Senior leaders across the mining industry see investment capital as the number one risk to the mining industry in 2025, according to a new survey by EY. In particular, miners need to accelerate growth while maintaining discipline and returns.
Environmental stewardship, geopolitics and resource depletion are also top priorities.

The annual survey across 353 senior mining and metals leaders from organizations with US$1billion in revenue examines the top ten business risks next year, especially as the sector addresses rising demands from the energy transition.
“This year, aside from the perennial cost and productivity risk, there has been a noticeable shift in the risks towards strategic issues to meet future demand. Fortunately, miners are not losing sight of ESG obligations, which are critical to attain and retain license to operate and are closely linked with risks like capital and workforce. A surprising finding this year was that workforce was not considered a key risk by 55% of respondents. Given the sector’s significant challenges in attracting and retaining the talent needed to grow, this omission from the radar is alarming”
— Paul Mitchell, EY Global and APAC Mining & Metals Leader


“We need about $1 trillion in investment to produce enough metals for the energy transition. “We haven’t seen that coming in. Now it’s the #1 (risk) because people are really worried. We’ve seen some M&A, but we haven’t seen direct investment in the mining sector”
— Theo Yameogo, EY Americas and Canada Mining and Metals Leader told The Northern Miner
As we highlighted in our recent analysis, big mining M&As too late to stop critical mineral supply crisis.