“Mining is a crucial industry — from iron and copper to gravel and sand, we depend on it for the basic building blocks of the modern world. It is a fast changing sector, as the clean energy transition and digitalization boost demand for materials such as cobalt and lithium and curb the need for others, such as fossil fuels. Yet we know surprisingly little about what’s going on in the sector globally and how mining affects the environment and communities near mines.
“Much of what we do know isn’t good. Climate change isn’t the only problem associated with coal mining, for example1. In Indonesia, the world’s biggest coal exporter, rainforests are being cleared for coal mines and these mines pose safety risks — since 2011, more than 40 people, mostly children, have drowned in poorly managed coal pits2,3. The demand for materials, and the rush for lithium in particular — which is used in batteries for electric vehicles — is raising concerns that the global appetite for energy is coming at too great a cost. In 2022, in Serbia, for example, massive protests over fears of habitat destruction and toxic-waste spills led to licences being revoked for a proposed lithium mine.
“Because no mine is immune from risk or controversy, independent research is essential to decipher the extent of its risks and impacts and to build trust with the public. However, enormous data gaps prevent this. There’s no comprehensive inventory of the world’s hundreds of thousands of mine sites and exploration zones. Publicly available data on mine production, waste, pollution and consumption of water and energy are widely lacking. A large share of global mineral production might be illegal — for example, more than 80% of gold mined in Colombia and Venezuela comes from illegal operations, according to the United Nations Environment Programme4.
“These gaps leave researchers with a fragmented view of the industry and hamper their ability to track decarbonization strategies and inform policies and decision-making.
“Whether it is coal for business-as-usual, lithium for batteries, cobalt for smartphones or neodymium for wind turbines, all future pathways require mining, and at a cost. We can’t manage what we can’t measure, and so it’s time to address the ‘known unknowns’ of the mining sector. Here, we propose four key steps…”
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