Modern Mining July 2024

ENERGY

Safe, smart and sustainable mining Following the 2024 Mining Indaba, MS Prakash, Emerson’s vice president for the African region, highlighted championing safe, smart and sustainable change in the mining sector and the innovations making this possible.

MS Prakash, Emerson’s vice president for the African region.

T he mining industry across Africa is at an

The Emerson stand and team at the 2024 Mining Indaba.

around the world, particularly in the United States, European Union and China, have outlined goals to create a secure supply of minerals and raw materials that are critical for economic sustainability and growth. Of course, with more than 40% of global mineral reserves, all roads point towards Africa in terms of Investment,” begins Emerson’s Vice President for Africa, MS Prakash. This, he continues obviously translates into growth potential, not only on the mining side, but local processing is also being considered – mostly from an aspirational perspective at this stage. “From an extraction standpoint, the centres of gravity are going to be in Africa, Australia and Latin America. At Emerson we see a lot of opportunity to support mining companies that are looking to extract minerals in a safer, smarter and more sustainable way,” he adds. Traditional mines, he says, are having to go deeper and the ore body grades are dropping. This puts added pressure on operational efficiency. The industry is also under pressure to reduce

inflection point right now. Global megatrends along the energy transition, energy security and climate change pathways are all driving momentum towards the next phase of investment.

“In order to meet the growing demand for renewable energy, as well as the needs of a fast-growing sustainable transportation solution for the electric and hybrid vehicles industry,

...there needs to be improvement in the

availability of critical rare earth metals such as lithium, where production needs to

there needs to be improvement in the availability of critical

increase in the range of 50× to 70× to support industry growth.

rare earth metals such as lithium, where production needs to increase in the range of 50× to 70× to support industry growth. “In addition, several governments

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