Dear Colleagues,

The mining industry comprises a key segment of the economy in many countries. More than six thousand companies and up to 25 million employees around the world are involved in this industry. However, mining enterprises emit significant amounts of industrial waste and pollutants and are energy intensive and unsafe for employees.

The growing global demand for minerals has led to an increase in mining. Mining enterprises are forced to deepen the open pits and mines and develop new deposits in locations with more difficult geological conditions. Sustainable mining in such conditions is traditionally ensured by increasing investment and operating costs, including costs of safe working conditions. This widespread approach is contrary to the concept of sustainable development.

The mining and technical system (MTS) plays a key role in the sustainable development of mining enterprises. MTS is defined as a system with elements such as mining facilities, technical and technological subsystems, physicochemical and special mining methods, and mineral resources blocks.

The sustainable development of the MTS requires new approaches and principles for managing the work of open pits, underground mines, and mineral processing plants. This is based on the development, optimization, and application of innovative technologies, mining equipment, methods, and models to harmonize economic, environmental, and social goals.

The main topics of this Special Issue focus on solving the urgent problems of sustainable development related to MTS:

• Energy efficiency of the mining industry
• Innovative solutions for open-underground and physical-chemical geotechnology
• Geo-mechanical support of mining
• Improvement of mining transport and mining equipment
• Mining waste using
• Auxiliary processes in the mining and technical system (power supply, ventilation, drainage)
• Industry 4.0 technologies and digitalization of mining and technical system
• Decisions making methods, modeling, optimization and risk assessment of the mining and technical system
• Methods and ways of reducing the technogenic impact of mining systems
• Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) issues in the mining and technical system

The high complexity of MTS makes it necessary to involve a wide range of scientists and specialists from various fields for a comprehensive study to tackle the problems related to the development, optimization, and application of MTS. We are convinced that the topics discussed in this Special Issue of Energies are fascinating, and it will motivate many researchers to publish the results of their original research in it.

Prof. Dr. Aleksandr Rakhmangulov
Prof. Dr. Nikita Osintsev
Guest Editors

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• Mining and technical system
• Sustainable development
• Energy efficiency
• Geo-mechanics
• Open-underground geotechnology
• Physical-chemical geotechnology
• Mining transport
• Mining equipment
• Mineral processing
• Power supply
• Mining ventilation
• Mining drainage
• Industry 4.0
• Mining waste
• ESG
• Decision-making
• MCDM