Modern mining sustainability: An integrated framework for technology innovation, operational trade-offs, and implementation barriers

Mining is entering a phase in which decarbonisation, safety, and productivity targets are being pursued through tightly coupled technological and governance changes. This paper develops and applies an integrated socio-technical framework that links major technology families (automation/robotics, AI (artificial intelligence) and digital twins, advanced drilling and blasting, electrification/renewables, and frontier domains such as deep-sea and space mining) to sustainability outcomes across underground, open-pit, processing, and tailings/closure contexts. Using an interdisciplinary synthesis of peer-reviewed research, industry evidence and policy principles (including Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and International Council of Mining and Metals (ICMM) Mining Principles), the study moves beyond a catalogue of innovations by making boundary conditions and second-order effects explicit. As an example, autonomy can reduce exposure to hazards but increase dependence on cyber-physical assurance, connectivity, and functional safety verification; electrification can eliminate underground diesel emissions, yet its net climate benefit and operational resilience depend on charging logistics, power quality, and grid carbon intensity. A maturity–impact mapping is introduced to distinguish scaled technologies from pilots and to prioritise where evidence is transferable versus context-dependent. The framework is grounded in 25 global case studies spanning regions, commodities, and organisational types, enabling comparative interpretation of what works, where, and why. The central contribution is a decision-relevant synthesis that identifies integrated “solution bundles” and the enabling infrastructure, workforce transitions, and governance mechanisms required for credible scale-up, providing a practical agenda for achieving safer, lower-carbon, and socially accepted mining systems.