MINE enables the industry to deliver minerals swiftly, transparently, and sustainably. The following sections present the current challenges, the proposed framework, and the results from its application, demonstrating how the approach directly contributes to the WMC 2026 theme Mining for the Future by advancing the three pillars of the Congress: Technology, through the integration of AI-assisted validation and data-driven decision support; Trust, by strengthening data governance, traceability, and technical assurance; and Transformation, by enabling a practical and scalable pathway toward faster, more responsible, and more sustainable mineral development. 1.1 Problem Statement The series of studies conducted by the S&P Global Mining Intelligence consulting team (Manalo, 2023; Manalo, 2024; Manalo, 2025) documents the global evolution of mining lead times from 1990 to 2025 across a range of factors and reveals a clear and consistent trend: the average time between the discovery of a mineral deposit and the start of commercial production has significantly increased over recent decades (Figure 1). Figure 1 – Average time for a mine to enter production, by country (Manalo, 2023, 2024, 2025). In the first study, Manalo (2023) analyzed 127 copper, gold, silver, nickel, and zinc mines that began production between 2002 and 2023 and found that the average time from discovery to production was 15.7 years, with a range of 6 to 32 years. Some differences by commodity were highlighted, with nickel showing the longest timeline (18.6 years) and gold the shortest (14.2 years), as well as variations by jurisdiction and mining type (open pit vs. underground). The update published in the following year (Manalo, 2024), with the research database expanded to 136 mines, shows that this average continues to rise, reaching 17.9 years for mines that began production between 2020 and 2023, compared with 12.7 years for operations that started approximately 15 years earlier. The 2025 study covered 194 active mines and 20 non-operating mines currently undergoing feasibility studies, for which startup dates were estimated. The results confirm and further reinforce the upward trend in development timelines: the average cycle for recently commissioned mines is already 17.8 years, while projects under development indicate potential lead times of 28 years or more. The average lead time required for a mine to enter operation has nearly tripled over the past three decades, increasing from 6.4 years in the 1990–1999 period to 10.6 years in 2005–2009, and then, following successive increases over progressively shorter intervals, reaching 17.8 years in the 2020–2024 period, as shown in Figure 2. Projections beyond 2025 indicate continued upward pressure on development timelines.
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