Building new mines to counter resource depletion has emerged as a major issue for mining companies in 2025, appearing for the first time in EY’s annual assessment of risks and opportunities in the sector.
Amid soaring demand, rising exploration costs and a lack of new discoveries, resource and reserve depletion appeared at number four in EY’s top 10 risks and opportunities report. As a companion entry to resource depletion, the challenges facing new projects also appeared in the report for the first time.
EY said resource and reserve depletion is a complex problem driven by interwoven factors: declining ore grades increase the cost of extraction; exploration budgets are up but so are costs and fewer discoveries are being made. Mining companies are considering a mix of solutions, including investing in technologies that can advance exploration and improve productivity.
Paul House, chief executive officer at global mining-tech company IMDEX, said innovation and the technology it delivered provided exploration and mining companies with ways to tackle some of the issues surrounding resource depletion, as well assisting in the drive for improved sustainability and the need to deal with a lack of skilled labour.
House added, “Perhaps the appearance in the EY report of resource depletion and the challenge of delivering new projects will be the clarion call the mining sector needs to address the issues.”
“Long lead times for new mines is a major inhibiting factor. In reality, we should have started yesterday to ensure we have the mines of tomorrow so we should take every opportunity to advance new mines safely and sustainably.”
EY said companies must continue to develop better ways to extract and optimize critical minerals and metals to meet soaring demand, while also protecting the environment. The report adds to the wealth of data forecasting looming demand gaps across a range of minerals and metals.
“Over the next 30 years, the sector will need to mine more mineral ores than humans have mined over the last 70,000 years,” it said.
“Filling the demand gap requires overcoming multiple complex barriers to new projects. Regulatory red tape is lengthening project lead times. High costs make new mines more capital intensive, and a lack of skilled workers means timely project delivery is difficult,” it said.
In the case of copper, it says that for the world to achieve net-zero goals, it will need at least 41 million tonnes of copper per year by 2050, which would require building around 40 new copper mines the size of Quellaveco (~300kt/year).
“But we are not seeing a large uptick in exploration expenditure, raising the risk of depleted resources,” it said.
EY said sustainable, cost-effective mining at scale will not happen without innovation, particularly as resources deplete, costs rise, talent becomes scarce and environmental pressures increase.
House said IMDEX focused on two main opportunities: products and data that optimise the drilling process; and sensors, data and AI/ML to solve real time orebody knowledge problems. These two areas are key to improving the effectiveness of our industry across the find, define and mine stages of the mining workflow, he said.
House stated that early characterization is the first step towards optimising the use of materials.
House said, “Sadly, it is not something that industry necessarily does particularly well and not because we can't. There's no shortage of technologies that allow things like that to happen. It's more around people thinking through the full economic benefit and about the optionality that gets unlocked by truly characterizing in the first place.”
IMDEX believes that by providing as much reliable, verifiable data as possible as early as possible, the tech firm is allowing exploration and mining companies to make informed decisions, the effects of which ripple through the entire production process.
The data generated by IMDEX sensors provide mining companies with deeper insights into their orebodies. These insights enable more precise drilling, reducing drilling activity, and more efficient resource extraction.
IMDEX is a leading global mining tech company, which works to establish cost-effective operations from exploration to production. The ASX listed company develops cloud-connected sensors and drilling optimization products to improve the process of identifying and extracting mineral resources for drilling contractors and resource companies globally. IMDEX’s unique end-to-end solutions for the mining value chain integrate its leading product brands. Together they enable clients to drill faster and smarter, obtain accurate subsurface data and receive critical information in real-time.
For further information visit www.ImdexLimited.com.
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