While the green energy transition undoubtably presents a myriad of challenges for the producers, consumers and users of critical raw materials and metals worldwide, for those that care to look, there are also opportunities aplenty.  According to the IEA, the market size of key energy transition minerals, driven by rising demand and high prices, has more than doubled over the past five years, reaching US$320 billion in 2022. This upward trend presents new revenue opportunities for the mining and metals industry and its partners, creates jobs for society, and can, in some cases, help to div ..read more

Mining is an industry that has fascinated me right from the start. If you were fortunate enough to walk the mining precinct of downtown Johannesburg in the early 2000s, you were in the midst of the who’s who of global mining.  My first client, Anglo American, was among them, and walking into their offices on Marshall Street, near the city centre, was like entering a different world, an ecosystem of bold ambitions and excellence in execution.  Saar Ben-Attar is the founder of Ascent Growth Partners, a niche consultancy that focuses on strategic innovation and ecosystem-driven growth i ..read more

Communication is a vital piece of the sustainability puzzle in mining, but its potential impact is often underestimated.  The ability to show others, through mediums such as the written word, audio and video, what companies in the mining sector do and how and why they do it, has long been considered peripheral to the business of resource extraction – a tool that investor and public relations (IR and PR) teams use to garner interest for fundraising or enhance a company’s standing in a crowded marketplace. Thus, most communications have been aimed at very select groups of stakeholders.  ..read more

When a large mine approaches the end of its economic life, concerns loom. We know today that responsible closure is essential and considerations ranging from environmental and biodiversity to social, Indigenous community impacts and climate change resilience must be taken into account.  While the closure of a large number of coal mines in support of net zero is expected in the coming years, long operating metal mines are also due to cease. For example, Queensland, Australia, will see the shuttering of the underground Mt Isa copper mines in 2025 after 100 years of operation.  As inves ..read more

“The reality today is that we are all interdependent and have to co-exist on this small planet. Therefore, the only sensible and intelligent way of resolving differences and clashes of interests, whether between individuals or nations, is through dialogue.” ~ Dalai Lama Today, extractive industries supply chains globally are dealing with the same three forces, at differing levels and nuanced by local circumstances: Increasing demand for mined and processed metals and minerals – leading to increasing pressure on the environment as mines go deeper and to more remote locations. Community and nat ..read more

SPONSORED BY UNEARTHED In preparation for this interview, I read up on innovation models used in other industries.  US-based pharmaceuticals company, Eli Lilly, has been pioneering an open approach to innovation for years. Alan D. Palkowitz, its VP of Discovery Chemistry Research and Technologies, describes the company’s Open Innovation Drug Discovery platform as “consisting of multiple superhighways all pointed towards the final destination of discovering novel medicines”. What a great analogy, I thought. There’s been a lot of talk recently about innovation in mining and the use of colla ..read more

With nearly 50% of skilled engineers reaching retirement age in the next decade and many jobs likely to be reshaped by technology over the same period, the mining industry is facing an unprecedented challenge: finding enough skilled people to lead and implement the transformation of the mining sector.  According to data from the Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR), Canada alone will need to hire 80,000 to 120,000 workers by 2030 just to meet demand. The situation in the U.S., Australia and South America paints a similar picture (see figure 1). Figure 1. Source: MIHR, “Interacti ..read more

Panama has seen the latest in a spate of similar protests against mining activities worldwide.  Peru, the second largest copper producer globally, has experienced protests by Indigenous communities in its mining corridor over the past two years. And, in 2022, Serbia cancelled plans to allow Rio Tinto to explore and mine for lithium, another critical element required for electric vehicles and batteries.  Activists in Portugal are protesting lithium projects following the resignation of its Prime Minister, with investigations into a lack of transparency in awarding of approvals and con ..read more

Did you know that the smartphone in your hand, purse or pocket requires around 60 different elements to produce? Maybe you did.  But do you know where those minerals and metals have come from, or what it took to get them out of the ground and into your hand? I didn’t think so. While products containing these materials are all around us – they’re essential to modern life – most have convoluted supply chains which contain multiple manufacturing steps and many different actors. Keeping track of each company’s credentials, and the processes, facilities and materials they use is, at best diffi ..read more

Wherever you are reading this, take a moment to pause and observe the built environment around you. It comprises an extraordinary assortment of minerals and metals.  Whether you’re reading this on a smart phone during your morning commute, or on a computer in your home office, these materials play such an integral part in our lives. From currency to communication, paint to public transport and smart phones to solar panels, the metals of the periodic table are all around.  But do we truly value the minerals and metals that are within our environments? Not in the traditional economic s ..read more