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INDUSTRY FACT FILE · METALS, MINING & CEMENT

Main Products and Services in Metals, Mining and Cement

What India's mining groups, steel and aluminium producers, smelters, foundries and cement makers produce and deliver, the mine, plant, enterprise and dispatch systems behind each activity, and where those systems create cybersecurity and compliance exposure.

In this document

1. How metals, mining and cement companies earn their money

2. Products and services by producer type

3. The operations layer: mines, furnaces, kilns and captive power

4. The enterprise layer: ERP, dispatch, e-permits and trading

5. The systems behind the products and services

6. Trends that change the attack surface

7. Mapping operations to Codec Networks engagements

1. How metals, mining and cement companies earn their money

Revenue stream	How it works	Security relevance
Mineral and coal sales	Coal, iron ore, bauxite, limestone and other minerals sold to power, steel and cement producers, through linkages, e-auctions and contracts	Dispatch and weighbridge integrity; e-permit and royalty data; e-auction platforms
Metal product sales	Steel, aluminium, zinc, copper and alloys sold to construction, automotive, engineering, packaging and exporters	Furnace uptime; ERP order-to-cash; commodity pricing and trading data
Cement and building materials	Cement, clinker and ready-mix concrete sold through dealers, depots and institutional buyers	Dispatch across many plants and depots; dealer portals and schemes
Exports and CBAM-covered trade	Steel, aluminium and cement supplied to the EU and other markets	Embedded-emissions data integrity; buyer security questionnaires
Captive power and by-products	Captive electricity, slag, fly ash, coke and chemicals sold or used internally	Power plant control systems; metering and billing

2. Products and services by producer type

Producer type	Main products and services	Key systems
Coal and mineral miners	Coal, iron ore, bauxite, limestone, zinc and critical minerals; exploration and beneficiation	Fleet management, tele-remote and autonomy systems, mine planning, dispatch, e-permits
Steel producers	Flat and long products, specialty steel, rails, pipes	Level 1–2 automation, DCS, MES, coke oven and furnace control, multi-plant ERP
Aluminium and non-ferrous smelters	Alumina, primary aluminium, zinc, lead, copper, alloys	Potline and refinery DCS, captive power plant DCS, process historians
Foundries and secondary producers	Castings, forgings, secondary metal from scrap	Furnace controls, CNC, small ERP, customer portals, outsourced IT
Cement manufacturers	Cement, clinker, ready-mix concrete	Kiln and mill DCS, quality control systems, dispatch, weighbridges, dealer portals
Captive power and logistics units	Captive electricity, rail and road dispatch, port handling	Power plant DCS and substations, rail siding and port systems, GPS fleets

3. The operations layer: mines, furnaces, kilns and captive power

A mine is now a networked operation. Fleet management systems dispatch haul trucks and excavators; drills, crushers and conveyors run on PLCs; drones survey pits; condition-monitoring sensors stream data from machines; and, at the most advanced sites, operators run drills and loaders tele-remotely from surface control rooms, as Hindustan Zinc does at several underground mines. Remote operations centres link these systems across sites over leased lines, microwave or private wireless, often with mine developers and operators (MDOs) and OEMs connected in to support their equipment.

Metal plants and cement works are continuous processes. Blast furnaces, coke ovens, potlines and rotary kilns are controlled by distributed control systems (DCS), PLCs and operator HMIs, with historians and quality systems recording every batch and manufacturing execution systems scheduling the lines. Captive power plants, oxygen plants, water treatment and substations have their own control systems. Much of this estate is 15 to 25 years old, runs unsupported operating systems, uses unauthenticated industrial protocols and cannot be stopped safely for patching—so it is protected by boundaries, monitoring and vendor discipline rather than by updates.

4. The enterprise layer: ERP, dispatch, e-permits and trading

Above operations sits the enterprise layer. ERP plans production, procures raw material and spares, manages inventory and invoices customers; if it stops, furnaces can run but nothing can be dispatched or billed. Dispatch systems, weighbridges, gate passes and state e-permit or e-transit portals control what leaves the site and what royalty is due; e-auction platforms and commodity exchanges set prices; dealer and customer portals carry orders and schemes; and HR and contractor management systems hold data on large contract workforces. Increasingly these systems run in the cloud and connect to railways, ports, transporters and banks.

Compliance data is a third layer with its own integrity requirements. Continuous emissions monitoring feeds regulators, safety records support DGMS obligations, mining plans and returns flow through the Indian Bureau of Mines' Mining Tenement System, and from January 2026 EU buyers need verified embedded-emissions data under CBAM. Manipulated or unavailable compliance data is now a business event as much as a technical one.

Highest-risk moments

ERP and dispatch outages that stop trucks while kilns and furnaces keep producing, OEM and MDO remote sessions into control networks, vendor laptops connected during shutdowns and turnarounds, shared accounts in remote operations centres, weighbridge and permit edits nobody reviews, and captive power plants reachable from corporate IT are where metals, mining and cement incidents typically begin or escalate.

5. The systems behind the products and services

Title: Figure 2: Where cyber risk sits across the metals, mining and cement value chain. - Description: Figure 2: Where cyber risk sits across the metals, mining and cement value chain.

Figure 2: Where cyber risk sits across the metals, mining and cement value chain.

Product / service	Systems that deliver it	Key cyber and compliance touchpoints
Exploration and leases	Geological models, bid and auction data, mining plans, MTS portals	Data classification, portal account controls, DLP
Mining operations	Fleet management, drills, crushers, drones, tele-remote and remote operations centres	IEC 62443 assessment, segmentation of site links, brokered access, OT monitoring
Smelting and processing	DCS, PLCs, HMIs, furnace and kiln control, historians, MES, quality labs	Zone-and-conduit design, vendor device controls, change control, monitoring
Captive power and utilities	Power plant DCS, substations, water, gas and oxygen plants	Utility OT assessment, segmentation from corporate IT, safety system reviews
Enterprise IT	ERP, procurement, sales, HR, contractor systems, email, cloud	EDR, backups, identity, SOC, DPDP for personal data
Dispatch and logistics	Weighbridges, gate systems, e-permits, rail and port integrations, GPS fleets	Dispatch system testing, integrity logging, analytics, partner integration reviews

6. Trends that change the attack surface

Trend	What is changing	Security implication
Remote and autonomous operations	Tele-remote drilling and loading, autonomous haulage, remote operations centres	Fleet and remote-ops systems become safety-critical attack surfaces
Commercial mining and MDO model	Private operators and contractors running mines for owners	Many more third parties with access to owner systems and data
Digital dispatch and e-governance	Weighbridge integration, e-permits, e-auctions, MTS single window	Integrity of dispatch and statutory data; portal account security
Decarbonisation and CBAM	Emissions monitoring, green steel and cement, EU reporting	Compliance data integrity and buyer assurance
Cloud ERP and analytics	Group ERP, data lakes and AI for process optimisation	Identity, tenant and data pipeline security
Regulatory formalisation	CERT-In audit guidelines, SEBI disclosure, DPDP, NCIIPC	Evidence-based assurance replaces informal practice

7. Mapping operations to Codec Networks engagements

If the company operates…	Recommended starting engagement
Furnaces, kilns, potlines or mills with DCS and PLCs	IEC 62443-aligned industrial security assessment, segmentation design, OT monitoring
Mines with fleet, tele-remote or remote operations centres	Remote operations and fleet system assessment, site link and access review
ERP, dispatch, weighbridges and e-permit integrations	ERP and dispatch security testing, integrity controls, backup and recovery validation
MDOs, EPC contractors, transporters or port links	Supply chain cyber assessment programme; contract clauses; integration testing
Captive power plants and utilities	Utility OT assessment and segmentation from corporate IT
Many plants, mines and depots across states	24x7 IT/OT SOC with site coverage and 6-hour reporting support

Talk to Codec Networks

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Email: mktg@codecnetworks.com Web: www.codecnetworks.com

Note: Descriptions are general and based on public information available as of October 2026. Systems and exposures differ by site and company.