A Valuable Partnership for Mining Ventures
The global mining market is an economic powerhouse. In 2022 it was worth $2 trillion (USD) and its projected to reach $3.5 trillion by 2032 at a CAGR of 5.8%. In Canada alone, the mining industry pumped $74.6 billion (CAD) into the economy in 2022, accounting for 7.8% of GDP. Even as a well-established industry with commercial strength, it is evolving through the adoption of advanced technologies, sustainability-driven practices, and increased automation, as seen in the 200,000 active patents filed across the globe.
To better understand where an industry is headed, intellectual property (IP) data offers unique insights into what innovations drive the most value. Patent data specifically can reveal opportunities behind novel solutions and the best ways companies can monetize their ideas and position themselves for future success. With its blend of industrial operations and precise, scientific processes, the mining industry is perfectly positioned to utilize patent data to spot commercial opportunities, seize competitive advantages, and identify more sustainable – and profitable – ways to extract precious metals. In this article, we divulge our experts’ findings on mining patents, where untapped opportunities lie, and where major risks exist for those companies.
Background
Foresight Canada, the country’s largest cleantech innovation and adoption accelerator, helps governments and industries find and adopt clean technologies within Canada’s key markets – including mining. UnitedLex is a globally recognized provider of strategic IP services, with a strong presence in Canada and across international markets. To uncover opportunities around more sustainable mining practices, Foresight tapped UnitedLex as a strategic and research partner for the, “2025 Mining Technology Landscape Study.” UnitedLex experts unearthed unparalleled insights into the value chain, patent filing trends, and whitespace opportunities for mining technology in Canada and around the world.
Through their partnership, Foresight and UnitedLex provide startups with in-depth patent analytics, giving them critical competitive intelligence that traditionally only large, established organizations could afford.
Analysis Overview
Based on a detailed analysis of the global “Mining Technology” landscape with a focus on sustainable practices, the patenting activity was grouped across four key modules:
- Production Activities: Exploration, development, and extraction (63,000 patents)
- Infrastructure Management: Material movement and fixed assets/infrastructure management (110,000 patents)
- Processing Activities: Mineral processing and smelting/refining (44,000 patents)
- Waste and Water Management: Water management, tailings management and reclamation/waste-to-value (26,000 patents)
For a comprehensive competitive landscape, the analysis was conducted through multiple lenses: technology type, assignee, geography, and filing trends.
Actionable Insights
In an industry with relentless competitive and regulatory pressures, the question is not whether opportunity exists, but where it is being overlooked. The better companies understand the nuances around this question, the greater the likelihood of success for new entrants.
By examining mining patent activity through three critical lenses: current and emerging patent activity, the evolution of products and services, and the expanding market scope, UnitedLex devised a strategic framework for anticipating where the next wave of value creation is likely to emerge. Several areas of low patenting activity but high growth potential indicate strong potential for first-mover advantage. These include:
- AI-enabled autonomous, self-collaborating mining bots: Halliburton and SLB are leading filers in mining automation and auto-bots. While there are a few patents from other players in this realm, most focus on generic, multi-robot coordination. As a result, patent activity related to self-collaborating systems designed for remote and hazardous mining environments is limited, or in other words, open across the industry.
- AI-based waste prediction and post-mining reclamation and recovery planning: There has been limited patent activity in waste prediction that has been primarily driven by Chinese universities. There is still room for development and innovation harvesting around integrated AI solutions that link waste forecasting with post-mining recovery and reclamation to support sustainable mining practices.
- Smart wearables with AR/VR and voice or gesture-based AI assistants –Halliburton and Shanxi Tiandi have a small number of filings in mining smart wearables. However, given the limited patent filings in this realm there is opportunity to further develop comprehensive worker-enablement platforms that combine wearables, AR/VR, and multimodal AI interfaces.
In addition to showing these whitespace opportunities, the patent landscape highlights the grave importance for Canadian mining companies to keep up with common market movement to sustain a competitive edge. Falling behind in sustainability, automation, waste management, or environmental practices can lead to higher hazard exposure, regulatory violations, and superfluous operational costs.
Understanding litigation risk is also critical for startups with limited budgets and investors seeking to maximize their returns. This analysis reveals that the mining sector has relatively low patent litigation rates compared to industries like telecom and cloud computing, highlighting its distinct advantage for innovators and investors that want to focus on growth and market positioning rather than courtroom battles. Only two major cases have been filed since 2007, with the most recent by Rio Tinto against BHP and Epiroc in 2022.
A Valuable Collaboration
The mining industry and its supporting technologies are going through rapid transformation driven by digitalization, automation, and an emphasis on sustainability. While the sector offers a low-litigation landscape for inventors and investors, it still demands companies innovate and enhance offerings to be competitive. The under-patented high-growth technologies, like smart wearables, self-collaborating bots, and AI-based waste management, offer significant opportunities for first movers to drive sustainable mining operations, strengthen their IP position, and generate long-term value.
The “2025 Mining Technology Landscape Study” is just one example of how Foresight provides data-driven market insights and patent analysis to inform clients’ strategic investment and R&D decisions. The technical expertise, data science, and proprietary technology delivered by UnitedLex experts helps startups leverage competitive intelligence on par with the industry’s biggest players. In their work on mining technology, and other sectors like forest bioeconomy and water technology, Foresight Canada facilitates innovation that builds business productivity and a more sustainable future.
