As of 2021, India is home to around 1,229 reporting mines. While 545 of these are reporting mines for metallic minerals, the rest, about 684, are mining non-metallic minerals. India also has around 914 steel plants producing crude steel. In FY21, these plants produced 102.49 million tonnes of crude steel. According to worldsteel, crude steel output in India registered a 46.9 percent YoY growth to reach 9.2 million tonnes in May 2021, compared with 5.8 million tonnes of crude steel

output clocked in May 2020. The report also anticipates that steel production will increase by 18 percent to reach 120 million tonnes (MT) by the current financial year.

The sudden rise in infrastructure development and automotive manufacturing has been a solid tailwind for the mining industry. The increasing demand from the power and cement industries is also playing its part. Given the infrastructure development roadmap of our country, it’s beyond any reasonable doubt that the consumer demand for iron and steel will continue.

Additionally, India holds a fair amount of advantage in export opportunities to develop & fast-developing Asian markets, owing to the country’s strategic location and the comparatively less production and conversion cost of steel and alumina. But to leverage these opportunities, the mining organizations need to act smart. It’s imperative that they leverage every thing from smart mining concepts and improving safety using drones to digitization and automation. Do let us know your thoughts.