Mineral Supply for Sustainable Development Requires Resource Governance
Publisher: Nature
Author(s): Saleem H. Ali, Damien Giurco, Nicholas Arndt, Edmund Nickless, Graham Brown, Alecos Demetriades, Ray Durrheim, Maria Amélia Enriquez, Judith Kinnaird, Anna Littleboy, Lawrence D. Meinert, Roland Oberhänsli, Janet Salem, Richard Schodde, et al
Date: 2017
Topics: Extractive Resources, Governance
Successful delivery of the United Nations sustainable development goals and implementation of the Paris Agreement requires technologies that utilize a wide range of minerals in vast quantities. Metal recycling and technological change will contribute to sustaining supply, but mining must continue and grow for the foreseeable future to ensure that such minerals remain available to industry. New links are needed between existing institutional frameworks to oversee responsible sourcing of minerals, trajectories for mineral exploration, environmental practices, and consumer awareness of the effects of consumption. Here we present, through analysis of a comprehensive set of data and demand forecasts, an interdisciplinary perspective on how best to ensure ecologically viable continuity of global mineral supply over the coming decades.