EU Mining Projects | Supply Chain Resilience: From Hormuz to Nearshoring

64% of projects exceed their budgets or schedules, with an average cost overrun of 39%.

A significant share of these deviations is directly linked to supply chain disruptions.

Supply chain resilience is therefore consolidating as a structural variable in the viability of capital-intensive projects.

In my participation at MMH. Mining and Minerals Hall (MMH) 2024, as part of the presentation "How Better Project Management Can Enhance Capital Returns", this point was addressed from a project management perspective: designing resilient supply chains, integrating risk from early project phases, and developing contingency plans.

The current context reinforces this approach.

The Strait of Hormuz remains a critical node in global trade. Its exposure to geopolitical tensions introduces direct volatility into logistics costs, energy supply, and material availability.

The response from both markets and governments is taking shape around a reconfiguration of supply chains.

1. Nearshoring as a Risk Mitigation Instrument

Reduced dependency on critical shipping routes, greater operational control, lower exposure to geopolitical disruptions.

In the European context, companies such as Atalaya Mining illustrate how the development of local resources contributes to supply security and structural risk reduction.

2. Industrial Reconfiguration in North America

The United States is actively driving nearshoring toward Mexico as a resilience mechanism:

Shorter logistics chains, reduced exposure to global shipping routes, greater responsiveness to disruptions, regional integration of industrial capabilities.

This shift responds to economic security criteria as much as to operational efficiency.

3. Implications for Projects

Supply chain integration from early project phases, incorporation into risk models, direct impact on investment decisions, contingency planning built into design.

The supply chain is no longer an operational variable — it has become a design variable.

Technical conclusion: supply chain resilience is evolving from an operational factor to a structural element in project definition.

Because ultimately, resilience is built through concrete decisions: I am currently prioritizing suppliers with a lower probability of supply chain disruption.

How are you incorporating resilience into your project or supply chain decisions?