Mining industry in the knowledge economy

With the appearance of the knowledge economy, it is of the utmost importance for the mining industry to be involved in the global world trends and to develop its activity field in the areas which have knowledge as a resource in their base, such as development of new and advancement of old exploitation technologies, mining equipment and technology development, introduction of knowledge management in mining corporations, development the new technologies for environmental protection, implementation the new technologies in research works for faster, more reliable and cheaper finding of mine deposits and development of workers' knowledge, as a human resource in the mining industry. The aim of this work is to show that, although the added value of the companies in the mining industry in the last decade was created by the increase in the raw material prices in the world market, the knowledge economy is the path which the mining industry must negotiate in order to enter the XXI century.