Unsustainable mining will be the Achilles heel of the global energy transition

https://www.tokenexus.com/ activists need to ramp up engagement and collaboration with the mining industry if the energy transition is to be secured, however uncomfortable it makes them, argues Daniel Litvin. Informed by his work advising resource companies on sustainability and geopolitical issues, he highlights five points to encourage a constructive conversation. The speakers indicated that geographical limitations of mineral refining capacity could give rise to inefficiencies, carbon intensity and possibly production bottlenecks. For example, spodumene mined in Australia, which provides over half of current lithium supply, is typically refined in China using coal-fired power, giving it a huge emissions footprint. The lithium in an average EV will also have travelled 50,000km before the car even hits the roads. We are leaders in quantifying and benchmarking asset-level GHG, energy intensity, and water use across the mining sector.

We believe climate risk is investment risk and are doing our part to accelerate a just and equitable transition to a net zero economy. Nobody has a bad word to say about PNG as a mining jurisdiction, and Kainantu is reckoned to be one of the prime projects in a country which is very mining friendly indeed at the moment. Despite an increase in cryptocurrency miners selling their used graphics cards, GPU manufacturer Palit Microsystems has warned against purchasing any graphics cards that have been used for mining. Consumers are being warned not to buy second-hand graphics cards from an influx of cryptocurrency miners looking to sell, with one manufacturer claiming that the practice significantly damages GPU performance.

PGM mergers, acquisitions, and corporate defence

At the same time, mines provide necessary materials and often much-needed jobs and infrastructure. And mining companies are recognising in greater numbers the need to change the way they operate or continue to face opposition from local and environmental groups. No one, not even the Big Miners themselves, is suggesting that the industry be given a free pass to ramp up production quickly. True, some parts of the industry have significantly improved their environmental and social performance in recent decades. Many firms have tightened their environmental management systems, reducing contamination of local land and water. The Big Miners in particular support a range of initiatives to help raise industry standards, from the International Council on Mining and Metals to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

• SFA provided an up-to-date, high-level case for investment in a project against other global projects and operations, to be made available to a potential joint venture partner.
• The SFA team provided independent research and analysis to an organisation formed by six leading platinum producers to develop the market for platinum investment.
• Along with a site visit, the team analysed all facets of the company and project including its corporate structure, peer-group benchmarking, reviewing the mine plan, processing plant evaluation and offtake partner assessment.
• Our thorough approach to executive search allows us to identify and secure the high-level candidates who can guide your business through times of transformation.
• Skarn have addressed this using benchmark parameters and industry expertise to allow for a like-for-like comparison.

The ResponsibleSteel certification programme is being developed to cover the entire steel supply chain from mine site or scrap collector through to the steel end user (e.g. the car, construction or white goods manufacturing company). The ResponsibleSteel Standard (version 1-0) can be applied directly at sites where raw materials are processed, and at steel making and steel processing sites. Upstream supply chain activities, such as mining or the collection of scrap, will be covered wherever possible through the recognition of existing programmes that set a similarly ambitious standard and run an equally robust assurance programme to ResponsibleSteel’s. Released annually, this ground-breaking, forward-looking report analyses the trends and influences on the nickel market and battery technologies out to 2040.

Critical minerals & the transition roundtable 1: outcomes

In addition, production/revenue segmented by metal was presented in a manner that allowed cost data manipulation and benchmarking. A number of Big Miners with seemingly strong sustainability policies have committed major transgressions in recent years, both environmental and social . Meanwhile, smaller companies and also many non-Western firms are subject to far less external scrutiny than the Big Miners – and some undoubtedly take advantage of operating in the shadows in this way. We’ve previously expressed support for the science of climate change and the need to limit global warming to 2°C,” Spano says.

Sustainability Characteristics do not provide an indication of current or future performance nor do they represent the potential risk and reward profile of a fund. Sustainability Characteristics should not be considered solely or in isolation, but instead are one type of information that investors may wish to consider when assessing a fund. Anti-mining opposition often draws from genuine concerns and grievances at a local level – see point four below. Even so , the net global effect is to inhibit the ability of the industry to ramp up production swiftly when needed. As a result, critical mineral supplies sometimes may be available only at cripplingly-high prices, slowing the roll-out of much-needed clean energy infrastructure.

Green hydrogen project benchmarking

While the companies initially claimed the mud did not include any toxic chemicals, a United Nations report on the disaster cited the presence of numerous toxic substances in the mud, including arsenic. “The scale of the environmental damage is the equivalent of 20,000 Olympic swimming pools of toxic mud waste contaminating the soil, rivers and water system of an area covering over 850km,” said John Knox, UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment. An executive at Vale later confirmed that toxic materials were found in the Doce RiverShares in BHP Billiton fell to a 10-year low after the dam failures. Whereas country level analysis flags about 90% of the production with identified risk values, when evaluating at asset level, this reduces to 60% of the assets.

Renewable mining benchmark systems require more far minerals to construct than their fossil fuel equivalents. Building an electric vehicle , for example, requires some six times the mineral inputs of an internal combustion engine car. Likewise, constructing a wind farm requires far more metals per megawatt of installed capacity than a gas-fired power plant. Supply problems in the industry has lead to widespread GPU shortages across the globe, which has been exacerbated by demand from cryptocurrency miners – in the first quarter of 2021 alone, crypto-miners bought around 700,000 graphics cards. These warnings follow a rush for cryptocurrency miners trying to sell their often extensive collections of graphics cards, following crackdowns in China, specifically in areas where miners were taking advantage of low energy costs.

The Iridium Market Report and Price Outlook

We provided our client with an independent evaluation of a PGM producer’s investment options, looking at its reserve base, life-of-mine, regional economics/advantages, ore economics, potential value creation, competitive factors and capital requirements. SFA undertook an investigation of potential business growth opportunities to meet a client’s aggressive PGM production target. Challenge your limits as we strive to deliver our clients’ goals, navigating today’s energy transition to net zero.