**1. Introduction**

Energy consumption in the last decade represents an increasing trend. Energy demand is growing across many countries globally as the population grows and human needs expand [1, 2]. As a consequence, fossil fuel consumption has also increased. Additionally, industrial activities have contributed directly and indirectly to annual greenhouse gas emissions [3, 4]. Australian energy consumption, for instance, grew by 0.7% a year on average for the past decade and reached 6014 PJ in 2019–2020, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics [5, 6]. Fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas) accounted for 93% of Australia's primary energy source in 2019–2020. Oil accounted for the most significant proportion of Australia's primary energy mix in 2019–2020, at 37%, followed by coal (28%), gas (27%), and renewable energy 8% [5].

Therefore, in recent years, the effects of sustainability on energy production and use have been well understood, and sustainability studies have recently considered enhancing energy efficiency. This is not an outlier trend to be found within the mining industry.

For many countries, mining is a crucial industry. Minerals, coal, metals, sand, and gravel are needed for construction and production and provide employment, taxes, and dividends that fund hospital, schools, and public facilities. To put it another way, mining is first and foremost a source of valuable mineral raw materials that are considered essential by all countries for national security, wealth creation, maintaining and improving the living standards of individual citizens [7].

Mining operations consume vast amounts of energy. For example, Mining in Australia consumes more than 9% of the nation's total energy consumption, which amounts to 570 petajoules per year [8]. Approximately 41% of mining's energy is derived from diesel, 33% from natural gas, and 22% from grid electricity, with the remainder being derived from coal, LPG, renewables, and biofuels. It is worth noting that diesel consumption has recently decreased from 49 to 41% in a decade [9]. It has been replaced mainly by natural gas and grid electricity due to infrastructure development and fluctuations in oil prices.

The mining industry appears to have benefited from rising fuel prices in the 1970s, as evidenced by studies on improving energy efficiency and using sustainable energy sources in the industry. As a result, reducing energy consumption has gradually become a priority for many countries with significant mining operations. Several projects have been conducted by the United States, Australia, Germany, Canada, and China that reduce energy consumption in mining operations [10–12]. Moreover, some governmental moves make industries pay for carbon taxes and similar regulatory costs, leading to the unprofitable and unsustainability of energy-intensive processes.

There are several aspects in the mining value chain where energy efficiency can be improved, such as managing electricity demand, capturing waste heat, improving ventilation, reducing mine drainage, and generating energy from by-products [13]. Numerous authors examined the energy consumption of various mining equipment. Oskouei and Awuah-Offei [11] studied energy consumption and dragline parameters. Peralta and colleagues demonstrate in their research that a maintenance policy based on equipment reliability can significantly reduce energy consumption [14]. Kuzin and colleagues proposed a method for estimating the energy consumption of process equipment and the relationship between energy consumption and vibration parameters and the temperature of the equipment surfaces [15]. According to research, blasting and material handling operations such as loading and hauling have the most significant potential for improving energy efficiency and lowering operating costs [16–20]. Based on numerous studies that have been conducted comparing energy efficiency improvements in mineral processing plants and material handling to other processes, this statement is confirmed.

Companies in the mining industry have recently begun implementing advanced Information Technologies (IT) to improve processes and simultaneously reduce energy consumption and operating costs. The mining industry deals with a large amount of data with layers of hidden knowledge. Since data analytics involves the science of analyzing raw data to derive information, it is a very effective technique for bringing disparate data sources together. Furthermore, data analytics provides cost savings, faster and better decision-making, and the development of new products and services, among other benefits [21]. As a result, data analytics is widely used,

and it has a wide range of applications that many people may not have previously considered.

This chapter discusses advanced data analytics techniques to enhance mining energy efficiency. Open-pit haulage is the main target of the discussion. One of the objectives of this research is to develop a sophisticated data analytics model for assessing haul truck energy efficiency in surface mining. Concerning energy consumption in surface mining, the primary focus of this research is on the application of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) for prediction in the investigation of energy efficiency.

### **2. Energy consumption in mining**

Mining is a crucial part of the global economy. In 2020, the top 40 mining companies made approximately 656 billion dollars [22]. Every year, hundreds of millions of raw materials are delivered to factories, the construction industry, utilities, and other commercial enterprises in the United States. Coal, metals, minerals, as well as sand and gravel are examples of such resources.

Research conducted in this area focuses on mining in Australia, which has also been a cornerstone of the Australian economy. Australia is the world's largest producer of lithium and is one of the world's top five producers of gold, iron ore, lead, zinc, and nickel, as well as some other minerals. In addition, the country has the most significant uranium and fourth-largest black coal resources in the world, respectively. Minerals are also one of Australia's major exports. Depending on their location, they are mined through open-cut mining on the earth's surface or underground mining techniques.

About the population, the energy consumption of Australia's industrial sector is among the highest. However, partly due to lower energy prices and lower rates of capital investment in the manufacturing industry, the rate of improvement in Australia's industrial development has lagged behind that of other countries [23, 24].

According to the most recent statistics, the sectors with the highest energy consumption in 2019–2020 were manufacturing and mining [8]. The mining industry in Australia consumes about 570 Pita Joules (PJ) of energy each year. However, Approximately a tenth of it can be savable [18]. Due to the significant energy savings opportunities, mining firms and the government have conducted many studies on cutting this industry's energy consumption (see **Table 1**).

The amount of energy consumed by a mine depends on various factors, including the minerals it mines, the production processes it employs, and the extraction technologies it employs. **Figure 1** illustrates the relative amounts of energy used by the world's three most energy-intensive mining sectors.

A mine's fuel type will vary depending on its type (underground or open-pit mine) and its process. Mining operations use diesel fuel, electricity, natural gas, coal, and gasoline, which account for 34%, 32%, 22%, 10%, and 2% of total energy consumption, respectively (see **Table 2**).

**Table 3** shows how much energy is currently being used by various types of mining equipment. The most energy is used in material handling by diesel equipment (17%) and grinding equipment (40%).

#### *Latest Research on Energy Recovery*


*a Includes Forestry and fishing.*

*b Includes Gas, water supply, and waste services.*

*c Includes Postal and warehousing.*

#### **Table 1.**

*Energy consumption by industries and households in Australia [8].*

#### **Figure 1.**

*Energy use by mining sub-division (PJ/year) [6, 25].*


#### **Table 2.**

*Fuel consumed in the mining industry [6, 26, 27].*

*Energy Efficiency Improvement in Surface Mining DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104262*


#### **Table 3.**

*Energy consumption in the mining industry [6, 26, 27].*
