OHS hazards causing Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) in the operators. Nevertheless, the Indian mining industry lacks a comprehensive technique of OHS risk assessment, especially for ergonomic hazards that cause MSDs. This research appraises ergonomic hazards and develops Fuzzy Musculoskeletal-disorders Index (FMI) model to evaluate ergonomic-related MSDs. Work process and work tool ergonomic risk factors were identified through literature review and directives recommended by experts. Work posture was evaluated using RULA. The data-collecting approach was implemented using participatory ergonomic and design science principles. The FMI results show average MSDs score of 3.69, indicating high to extremely high risk. Surface plots show that combined work tool and work process was the most sensitive factors to MSDs risk compared to other two combinations. A two-sample t-test validated the FMI. The findings should help safety experts and managers develop effective OHS management plans and programmes for the sustainability of Indian mining industry.

Application of wrapper based hybrid system for classification of risk tolerance in the Indian mining industry

The degree to which an individual is willing to take risks i.e., risk tolerance is often cited as a significant causal element in the majority of workplace accidents. It is essential to determine the risk tolerance level of miners and utilise their risk profiles to design improved training modules, safety, recruitment, and deployment policies. This paper aims to identify the most critical factors (or features) influencing miners’ risk tolerance in the Indian coal industry and develop a robust prediction model to learn their risk tolerance levels. To do end, we first conducted a questionnaire survey representing the complete feature set (with 36 features) among 360 miners and divided their responses into five classes of risk tolerance. Next, we propose a wrapper based hybrid system that combines particle swarm optimization (PSO) and random forest (RF) to train a multi-class classifier with a subset of features. In general, the proposed system selects the best feature subset by iteratively generating different feature combinations using the PSO and training an RF classifier model to assess the effectiveness of the generated feature subsets for the F1-score. At last, we compared the PSO-RF with four traditional classification methods to evaluate its effectiveness in terms of precision, recall, F1-score, accuracy, goodness-of-fit, and area under the curve.

Drivers for sustainable mining waste management – A mixed-method study on the Indian Mining Industry

India's commitments at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCOP26) in Glasgow, UK, reflect that India is cautiously aggressive and dedicated to its role in climate change management and carbon emission reduction goals. Several policy refinements and realignments have been done to make the sustainable goals a reality. India highly depends on coal as a fossil fuel to satiate its immediate energy requirements. This dependency makes it imperative to look at the mining waste generation and management of the mining waste in the Indian Coal Mining Industry. This study, thus, adopts an empirico-analytical approach and analyses the critical factors for sustainable mining waste management in India. The inputs are obtained from mining practitioners and experts across the industry. Fuzzy DEMATEL identifies the critical drivers for sustainable mining waste management. Results reveal factors like pressure from affected communities and the political parties influencing the sustainable practices. The organizational factors are also the critical drivers, whereas the technical and regulatory factors are less significant. The study thus concludes that the prime focus should be on the socio-political, organizational, and financial factors while designing a sustainable mining waste management practice or policy in the Indian milieu.

Impact of commercial, financial and corporate affairs on operational excellence of the Indian mining industry

PurposeThis study aims to identify the impact of commercial issues (CIs), financial issues (FIs) and corporate affairs (CAs) on operational excellence (OE) of the mining industry.Design/methodology/approachA purposive sample of size 321 was collected from Indian mining executives with more than ten years of exposure to the mining field. Factors are identified and confirmed with the use of confirmatory factor analysis. The structural equation modeling technique was then applied to understand the unique as well as the complex relationships between FI, CI, CA and OE.FindingsThe results indicate that all three issues, CI, FI and CA, have an influence on OE in the Indian mining industry. Among the variables of the issues considered in this study, marketing products and size and quality of products (from CI); scale of economies (from FI); risk management (from CA); and transportation and machine operation (from OE) are the highest influencing variables.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has its limitations in sampling, the timing of sample collection and their mode. The samples were collected from only massively deposited large mines.Practical implicationsBusiness managers of the mining industry will be more vigilant and aware of those indirect variables such as marketing products, size and quality of products, scale of economies and risk management, which can influence OE apart from major influencing variables such as transportation and machine operations and production scheduling.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in the mining industry to evaluate the impact of these three issues on OE. The originality of this research lies in testing the CI, FI and CA of the mining industry with OE, which is completely new to this field.

India’s Mica Mining: Implications for the 2030 United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development

The present study sought to explore the implications of the mining of mica, a natural mineral commodity, in the Indian mining belt in regard to the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It analyzes the actions of the Indian mica mining industry through local case study reviews and explores the significance of these actions by analyzing them through the lens of the economic, social, and environmental sustainability theory of Andrew Basiago and the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Analysis of specific areas such as compensation of labor for miners, child labor, mica mining contractors, gender constructs in mines, and deforestation/waste production, among others, revealed that the actions of the mica mining industry in India are indeed unsustainable in various social contexts, violating various SDGs and forsaking local human capital and habitats. This essay offers a connection between the actions of the present industry in India and the unsustainable developments of the surrounding communities and suggests a transition to synthetic mica and responsible mica mining initiatives in place of current systems.

TRAM: A Graphical User Interface for Risk Analysis in the Underground Coal Mines

Over the last few decades, the Australian, New Zealand, Canada, UK, USA and South African mining industries have applied risk management techniques to regulate the hazards in mines. In the Indian mining industry, it was mandated only after the revision of the Coal Mines Regulations in 2017. An effective risk assessment is required to develop a practical risk management plan. TRAM (Tool for Risk Assessment in Mines) is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that acts as a risk analysis and ranking tool for underground coal mines. This study aims to describe the structure and application of TRAM developed. TRAM is based on the proposed methodology which incorporates Fuzzy logic, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and VIKOR, which stands for Multi-Criteria Optimization and Compromise Solution. In the proposed methodology, three risk parameters, consequence (C), exposure (E) and probability (P) were used to assess the risk of identified hazards, hazard groups and overall mine. A case study of risk analysis of an underground coal mine is used to illustrate the application of the TRAM. The developed TRAM has a user-friendly interface, allowing even inexperienced experts to perform effective risk analysis for mines in a short period of time.

Mine Planning for Sustainable Development- An approach towards Indian Coal Mining Industry using GIS and Remote Sensing

The economic development and population growth along with the contradiction of the resources and the environment has become a serious concern in mining regions in India. Sustainable mining practices can protect the environment from these hazardous industrial and human interventions. The aspects and prospects of Indian coal mining industry using GIS and remote sensing has helped in designing a framework concerning sustainable development. Hence, the present research aims towards the integration of sustainable development in coal mining operations along with its optimization, measurement and development using GIS and remote sensing techniques. A descriptive research strategy is followed that evolves designing and describing the mindset of the chosen respondents towards the framework of sustainable mining in India by incorporating techniques like GIS and remote sensing. In order to fulfil these objectives, the study adopts a quantitative research approach by using primary data collection method through a survey method using questionnaires as a research tool. The total sample size in this study that has been approached is between 150 to 200 people. The respondents are the stakeholders and the head committee members. Descriptive analysis and comparative correlation analysis with hypothesis testing have been used for analyzing the results in the study. This study has brought a better understanding of the aspects and prospects of designing a framework concerning the sustainable development for the coal mining industry in India. The challenges evolved in this development have addressed sustainability concerns that have supported the development of coal mine sectors in India. The future work should focus on more techniques for monitoring the environmental status for the development and production of coal mine business in India.

Moving the circular economy forward in the mining industry: Challenges to closed-loop in an emerging economy

Resource scarcity and ecosystem damage are putting pressure on the mining industry to increase the circularity of its operations. This study analyses the critical challenges to a circular economy in the Indian mining industry, applying an integrated decision-making approach. The identified challenges were obtained from a detailed literature review as well as experts' opinions, and were then ranked. The interrelationships among the key challenges are established and classified into a cause-effect grouping. According to a structured analysis of the challenges to the circular economy in the mining industry of an emerging economy and their interrelations, the trade-off between the prices of virgin materials and secondary waste materials could jeopardize circular economy principles in the mining industry. Primarily, this article raises the importance of tackling the lack of clear governance measures and implementation of waste management reporting for a closed-loop related to developing circular economy principles in the context of an emerging economy. Thus, adequate governance measures regarding closed-loops are vital to ensure a sustainable balance between the supply and demand of secondary minerals and metals, which can address the trade-off mentioned. Some suggested directions for policymakers and managers have also been provided to help formulate appropriate strategies for a transition to the circular economy.

Emerging technologies in Indian mining industry: an exploratory empirical investigation regarding the adoption challenges

PurposeEmerging technologies have been transforming most industries. A wide range of emerging technologies such as blockchain, internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), robotics and many others have changed the way in which firm value chain activities or processes were executed traditionally. The mining industry has also witnessed the introduction of these emerging technologies in various processes from the exploration stage to the final processing of ores. The purpose of this paper is to understand the pace of adoption of emerging technologies in the Indian mining industry and identify the challenges that managers confront while adopting emerging technologies.Design/methodology/approachThe authors undertook qualitative research. Data collection was done in two stages. Secondary research was conducted to arrive at a repository of use cases of the adoption of emerging technologies in the global mining industry. Primary data collection was also done. The insights on emerging technology adoption and challenges faced in the Indian mining industry were captured by in-depth interviewing of subject matter experts. The authors interviewed 21 mining subject matter experts with a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire. The responses were content analyzed by thematic content analysis. Technological-organizational-environmental (TOE) and diffusion of innovation (DOI) frameworks were applied to segregate different factors affecting the adoption of emerging technologies in the Indian mining industry.FindingsEmerging technologies such as blockchain, IoT, AI, ML, robotics has been applied across various mining engineering value chain activities such as in drilling, blasting, excavation and ore hauling. However, emerging technologies adoption was hindered because of a lack of managerial awareness, cultural inertia, substantive upfront investments and the nature of intangible benefits in the short run.Research limitations/implicationsThe research applied technology adoption frameworks in the mining industry. The authors used TOE and DOI frameworks to understand the challenges faced by Indian mining firms. The research findings, thus added to the conversation of TOE and DOI frameworks in the context of the Indian mining industry.Practical implicationsThe research finding would help mining firm managers to anticipate the challenges with respect to technology adoption. This would allow mining executives to create a proper technology adoption plan and intervene proactively. The research would also provide information about the steps taken by competing firms with respect to emerging technologies adoption. The research would help managers to decide technology implementation steps in drilling, blasting, excavation and ore hauling to be undertaken for successful adoption of emerging technologies. Technology firms could gain insights into the issues faced by mining firms in adopting emerging technologies. This research would help managers to influence organizational technology policy and endorse the addition of pro-technology policies in mining activities. Policymakers involved in the mining sector could also incorporate industry-level policy decisions so as to facilitate the adoption of emerging technologies among mining firms and remove the barriers to the adoption of emerging technologies. This would create an opportunity for technology providers to redesign product offerings, which could be a good fit for Indian mining firms.Originality/valueIndian mining industry contributed significantly to the Indian economy. Despite this, limited focus has been put regarding the adoption of emerging technologies in the mining industry. Mining managers did not have any framework to understand the challenges faced in the adoption of technologies across the mining value chain that is in drilling, blasting, excavation and ore hauling. This study focused on identifying those challenges through the use of technology adoption frameworks. This research was one of the first studies to gain insights on emerging technologies adoption in the context of the mining industry through the theoretical lens of TOE and DOI frameworks.

Impact of lockdown on the mining industry in India

Mining is an essential industry that will provide key materials needed for India infrastructure development. Mining is one of the core sectors and growth driver of Indian economy. Minerals and ores provide basic raw materials to many important industries like power generation (thermal), iron and steel, cement, petroleum and natural gas, petrochemicals, fertilizers, precious and semi-precious metals/stones for jewellery, electrical and electronics equipment, glass, ceramics, etc. The mining sector in India was poised for robust growth in financial year 2020–2021, on the back of rising demand from end-use sectors and fresh investments announced by the mining companies. However, the spread of COVID-19, right at the beginning of the financial year, has led to disruptions across industries. There is a significant scope for new mining capacities in iron ore, bauxite, coal and other minerals and considerable opportunities for future discoveries of sub-surface deposits. Infrastructure projects continue to provide lucrative business opportunities for steel, zinc and aluminium producers. Iron and steel make up a core component for the real estate sector. Demand for these metals is set to continue given strong growth expectations for the residential and commercial building industry. India’s mining sector expected to show positive growth in 2021 compared to 2020. As different arms of the government work with stakeholders to bring the economy on the growth path, it is important for the policymakers of mining to continue making such changes to the policies, which can ramp up the contribution of the sector to GDP. In the present paper, an overview of impact of lockdown on the mining industry in India is discussed with special reference to production scenario of minerals, employment, export-import scenario of ores and minerals and other developments during the period.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13563-021-00263-6.

Drivers for Sustainable Mining Waste Management – a Mixed-Method Study on the Indian Mining Industry

Drivers for Sustainable Mining Waste Management – a Mixed-Method Study on the Indian Mining Industry

Socio-cultural impediments to automation in Indian mines

Mining is an age-old industry that has propelled human progress and development. Despite India‟s economic prowess and richness in minerals, its mines are plagued with inefficiency and lack modern technology. In countries with well-developed mining industries, automation has proven to be a beneficial technology. Incorporating modern technologies into Indian mines is a challenging task due to many factors unique to the country. This study establishes the benefits of automation by discussing the Australian mining industry. A clear insight into the socio-cultural challenges to be faced while modernizing the Indian mining industry, focusing on automation, is presented using an interpretive approach, relying mainly on qualitative data in existing texts. The study conveys the significance of these obstacles and proposes new government bodies and schemes to overcome them. Finally, further work on this less discussed topic is motivated by mentioning areas for future consideration.

Managing operations for circular economy in the mining sector: An analysis of barriers intensity

The rapid development of industrialization has created significant opportunities for economic growth and development, but its operational activities have impulsively degraded the environment. Circular Economy (CE) practices may help industries, and particularly extracting industries such as mining, to optimize the use of its resources and minimize waste. This would further help to overcome the threats which the traditional linear model poses to the economic growth and development of any healthy economy. This paper aims to identify the barriers to executing the CE model within the context of the Indian mining industry. The five major categories of barriers (i.e. financial, market, government policies and regulations, organizational and operational) and their respective sub-barriers which are responsible for hindering the implementation of CE in the mining sector are identified through an extensive literature review and experts' opinion. To determine the priority of the barriers and their intensity index, a hybrid technique comprising of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and graph-theoretic approach (GTA), is employed. The AHP analysis indicated that ‘government policies and regulations’ was the main barrier to the implementation of CE in the Indian mining sector (43.8%), followed by ‘market barriers’ with a weighting score of 24.6%. However, based on GTMA, the highest intensity was observed for ‘operational’, category of barriers followed by the ‘organizational’ category of barriers. The outcomes of the study would help managers from the mining industry not only to overcome the identified barriers for managing operations for CE but also to optimize and effectively meliorate the consumption and extraction of resources.

Scope of 3D Technology for Mine Planning and Designing In Indian Mining Industry- A Review

Scope of 3D Technology for Mine Planning and Designing In Indian Mining Industry- A Review

PRODUCTIVITY OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN INDIAN MINING INDUSTRY

PRODUCTIVITY OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN INDIAN MINING INDUSTRY

Effect of firm ownership on productivity: empirical evidence from the Indian mining industry

This paper empirically examines the difference in productivity existing between the public and private sector of the mining industry in India. The literature on the effect of firm ownership on productive efficiency stands highly divided; hence, in this context, our study adds to the literature by attempting to study the effect of firm ownership on total factor productivity (TFP) in the four sectors of the Indian mining industry from 2000 to 2016. Here, we have sought to compare the productivity difference between the public and private mining firms in the four sectors, namely metallic, non-metallic, coal and petroleum. This paper uses the Levinson and Petrin (LP) method for estimating the TFP of each firm. The results indicate the superiority of private firms in three sectors—metallic, non-metallic, and coal—whereas the petroleum sector reports quite the opposite result. The results raise questions about the stability of the public sector firms over time. Overall, the paper suggests measures like provision of incentives, improvement in infrastructural facilities, upgradation of manpower and so on to improve the productivity performance of public sector firms.

A Case Study on Sustainable Iron Ore Tailing Management Using Paste Technology

Indian mining industries primarily depend upon high-grade fines mainly because of two factors, one is lack of beneficiation infrastructure and high cost of low-grade fines, the second one is lack of proper tail disposal system. Due to lapses in our policies, miners get better premium by selling high-grade fines over low-grade fines. This restricts the flow of low-grade fines into the market. Again tailing disposal is one of the major concerns of beneficiation plants as it requires a lot of space and handling cost. In view of these problems, most of the miners and pellet producers go ahead with direct grinding route only, even if they have a beneficiation facility. This preferred route eliminates the necessity to have a tailing disposal unit, but only at premium. The premium is, higher iron ore fines’ cost and lower downstream efficiency due to associated gangues and slimes in the final slurry fed to filtration unit. This issue can be addressed by finding a midway solution. The solution being coined as partial beneficiation route. This route proposes to beneficiate the feed iron ore fines partially after properly studying the fractional analysis. Amount of tails generated is considerably lower than that of the full beneficiation mode with almost similar slurry concentrate characteristics. This eliminates the need to have a full-fledged tailing pond to some extent. For a 6 MTPA plant, daily tail disposal requirement comes around 700 MT per day. This can be met in two ways. One is filtration other is paste thickener. Filtration has huge capex and opex associated. Also the down times and process challenges are huge. This leaves us with another option i.e. Paste Technology. It enables maximum water recycling, requires small area for storage and provides faster material reclamation and reduces the risk of tailing dam disasters. Paste is a homogeneous mixture of solid and bearing fluid, in our case iron slimes and water. The distinct properties are higher yield stress and solid percentage. This means better storage and uniform drying. The dried slimes can be reclaimed and reused or sold to prospective buyers. Entire cycle is of around 15–20 days. This therefore requires a buffer zone to accommodate around 15,000 MT of paste which can easily be done in an area of 4/5 acres. The operational costs are quiet competitive and lower than the filters. Herein we present our case study on plant scale with a paste thickener. We have chosen the partial beneficiation mode and operated on 24 × 7 basis without having a tailing pond. This surely is a way for future mining operations.