Developing a Framework for ESG-based Decision Processes and Reporting in Mining
Industry through Integrated Systems
Problem Statement
The decision processes in mining are getting more complicated. Many trade-offs should be
considered in the decision-making (DM) process in a complex problem under conflicting
multiple criteria and uncertainty. The decision maker needs a tool that incorporates both
quantitative and qualitative analyses in a scientific manner rather than depending solely on
intuition and experience. Failure to do so may not directly affect the project in its early years;
however, the accumulation of this latent impact may harm several aspects in the operation
stage, such as resource utilisation, productivity of the operation, and cost efficiency, and even
in the post-mining stage, such as environmental responsibility, which is much more difficult to
manage. Incorporating quantitative and qualitative analyses prudently and appropriately is thus
a key factor for the sustainability of mining and mineral processing projects and the decision
maker should therefore make use of the best tools available to inform this process.
This lack of visualization has created ineffective operational systems, resulting in numerous
production delays and system modifications and leading to its eventual failure. Most of the
mining operations efforts were aimed at automating the equipment underground without
considering the need for integration with mine planning.
ESG is nothing new. It evolves from health, safety, and environment (HSE), sustainability,
corporate social responsibility. The only difference in the integrated approach to these issues
which ESG takes. Sustainability is concerned with issues that are usually considered as extrafinancial value drivers. Though some researchers and experts commonly refer to them as nonfinancial, it is empirical to understand that all these issues have financial implications, and they
must be incorporated into financial reporting and decision making just like operational and
productivity issues. This is where ESG brings the difference, evolving sustainability from
independent siloed issues which are usually considered for compliance purposes only and
incorporating them into other highly significant reporting and decision-making frameworks.
This approach is highly significant for the mining industry more than other industries because
of the mining value conundrum.
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Mining industry is faced with very diverse and complex risks and opportunities. Miners have
a role to play in a much larger economic, social, and technological ecosystem that is growing
and becoming more complex everyday PwC. Therefore, miners have adopted different
technologies to improve both safety and profitability Burger. Most of these efforts are rather
shortsighted with only overlying issues being addressed through independent and disintegrated
problem-solving approaches. Projects are commissioned based on problems that have been
identified from operations without considering the strategic impacts of such projects on a more
diverse perspective that compliments the diversity and complexity of mining risks and
opportunities. The decision-making approach has led to numerous siloed systems in the mining
environment which are failing to address pertinent problems efficiently.
Converging decisions to an integrated system that accounts for all the risks and opportunities
in a mining environment, and decentralizing decision making is critical. This approach will
allow financial, operational and sustainability issues to be tackled more efficiently, in real-time
and in an interoperable manner. Therefore, there is an need for an interoperable framework
which considers financial, operational and sustainability issues as integrated key drivers of
company value.
Siloed systems? Is systems integration necessary to solve the decision-making conundrum in
the ever growing and changing management decision landscape? The adoption of data-driven
decision making… is the data reliable, is it accurate, is there data integrity and fidelity? What
about the stochastic data? How is it collected, managed, and analysed for decision making?
Are multicriteria decision processes necessary?
Is it even about siloed systems?
What really is ESG and how does is impact management decision making and reporting?
Looking beyond the financial analysis, what is ESG and how can it be incorporated into
strategic decision making.
Does ESG bring an MCDM dynamic to decision making?
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Is ESG analysis deterministic, stochastic, or probabilistic?
Who decides the criteria? Are those criteria sufficient to cover the whole ESG scope? If not,
what can be done? If yes, are the end users of those framework well trained to use the criteria?
ESG – value drivers associated with ESG, capital allocation to initiatives,
Aim of The Proposed Study
Significance of The Proposed Study
Innovative Concepts/Approaches/Methods
Scope of The Proposed Research Work
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