FINANCE FORUM • social value. By fostering inclusive and supportive workplaces, businesses can attract top talent and empower employees to contribute to meaningful sustainability initiatives.
Strategic solutions While challenges such as fluctuating commodity prices, labour shortages and geopolitical risks persist, mining organisations can overcome these hurdles by adopting innovative strategies including:
• Holistic risk management: Integrating risk management across all aspects of the business ensures resilience against interconnected risks, from natural disasters to regulatory changes.
• Sustainable talent strategies: Reskilling employees, fostering diversity and creating inclusive environments help address labour shortages while building a motivated, future-ready workforce.
• Balance new and legacy technologies: Supporting the adoption of new technology with the management of legacy systems is a strategic necessity on the path to decarbonisation. Carefully assessing and evaluating the risks and opportunities of new and legacy technologies helps organisations ensure a smoother transition that delivers operational continuity, cost-efficiency and compliance. Specialist insurance and risk management solutions allow mining businesses to better manage these challenges and support both risk and human capital needs.
• Pursue mergers, acquisitions and divestments to align with the energy transition: Opportunities are growing for companies to acquire renewable energy or clean technology companies or divest assets and operations no longer aligned with sustainability goals. However, to maximise chances of deal success and optimise return on investment, it is more important than ever that organisations leverage M & A tools and transaction support to secure risks across multiple business disciplines.
• Strengthen cyber resilience: As digitalisation advances, enhancing cybersecurity measures are essential to protect operations from evolving threats.
• Better understand the value of IP assets: Managing intellectual property( IP) is key to protecting a mining company’ s intangible assets, innovations and competitive position. Assess and quantify IP value to better align IP strategy with business strategy, more effectively manage IP risk and attract potential new sources of growth capital.
• Transparency and governance: By proactively addressing environmental, social and governance( ESG) concerns, companies can build trust with stakeholders and safeguard against reputational risks.
• Leverage risk quantification: With data-led insights, leaders can identify and quantify specific risks to make better risk mitigation, retention and transfer decisions.
• Consider captive utilisation: Captives give organisations greater control over risk transfer, particularly to address hard-to-insure exposures.
“ To thrive in an increasingly unpredictable and complex landscape, mining industry leaders must shift from a reactive to a proactive approach to risk management. By embracing digital transformation, prioritising sustainability and building more robust risk mitigations, organisations can gain the agility needed to respond to a rapidly changing world. By embracing technology, fostering collaboration and committing to sustainability, mining organisations can balance growth with environmental and social responsibility,” concludes Pryor. •
To download the full report, visit: https:// www. aon. com / en / insights / reports / better-decisions-on-risk-capital-and-human-capital-formining-organizations
www. africanmining. co. za African Mining Publication African Mining African Mining • May 2025 • 33