A review of factors affecting mining operation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore operation influencing factors of mining. To collect gaps of study and to form a thematic representation of principal influencing factors and their unique influencing factors. Design/methodology/approach Articles were collected from different sources from 1974 to 2019 consisting of research articles, technical papers, expert blogs, working papers and conference papers covering various disciplines from psychology, human resource, finance and economics to mining engineering. Mining operation influencing factors were noted down. Four massively deposed mines were visited to observe the sequence of mining process. The field experts were also consulted to identify factors influencing their respected industry. Gaps were observed while comparing with the reviewed articles and opinions of field experts. Finally, senior experts were consulted to identify unique factors from the final list prepared and a framework of seven thematic categories consisting of unique factors was formulated. Findings A total of 197 sub-factors were collected from literature review and 2 sub-factors from Indian Mining experts during field study. These 199 sub-factors were initially categorised as 48 factors and one more factor was collected from Indian field experts. Finally, these 49 factors were thematically represented as principal factors and termed as operation, marketing and management, human resource, finance, resource and utility, corporate affairs and corporate social responsibility and environment. Research limitations/implications This study can be very helpful in the direction of different qualitative and quantitative studies, as the factors and sub-factors groups are identified. Originality/value The paper fulfils an identified need to provide a holistic review for understanding and documenting principal factors, unique factors and sub-factors those influence mining operation, profitability or sustainability issues of mines.