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Technology is not new to the mining industry. Companies old and new have been successfully leveraging technology for quite some time. But as we enter 2026, its role is becoming more robust and embedded. What was once viewed as "innovation at the margins" is now core infrastructure.
For mining companies, this deepening reliance on technology brings clear benefits: improved productivity, enhanced safety outcomes, greater environmental visibility and resilience in the face of commodity volatility and energy constraints. For technology lawyers like me, it also signals a shift in risk profiles. As operational decision-making becomes increasingly data-driven and automated, legal considerations around system reliability and availability, data ownership and control, privacy and cybersecurity and regulatory accountability move from the background to the foreground of mining operations.
This evolution has fundamentally changed how collaboration in the mining sector works. Partnerships are no longer limited to traditional joint ventures or supplier arrangements. Today, mining companies are entering into long-term collaborations with software developers, original equipment manufacturers ("OEMs"), cloud service providers, renewable energy producers and analytics firms to co-develop platforms, share data environments and integrate systems across operations.
These relationships often require complex contractual frameworks governing data access, system interoperability, performance standards, liability allocation and exit rights in an environment where technology evolves faster than traditional mine lifecycles. Trust, transparency and clearly articulated legal risk allocation become essential to making these collaborations workable and sustainable.
Against the Mining Indaba theme, "Stronger together: Progress through partnerships," technology is both the driver and the test of collaboration. It enables mining companies to move faster and further together than they could alone, but it also demands carefully structured relationships that balance innovation with accountability. In 2026, progress in the mining sector will be defined not only by the technologies adopted, but by how effectively industry participants collaborate - and by the legal frameworks that underpin those partnerships with clarity, foresight and resilience.
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