Mining under pressure
Need versus opposition
Rio Tinto chairman Dominic Barton has warned the global mining industry is approaching a tipping point in its efforts to convince communities to accept the value of new mines as the world’s energy transition picks up pace.
Speaking at Rio’s London shareholder meeting, Mr Barton said Rio was committed to reducing emissions, and to being a provider of the metals needed to help the global energy transition, such as copper, lithium and aluminium.
But he said mining companies, investors, governments and communities needed to work better together to resolve the “fundamental tension” between the need for new mines and community opposition to their development.
“We have a critical role to play in enabling the energy transition, supplying essential minerals, including copper, lithium, high-grade iron ore and aluminium,” Mr Barton said. “However, within our new purpose, finding better ways to provide the materials the world needs, there also lies a fundamental tension.
“Meeting the needs of both the energy transition and continued global growth raises environmental and societal dilemmas. The big question to work through together is: how do we fulfil our role in the energy transition in a way that is socially and environmentally responsible, and yet sufficiently commercial to attract the investment required?”
Mr Barton said that, despite broad acknowledgment of the need for new sources of minerals critical to the energy transition, opposition to the establishment of new mines continued to be a problem.
“The industry is at an inflection point – we can be a catalyst of the green economy and potentially of transformative social impacts as we get to the unexplored corners of the world through mining, processing and recycling,” he said.
“We have key parts of government and society pushing us to develop and expand mining projects, but at the same time we have some stakeholders pushing back on any mining development.”
While Mr Barton was addressing his remarks in the context of the broader industry, Rio faces a number of major challenges to the development of parts of its portfolio.
The company was last year forced to shelve the development of its vaunted Jadar lithium project in Serbia after community opposition led to the government halting the approval and development.
Rio and partner BHP also face considerable opposition in the US over the Resolution copper project there.
Rio chief executive Jakob Stausholm said the company was not moving quickly enough on cutting its emissions.
“We have not advanced our abatement projects as fast as we would like,” Mr Stausholm said.
Mr Barton hinted the company’s April 19 quarterly production report would show further signs the company was on the road to regain its crown as mining’s best operator.