The interplaying of advanced technologies of the Industry 4.0 (I4) mandate towards the mines of the future creates a smart connected mining industry that transforms vast amounts of data into predictive and fully integrated intelligent systems. Thus, additional safety, stability, and predictability can be achieved to maximize efficiency while minimizing operating and capital costs. In addition, the road to overcoming mining challenges is fundamentally human-centered and has inclusive socio-economic development or what is known as sustainable development (SD) at its core. Throughout the production value chain, the mining sector faces various economic, geopolitical, social, and technological hurdles. Innovative manufacturing methods are required to introduce the next digital generation into the raw material area all the way to the tailings area. In the realm of increasing process automation, I4 applications are currently trending in the mining industry. This paper explores and debates process systems and automation outlook focusing on future automation systems in the context of minerals engineering, where mines can be categorized into human-governed, semi-self-governed, self-governed, and virtual mines. The paper discusses mining field challenges and opportunities and concludes with a discussion and future research paths in process system engineering prompted by I4 innovative system architecture.

Keywords
Automation, Industry 4.0, Process, Mines of the future, Human-centered, Sustainable development.