Modern technologies have been revolutionizing industries for years, providing competitive advantages to companies. As a technology based on decentralization, Blockchain becomes a tool to support and secure processes and transactions in industries such as mining and power engineering. It also supports supply chain processes, which are particularly important in today's mining business. The use of advanced cryptography methods results in increased cyber security in entities that implement such solutions. The use of Blockchain technology carries a strong message, both to competitors and customers, about intensifying work on authentication and process traceability. This publication focuses on defining the trust gap problem in the mining industry and on examples of the use of technology in data traceability processes. The mining industry is beginning to use technologies which had been previously available only in the theoretical realm. The ongoing development towards a smart industry entails a number of studies and expert assessments, aimed to integrate knowledge from the mining and IT areas. The combination of these research areas leads to an increase in the value of both the companies implementing modern technologies and traditional companies that implement such applications in their value chain. Based on the analyzed articles, two main areas of consideration in the context of the extractive industry were distinguished: systems that track and secure the flow of data in specific mining processes and systems that monitor and secure information on processes which support the raw materials supply chain.

The exploration of mineral resources is an area of strategic importance for the pace of further development of all industries. The results of companies deciding to carry out exploration work depend on further investments of mining companies, i.e. the entities purchasing full deposit documentation. Being at the beginning of the entire mining process, junior mines assume a high risk related to investments enabling the commencement of works without providing high guarantees of the project’s success. Companies running these types of projects must seek funding in a variety of ways. One of these is to try to raise capital from the stock trading markets. However, the specificity of junior companies does not allow them to start on the main trading floors, hence the decision to enter alternative markets. In considering the broader context of the activities of junior mines, research was conducted on companies listed on the London Alternative Investment Market (AIM). In the first part, this concerned the market characteristics – the market value added values were determined for selected ranges of market capitalization. In the second part, which is a statistical study, factors that may affect their market value was checked. The analysis covered both traditional value drivers – related to revenues, the demand for net working capital, investment expenses and the cost of equity – and their supplementation with selected values of financial statements. The result of the analysis is a regression equation indicating the factors that have a statistically significant impact on the market value of junior mines listed on AIM London.

This paper presents concepts of value chains as strategic models for long-term development and a sustainable approach for ensuring efficiency. It highlights the fact that value chains are of particular importance in the raw materials industry, where the exploration, extraction, processing and metallurgy stages are characterized by high capital expenditure and fixed costs. Additionally, it emphasizes that offering an increasingly valuable product at each stage of production or processing makes it possible to increase earnings and achieve a higher margin. In order to give a practical dimension to the presented analyses, the paper provides an example of lithium value chains and identifies the determinants of their functioning in the current market together with their prospects. The conclusion highlights Europe’s need to source raw materials within business models based on value chains.

The global development of electromobility and the innovation of life are becoming increasingly noticeable. A direct implication of this is the increase in demand for modern products and services, their components and thus the raw materials necessary to produce them (e.g. cobalt, lithium, rare earth metals). In the European Union (EU), raw materials related to strategic sectors – renewable energy, electric mobility, defense and aerospace and digital technologies – show a very strong dependence on import throughout the entire value chain. In the case of eleven out of thirty of the so-called critical raw materials (CRM), necessary for the energy transition, the EU’s dependence on import exceeds 85%. Global supply chains, which had already been strained, were further affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the exacerbated geopolitical situations leading to even greater shortages of critical raw materials in Europe and leaving the industry facing challenges in securing access to resources. An implication of this was the European Parliament’s position on critical raw material legislation in September 2023, which called on the EU to increase its processing capacity across the value chain and enable the production of at least 40% of the annual consumption of strategic raw materials by 2030.
Growing importance in the transition to a low-emission economy is attributed to cobalt (Co), which is an essential component both in the production of electric vehicles (EV), stationary energy storage and in the developing sectors of wind energy, fuel cell systems and hydrogen storage technologies, robotics, unmanned vehicles (drones) and 3D printing as well as in digital technologies. Securing the supply of such raw material is crucial for the European Union’s economic resilience, technological advantage and strategic autonomy.
The purpose of this article is to present and analyze the concept of value chains as strategic models of long-term development and ensuring efficiency from a sustainable perspective. According to the authors, a detailed analysis of value chains may enable defining strategic directions of action and identifying the risks of their disruption or interruption. To give a practical dimension to the presented analyses, the example of the cobalt value chain is provided and the determinants of its functioning on the current market along with development prospects are indicated.