The Arab region faces an opportunity to enhance digital transformation in the mining sector |

Rabat – Technological transformations in the management of economic activities are pushing countries in the Middle East and North Africa region with the opportunity to improve digital transformation, especially in the mining sector, to increase its efficiency in as an important driver of related sectors and to generate profits for companies and governments.

Analysts say the abundance and diversity of mineral resources in the Arab region represent an important strategic dimension, as minerals are the artery powering manufacturing industries and their products are included in all needs and needs of life.

Today, this requires redoubled efforts to overcome obstacles to the development of the mining sector, create an appropriate investment environment and strengthen the economic integration of this sector.

Adel Al-Sager, director general of the Arab Organization for Industrial Development, Standardization and Mining, based in Rabat, the Moroccan capital, believes that promoting digital transformation to support the sustainability of the mining sector in the Arab countries has become essential today. , taking into account the evolution of all industrial activity.

In a recent report published by the organization, Al-Sager highlighted the need to strengthen the mining sector in Arab countries through innovation and modern technologies, including digital transformation, which is a real and strategic gamble. for sustainable development and a contributor to economic development and create attractiveness to improve the business climate.

Adel Al-Sager: It is necessary to support the sector with innovation and technologies

He said: “The digital transformation in the mining sector is an incentive to innovate in modern methods and approaches to build smart, connected and efficient mining industrial facilities, by designing digital infrastructure, improving its components, using technologies modern technologies and employing the techniques of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to restructure mining activity from exploration to production. “.

Institutions operating in the mining sector need to support their capacities by creating a digital twin that allows the recording and production of a digital version of mineral research and exploration.

And not only that, but also in mining or quarrying operations and manufacturing operations that enhance the added value of these materials, in order to provide data and work on their analysis.

Among the most important minerals available in the Arab region is gold, which constitutes a significant part of the Sudanese economy, as well as phosphates for Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan, as well as other minerals. such as iron, zinc, copper and others. .

International studies confirm that benefiting from data related to the mining sector through the use of big data technologies represents a very small percentage of the data available in this sector, and this is what slows down its progress.

From this point of view, Al-Sager considers that Arab companies operating in this vital sector are obliged to direct investments towards the promotion of digital transformation and to resort to Internet of Things applications, which will already have great benefits in mines, quarries and other mining facilities. .

The Arab Organization for Industrial Development, Standardization and Mining is working to keep pace with global trends related to digital transformation in the mining sector, providing requests and data to factories and mining companies. linked to the extraction and processing sectors.

These sectors include mining industries, construction industries, building materials, metallurgical industries and fertilizer industries, in addition to more than 17 other industrial sectors in 21 Arab countries. Some Arab oil-producing countries were the first to take steps in this direction, and perhaps Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco are at the forefront of these countries.