Big data management in the mining industry

The mining industry faces a number of challenges that promote the adoption of new technologies. Big data, which is driven by the accelerating progress of information and communication technology, is one of the promising technologies that can reshape the entire mining landscape. Despite numerous attempts to apply big data in the mining industry, fundamental problems of big data, especially big data management (BDM), in the mining industry persist. This paper aims to fill the gap by presenting the basics of BDM. This work provides a brief introduction to big data and BDM, and it discusses the challenges encountered by the mining industry to indicate the necessity of implementing big data. It also summarizes data sources in the mining industry and presents the potential benefits of big data to the mining industry. This work also envisions a future in which a global database project is established and big data is used together with other technologies (i.e., automation), supported by government policies and following international standards. This paper also outlines the precautions for the utilization of BDM in the mining industry.