Chaos to Clarity: Redefining Mining Data

Most executives and financiers in mining lose between 6 and 17 weeks a year searching for data. Something is broken.

In 2024, Pulse Intelligence surveyed more than 120 executive and senior-level professionals across 23 countries, spanning mining and the finance, investment, and services fields around it. Our purpose was simple: to understand how the people who make the biggest decisions in this industry actually gather, analyse, and make sense of data.

The results were startling.

Almost 45% of these senior professionals spend up to an hour every single day just searching for data. More than 20% spend up to three hours a day. Taken across a year, that is somewhere between 6 and 17 weeks — gone, before a single decision has been made.

These are not entry-level or even mid-level researchers. They are not novices or industry newcomers. They are C-suite mining executives, investment bank directors, heads of research, private equity partners, sovereign wealth fund managers, senior equity analysts, CIOs, and senior leaders at boutique and global consulting firms. People whose time is best spent on strategy and long-term growth, losing up to 15 hours a week to sourcing the data they need to do their jobs.

The current platforms are failing them.

What we heard

Before the numbers, the words. A few lines from respondents captured the mood better than any statistic:

"Finding accurate and up-to-date information is a constant struggle."

"It's hard to integrate the various data sources we use into one coherent system."

"The cost of these tools often outweighs the benefits for our organisation."

"With Bloomberg and S&P, the data is decent, but I'm drowning in it. I can't possibly find everything I need, and I still have to do all the work finding it."

That last one is the whole problem in a sentence. It is not that the data does not exist. It is that having it and being able to act on it are two very different things.

Who we spoke to

Our respondents were senior leaders across a wide range of organisations: private equity funds and investment banks (23%), junior developers and miners (15%), mining technology and service providers (9%), mid-tier miners (8%), family offices (7%), management consultancies (6%), and a long tail of EPCM, advisory, and specialist firms.

While just over half were based in Europe (51%), the survey reached every continent — North America (18%), Africa (15%), Australia (9%), Asia (5%), and South America (2%) — 23 countries in total. Their needs are complex and diverse, and their insights invaluable.

Where the time goes

We asked how much of the working day disappears into two tasks: collecting data, and analysing it.

On collecting, a fifth of senior executives spend up to three hours every day, on top of the 43% who spend between thirty minutes and an hour. On analysing, another 32% spend one to three hours a day, with 47% spending thirty minutes to an hour. Stack the two together and the scale of the problem becomes clear.

These are valuable hours that could be spent elsewhere.

The platforms — and why they fall short

The tools these professionals reach for are fragmented and, tellingly, often improvised. The most-used sources were general trade media — Mining Journal and Mining.com (18%) — followed closely by do-it-yourself research off raw filings and announcements (15%). Bloomberg (12%), brokers' research notes (11%), and generalist investment platforms (11%) followed, with Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (7%) and S&P (4%) further down.

The most revealing figure is the 15% who have given up on dedicated platforms altogether and gone back to DIY research. When senior professionals would rather assemble intelligence by hand than pay for a tool, the tools are not doing their job.

Even those who invest in high-end solutions struggle with the same issues — excessive time on collection and analysis, and no single system that meets the full spectrum of what mining actually needs. Current platforms either focus narrowly on one service, or are too generic and industry-agnostic to matter. The takeaway is clear: today's platforms are not solving the core problem. They are adding to the noise.

The real frustration

We asked people to name their single biggest challenge with the platforms they already use. The answers, ranked:

• Finding accurate information — 24%
• Fragmented data — 20%
• High costs — 15%
• Switching between platforms — 13%
• User experience and interface — 11%
• Interpreting data — 9%
• Ineffective technology — 6%

Read that list again. The number one frustration is not speed, and it is not coverage. It is accuracy. Right behind it sit fragmentation and cost. The mining industry has lagged behind fintech and most other sectors, which long ago embraced platforms that are intuitive, customisable, and user-friendly. Mining-focused solutions, by contrast, remain outdated, poorly designed, and clunky — creating more frustration than efficiency.

The right platform must be future-ready, streamlined, user-centric, and built for the specific needs of this industry.

How Pulse Intelligence is shifting the needle

At Pulse Intelligence, we do not just understand these challenges. We have lived them. We have spent years battling the data deluge, the fragmented sources, the high costs, and the outdated designs — and, most of all, the immense time wasted trying to find accurate, auditable, and actionable information.

Our experience across both mining and technology lets us build something that fits the way these professionals actually work. By combining AI and machine learning with expert oversight, we automate what should be automated, and make sure every figure is reliable and relevant.

The result is an auditable global mining database — customisable, intuitive, and capable of delivering instant, real-time insight and significant automation. Whether you need a high-level overview or granular detail, Pulse puts precision data at your fingertips.

Save time. Spend it where it matters. And operate with the confidence that the data underneath you is reliable and real-time.

Less searching. More strategising.™