Renewable Energy Integration in Mining: A Systematic Review of Technology Maturity, Cost–Emissions Trade-Offs, and Supply-Chain Sustainability

Mining remains highly energy-intensive. Most sites still rely on diesel because of remote locations and continuous power needs. This dependence is expected to increase as mineral demand rises and ore grades decline. The sector contributes 4–7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Research on renewable energy integration in mining has expanded but remains fragmented across power systems, mining engineering, life cycle assessment, and social science. This review synthesizes 120 studies spanning solar PV, onshore wind, hybrid microgrids, hydrogen and fuel cells, battery and mechanical storage, and haulage electrification. The review makes three contributions. First, it links operational sustainability outcomes to the upstream social and environmental impacts of mineral supply chains, a connection largely absent from the reviewed literature. Second, it presents a stratified maturity assessment of eleven technology families; solar PV, wind, and electrified haulage prove mature, while hydrogen, redox flow batteries, and pumped hydro remain largely confined to Arctic case studies. Third, it synthesizes cost and emissions outcomes across case studies, identifying a consistent trade-off between low-cost partial diesel offset and high-cost full site decarbonization. The review closes by defining the research frontier: integrated multi-source system design, long-duration storage validation, and unified operational and supply chain sustainability assessment.