Mine to Market 4.0: Digital Innovation Reshapes Raw Materials Supply Chain

Lisbon, 22 October 2025 — The MINEX Europe Forum in Lisbon on 22 October 2025 hosted a pivotal session, Mine to Market 4.0: Digital Innovation in Raw Materials Supply Chain Management, which explored how data, AI, and digital tools are fundamentally transforming the raw materials sector. Moderated by Arturo Gutiérrez del Olmo, Technical Director at SLR Consulting, the session brought together leading experts to discuss the industry’s entry into its next digital era. 

Digital innovation is not merely an optional upgrade but a necessary transformation, redefining how raw materials move from mine to market. The panellists showcased how digital product passports, AI-driven systems, and integrated digital planning tools are boosting efficiency, transparency, and sustainability across the entire value chain—from mining operations in Africa and Latin America to Electric Vehicle (EV) manufacturing in Europe and Asia. 

 

The Rise of Digital Product Passports 

Ella Cullen, Cofounder & CMO of Minespider, a blockchain traceability company, presented her insights on the growing importance of Digital Product Passports (DPPs). 

DPPs act as a digital identity for a product, connecting a digital layer (accessible via a QR code or advanced trackers) to the physical material. This identity provides a verifiable overview of the product’s origin, traceability, ESG performance, carbon footprint (including Scope 3), and potential for recycling and reuse. 

• Traceability and Privacy: Minespider’s work, which began in 2018 with tracking tin from major producers like Minsur to end OEMs such as Google and Volkswagen, highlighted the user demand for data privacy. The solution now offers a private layer for sensitive information (e.g., invoices) and a public layer for metrics like ESG and ISO standards. 

• Compliance and Regulation: DPPs are central to upcoming legislation, such as the EU Battery Regulation (fully enforced in February 2027), which mandates a clear data structure for digital battery passports. Minespider is supporting major manufacturers like Renault and Ford in this effort. 

• Investment Infrastructure: Crucially, Cullen noted that the most exciting use case is how DPPs are becoming foundational investment infrastructure. By providing transparency and traceability, they help guarantee that minerals sourced for specific investment criteria (such as the euro 12 billion earmark for Central Asia) are compliant and not “product laundered” from non-compliant sources. 

 

AI and the Mining Industry’s Inflection Point 

Lorelei Ratushniak, Director of Mining Relations at the Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator (MICA), discussed Mining’s Digital Inflection Point, focusing on AI adoption and vendor data centralisation. 

Ratushniak positioned AI as a tool for optimisation, not reinvention in mining, drawing parallels with its rapid expansion in sectors like healthcare and agriculture. However, the heavily regulated nature of the mining industry poses a challenge, often leading to a conservative, catch-up approach to technology adoption. 

• Accelerating Adoption: There’s a need to frame AI adoption as a game-changer rather than a replacement, addressing the fear of new technology. Companies must be open to AI’s ability to significantly speed up the workforce, with small teams using AI tools potentially operating at the pace of much larger groups. 

• The Data Challenge: A critical barrier to AI implementation is the current state of data. Many companies found, when testing tools like Copilot, that their data wasn’t structured properly, posing a risk to privacy and control (the ‘Shadow IT’ concept). This necessitates a joint roadmap between IT, risk teams, and legal departments. 

• Vendor Management: Traditional, antiquated methods like Excel sheets for tracking vendors and technologies need to be replaced. MICA helps by evaluating technologies based on criteria like Technology Readiness Level, commercial maturity, installation history, and stakeholder benefits to accelerate informed adoption. 

 

Digital Twins for OPEX and CAPEX Optimisation 

The next segment, focusing on Digital Planning in Mining, was presented by Michael Machado, CEO of EYF – Experience your Future, and Andre Malikanov, CEO of Amalgamma (owner of the MineTwin platform). Their discussion centred on using predictive analytics and digital twins to improve capital allocation and decision-making on OPEX (Operational Expenditure) and CAPEX (Capital Expenditure). 

Machado highlighted EYF’s success in applying advanced analytics, simulation, and optimisation solutions, notably supporting a major mining company to save over $300 million in various projects, often with a payback period of less than one year. 

Malikanov detailed the MineTwin tool, which he described as the only tool in the market to combine Discrete Event Simulation, Linear Programming, and Combinatorial Optimisation specifically for the mining industry. 

• Simulation Use Cases: The tool creates a computer representation—a digital twin—of the entire mine, including all processes (drilling, blasting, haulage, planning). This is used to: 

• • Estimate the operational and financial impact of implementing new technological solutions (e.g., a new rail system). 

• • Diagnose and resolve interacting bottlenecks and suboptimal planning that prevent plan fulfilment. 

• • Estimate the achievable performance of a future, non-existent mine. 

• • Optimise equipment fleet configuration to justify purchasing new units. 

• Achieved Results: MineTwin clients typically see benefits such as up to 10% cost savings from smarter fleet optimisation, a 10% reduction in monthly planning error, and a 3-5% increase in mining volumes due to more efficient equipment allocation. 

 

Digital Tools for Small to Medium-Sized Mines 

The session concluded with Mahdi Shabanimashcool, Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), presenting his work on digital technologies for integrated mine planning, scheduling, and management tailored to small to medium-sized (SME) mines. 

Shabanimashcool stressed that while the core of mining hasn’t changed much since the Iron Age, the future must be in precision mining, moving the minimum amount of rock required. In Europe, SME mines contribute over 50% of the total added value but face unique challenges that prevent digitalisation: 

• Complex Ore Bodies: SMEs often mine irregular and complex deposits ignored by major players. 

• Legacy Equipment: They use outdated equipment with limited capacity for technology adoption. 

• Workforce and Financial Constraints: They struggle to hire and afford the highly skilled, master’s-degree-level personnel typically needed to run complex digital software. 

The NGI’s Dynamine project aims to address this with a solution focused on easy adoption and practical functionality: 

• Integrated Platform: Dynamine is developing a cloud-deployed, modular digital mine management platform that gathers all required data (geology, environment, economy) into one specific database. 

• Ease of Use: The technology is designed to be easy to learn. The goal is to train mine operators to utilise the tool with only a day or two of training, eliminating the need for expensive external specialists. 

• Scalability and Financial Alternatives: The solution offers rapid scalability and is exploring alternative financial adaptation models to suit the limited capacity of SME mining companies. 

 

Conclusion 

Arturo Gutiérrez del Olmo concluded the session by emphasising that the discussions—from the transparency of digital product passports to AI-driven planning algorithms and SME-focused solutions—showcase how digital innovation is essential for the European Union’s priority of a resilient, sustainable, and traceable raw material supply chain. The advancements demonstrated are redefining how raw materials move from mine to market, upgrading mining for the 21st century and boosting operational efficiency, trust, and ESG performance across the value chain.