Mining

Ores recovered by mining include metals, coal and oil shale, gemstones, limestone, and dimension stone, rock salt and potash, gravel, and clay. Mining is required to obtain any material that cannot be grown through agricultural processes, or created artificially in a laboratory or factory. Mining in a wider sense includes extraction of any non-renewable resource such as petroleum, natural gas, or even water.Mining exists in many countries. While exploration and mining can be conducted by individual entrepreneurs or small businesses, most modern-day mines are large enterprises requiring large amounts of capital to establish. Consequently, the mining sector of the industry is dominated by large, often multinational, companies, most of them publicly listed. It can be argued that what is referred to as the ‘mining industry’ is actually two sectors, one specializing in exploration for new resources and the other in mining those resources. Mining operations can be grouped into five major categories in terms of their respective resources. These are oil and gas extraction, coal mining, metal ore mining, nonmetallic mineral mining and quarrying, and mining support activities. The global mining industry is forecast to witness excellent growth over the next five years. The industry is estimated to reach US $1,783 billion, with a CAGR of 7.4%. The highly fragmented industry comprises the mining of iron ore, coal, precious metals, diamonds, bauxite, manganese, and base metals. The companies in the industry have adopted new technologies to increase productivity. There are numerous challenges faced by the industry. The mining market mainly deals with the iron ore, coal, and various precious metals. The scarcity of raw materials, minerals, and valuable metals affect the industry growth. The mining market could also be affected by the increasing rate of recycling of various materials.