Mining Industry Leaders Forum Records Transition to Pragmatic Digitalization
At the same time, the participants stressed that technologies themselves do not give results – they work only in conjunction with changing processes and the people who work with them. On the first day of the Forum, the speakers of the business program discussed the level of digitalization of mining enterprises, talked about working investments in 2026 and shared their experience in robotization of production.
The business program opened with a presentation of a joint study by Zyfra Group and the consulting company Kept. The main conclusion: digitalization is fragmentary, and not everyone is ready to go into new digital projects.
"Now is the time for pragmatic digitalization. Most customers approach it from this point of view: they implement something proven, something that pays off quickly, or what a neighbor has got," Mikhail Aronson, CEO of Zyfra Group, explained the situation.
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"End-to-end digitalization is a matter of the future for companies. Today, a limited number of enterprises have it. This is due to the long implementation and payback period, with outdated infrastructure, which does not allow for comprehensive end-to-end digitalization. Somewhere there is a lack of competencies. Somewhere there are restrictions in the legislation," said Igor Korotetsky, Partner, Head of the Engineering Department at Kept.
During the plenary session, the participants discussed what investments are "working" in 2026, whether a startup culture has developed in Russia, and which financial models are most in demand.
Most of the speakers agreed that this year investments are mainly allocated for automated process control systems (automated process control systems).
"Now, in order to implement a more or less modern predictive model, you first need to invest in an automated process control system. In second place is the updating or development of those systems that already exist," said Alexey Yakovenko, Vice President for Transformation of the Russian Copper Company (RCC).
"We are now paying most attention to import substitution, because we want to minimize the risks associated with the use of solutions from foreign vendors. These are automated process control systems, MES, and simulation systems," added Kairat Segizbayev, Product Director at Norsoft (Norilsk Nickel).
"It all depends on the strategy and the level of maturity. Some look at the environment and sustainable development, while others look at the refinement and modernization of ERP systems. If there is something eternal, it is the automated process control system," summed up Sadyk Azimov, Deputy General Director for Digital Transformation of the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine.
PhosAgro is going in two directions. On the one hand, the company focuses on ICS and technology stack. According to Alexander Bulatov, Director of the IT Department of the Kirov branch of Apatit of PhosAgro, this is the basic minimum. On the other hand, the company is looking at new technologies and AI with interest. Apatit considers the latter technology as the basic one.
The speakers also discussed how decisions on digital investments are made in practice. As Alexey Yakovenko noted, working with data and prompt response to bottlenecks in production play a key role: "There is constant data analytics. If we see that there is a lot of downtime, we need a system. We act situationally, consulting with shareholders on quick investments."
In turn, Alexander Bulatov said that the company focuses on solutions that confirm their effectiveness in practice: "We plan to spend on new technologies that have an effect based on the results of pilots. We are looking with interest at dispatching systems and the concept of end-to-end management."
Summing up the discussion, Alexey Yakovenko stressed that technology itself does not guarantee results: "No technology gives results. The result is given by people who have learned how to use this technology."
The practical session was devoted to robotization. Alexander Baikin, Head of Robotics at EuroChem, analyzed the pace of development of autonomous transport in Russia: "The robotics market today is developing not linearly, but spasmodically due to geopolitical turmoil, the key drivers are now the shortage of qualified personnel, industrial safety requirements, pressure on production costs and state support for robotization. In these conditions, autonomous equipment becomes the basic element of a competitive production model. Already in the horizon of 2025-2030, we will see a transition from point pilots to scalable ecosystems, where robotics, artificial intelligence, and digital infrastructure work as a whole, ensuring productivity growth by tens of percent and reducing operating costs. Companies that do not integrate into this trend today risk losing the market tomorrow to those who relied on autonomy earlier."
Yan Lupandin, Head of Project Portfolio, MMC Norilsk Nickel, spoke about personnel challenges. According to him, the shortage of personnel in the mining industry reaches 75 thousand people, and the average age of miners is about 50 years. In these conditions, one of the key areas is the gradual withdrawal of people from the mine through robotization.
Rafail Gafeev, Deputy Head of the Project "Creation of Energy Efficient Vehicles" of KAMAZ, noted that autonomization can increase the service life of dump trucks by 10-20%. At the same time, according to him, a simple transition from a person to a robot does not give a comparable effect without changing the business processes themselves.
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