Sustainable mining of critical minerals and metals around the world: bottlenecks and opportunities

Production of critical minerals has grown enormously over the past decade with no sign of slowing down. On the contrary, as the demand for renewable energy continues to grow, so does the demand for critical raw materials essential for clean energy technologies. Nevertheless, their supply may be at risk due to geological scarcity, geopolitical issues, trade policies, environmental and social impacts, and other factors that affect different parts of the world to varying degrees.

The questions arising are many: Is mining critical minerals and metals sustainable? If not, how can we make it sustainable? Many techniques for creating sustainable critical minerals and metals supply still need to be invented. We need to bridge the gap between disciplines and create new synergies to secure a sustainable future supply of these commodities, now more than ever, as demand surges.

Hence, a collection of papers was summoned in this special issue to investigate sustainability in mining critical commodities worldwide. The opportunities and challenges facing the feasible supply of several raw materials are discussed, and strategic approaches are proposed for the upcoming global energy transition.

The first paper, Critical minerals for green energy transition: A United States perspective, by David Hammond and Thomas Brady [1], examines the green energy transition objectives in the U.S. from a sceptical perspective. The U.S. mining industry seems to be in the shadow of its intimate past, and the ambitious decarbonisation targets announced by politicians and climate stakeholders are doubted by many. The authors present a detailed review of the domestic mining industry while mentioning the main bottlenecks that govern the sector and block the provision of critical raw materials.

The second paper, The long uphill journey of Australia’s rare earth element industry: challenges and opportunities, by George Barakos, Laurence Dyer and Michael Hitch [2], focuses on the feasible production of rare earth elements (REE) in Australia and discusses the progress of the domestic REE industry through the significant challenges that jeopardise the viability of the sector. The authors are using SWOT and Risk Analyses to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the Australian rare earth industry, and determine potential opportunities and threats, given the considerable investments to be made in the country to construct two new REE processing plants.

The third paper, EU – Africa Strategic Corridors and critical raw materials: two-way approach to regional development and security of supply, by Claudia Branzelli, Gian Andrea Blengini, Sergio Oliete Josa and Carlo Lavalle [3], deals with the situation in Europe and its multi-layered governance structure combined with its push for securing the supply of critical raw materials. In the context of Europe’s strategy to find intercontinental partners, the authors draw a number of EU-Africa strategic corridors that will use mineral resources as a catalyst to create and strengthen value chains and territorial organisation among partners. The scope of the paper is to understand how such approaches can improve access to critical commodities and mitigate the risk of supply disruptions for the European Union.

The fourth and final paper of this special issue, Excursus into the certification of mineral raw materials – Development and implementation of a sustainability standard, by Lukas Förster and Helmut Mischo [4], investigates the sustainable production and supply of critical raw materials in the same geographic areas (Africa and Europe) from a different perspective. The authors provide insights into implementing sustainability in the critical raw materials sector through a newly developed certification scheme (CERA 4in1). This work introduces a certification performance standard through its implementation in a pilot project in the Democratic Republic of Congo to certify cobalt production. The authors describe how applying such a certification system can bring value and improvement to the global mining industry and foster the sustainable production of critical commodities.

Overall, the articles included in this issue cover essential topics related to the sustainable mining of critical raw materials in different parts of the world, demonstrating diversity in boundary conditions, challenges, and opportunities. I sincerely hope that this special issue demonstrates the status and potential of critical raw materials mining and will increase stakeholders’ and public awareness of the importance of establishing sustainable production chains worldwide, especially towards the transition to renewable energy sources.

To conclude, I express my sincere gratitude to the authors and reviewers contributing to this Special Issue of the Journal. With their input, it was easier to ensure the papers’ quality. Lastly, I would also like to thank the Editor-in-Chief of IJMRE, Professor Erkan Topal, for the opportunity he offered me and for his continuous and valuable support in bringing out this Special Issue.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).