Tag Archives: Anglo American

First Mode opens new Seattle factory, boosts hybrid electric vehicle retrofit capacity

First Mode has hosted the grand opening of its factory in the SoDo district of Seattle, significantly boosting its capability to manufacture hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) retrofit kits for the mining sector.

Washington State Governor, Jay Inslee, and Zero Emission Transportation Association Executive Director, Albert Gore, among other key government, industry and union leaders, were there for the offical ribbon cutting, reflecting on the company’s work to decarbonise heavy industry.

The 40,000 sq.ft (3,716 sq.m) factory is now one of the largest clean tech manufacturing facilities in the city, according to First Mode, which is majority owned by Anglo American. Each year, it will produce the components and systems for up to 150 First Mode HEV retrofits. In addition, it is equipped to not only double its annual HEV throughput but rapidly pivot to full battery and hydrogen fuel cell EV retrofits as customer demand also grows for the company’s zero-emissions products, First Mode said.

The $22-million factory will employ up to 30 staff locally and cultivate impact around the world by helping to reduce the emissions of heavy industry, a hard-to-abate sector that is responsible for a quarter of carbon emissions globally, First Mode says.

“In mining, for example, a typical ultra-class haul truck – about the size of a three-story building – burns about one million litres of diesel fuel per year, producing around 2,700 t of carbon dioxide annually,” the company explained. “Across our customer market, over 13,000 haul trucks are in global operation, releasing 35 million t of carbon dioxide annually – the equivalent of nearly eight million gas-fueled passenger cars each year, slightly more than the number of cars in Washington state (USA).”

With no changes to infrastructure required, First Mode’s HEV retrofit keeps the truck’s existing assets intact – safeguarding the mining company’s previous investment in the truck while reducing its fuel usage and carbon emissions by up to 25%.

“But what fully differentiates First Mode’s HEV from the rest is its flexible, interoperable design that readies the truck for the final step on its path to zero emissions,” the company said. “Specifically, the design “feeds forward” into either First Mode’s full battery or next-generation hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle drivetrains, both of which are diesel-free.”

With an annual expected throughput of up to 150 HEV units, the First Mode factory is poised to generate the equivalent environmental impact of taking 90,000 passenger cars off the road each year.

First Mode CEO, Julian Soles, said: “With our factory, the clean energy future for heavy industry begins here in Seattle. [This is] because greener economies require greener minerals, and greener minerals require greener mines.”

DIG CT to bring MinEx CRC’s RoXplorer coiled tubing drilling tech to the market

MinEx CRC says has struck a commercialisation deal with DIG CT, a niche Australia-based drilling company set to bring MinEx CRC’s RoXplorer® coiled tubing (CT) drilling technology to market.

The CT drilling platform enables mineral exploration companies to significantly improve their environmental footprint and productivity by meeting the challenges of exploring in deep cover frontier provinces, barely touched in decades of previous exploration, according to MinEx CRC.

Developed in collaboration with industry partners Anglo American, BHP, Epiroc, LKAB Wassara, South32 and the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia (MRIWA), the CT platform can drill through unconsolidated cover and hard-rock formations to depths of 500 m, delivering safety, efficiency, productivity and high-quality sampling with minimal infrastructure and streamlined operating processes.

“The key feature of RoXplorer CT drill rig is the patented mast design and over-the-hole positioning of the coil reel,” MinEx CRC CEO, Andrew Bailey, said.

“This enables increased coil life, seamless transition between CT and conventional top-drive drilling, rapid loading and unloading of tooling and drill string incorporated on the rig for ease of set up, pack down and transport.”

DIG CT Founder and Director, and Global Drilling Specialist, Craig Lavrick, said: “I’m proud to have been involved with the CT rig platform’s development since its inception, for over a decade. I consider coil tubing technology a ‘game changer’ and necessary next generation equipment to elevate exploration drilling to a safer, greener and more productive industry.”

Since August 2021, the CT platform has safely completed over 14,000 m of drilling in collaboration with Geological Survey of South Australia, Geological Survey of Western Australia, Geoscience Australia, Anglo American and EnviroCopper. Drilling trials demonstrate the system’s success and application to real-world, deep cover exploration scenarios while providing cost, productivity, safety and environmental benefits when compared with conventional drilling platforms.

The commercialisation deal between MinEx CRC and DIG CT will see the RoXplorer CT drilling platform offered as a drilling service for hire, with one initial drill rig in operation, with the intent to grow the fleet as mineral explorers recognise the value and utility of the novel CT technology, MinEx CRC says.

In February 2023 MinEx CRC announced a manufacturing deal with rig manufacturer, Schramm – now a subsidiary of the Epiroc group – who are ready to build the new fleet of CT drill rigs as demand increases, according to the organisation.

Anglo American and Finnish Minerals Group look to progress Finland’s battery strategy

Anglo American and Finnish Minerals Group have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to work together to explore opportunities to, they say, further support Finland’s battery strategy.

Finnish Minerals Group is a holding and development company that manages the Finnish Government’s mining industry shareholdings and supports the development of the Finnish battery value chain. Among other assets, it holds the Terrafame nickel heap leach mine.

Alison Atkinson, Projects & Development Director at Anglo American, said: “Finland is a highly attractive investment destination and has a strong heritage in both mining and innovation. We look forward to working with Finnish Minerals Group, whose mission is to responsibly maximise the value of Finnish minerals, to explore the wealth of opportunities that our agreement could offer.

“This agreement further strengthens our commitment to Finland as well as to our Sakatti project, a true polymetallic orebody very much aligned to Finland’s and the EU’s critical minerals priorities. Sakatti is designed as the next generation of FutureSmart Mining™, building on what we have learned in terms of minimal surface footprint and using technology and innovation to deliver ever better environmental and social outcomes, whilst producing essential raw materials needed to transition to a greener, low carbon energy future.”

Atkinson said last year during a sustainability performance update that Sakatti was set to be “a remotely operated, low carbon-underground mine with an electric mining fleet using technology and mining methods that will create zero waste and enable high degrees of water recycling, contributing to a sustainable supply of critical minerals”. The company also sees the potential to use sorting technologies for coarse particle rejection and material recovery opportunities at the project.

Jani Kiuru, Senior Vice President, Raw Materials at Finnish Minerals Group, said: “Exploring joint opportunities with Anglo American is a natural choice for us as they already know the Finnish operational environment. In addition, the company has a long history in mining and is a forerunner in sustainability. We believe this collaboration reinforces both parties by combining local and global knowhow in sustainability and technological development, thus maximising the value of Finnish minerals responsibly. We see there is a mutual understanding on the vast possibilities and importance of Finnish minerals for the green transition.”

As a Finnish state-owned company with a mandate to foster the Finnish mining and battery industry, Finnish Minerals Group is a natural potential partner for Anglo American in Finland, Anglo American says. The company’s main assets are: Terrafame, a subsidiary that produces nickel and cobalt sulphates; project Sokli, a phosphate and rare earths deposit; and a 20% interest in Keliber, a battery-grade lithium project aiming to start production in 2025. Additionally, Finnish Minerals Group is advancing several greenfield investments further downstream in the battery value chain.

Anglo American partners with GEM on resource-efficient battery material use R&D

Anglo American has launched a research and development project in collaboration with GEM, one of China’s largest battery and battery material recyclers, to explore new and more efficient technologies for the use of existing and alternative raw materials to be used in batteries for electric vehicles (EVs).

Paul Ward, Executive Head of Base Metals Marketing for Anglo American, said: “Our diversified portfolio includes a range of products critical to the long-term decarbonisation of transport – a sector estimated to account for over 15% of global emissions. We are collaborating with leaders in the sector to explore new technologies that build on the physical qualities of our portfolio of products to help tackle some of the key challenges facing the industry and contribute to the
sustainable scale-up of EV travel.

“Our work in this space is part of our commitment to supply our customers with products tailored to their specific needs and that capitalise on the opportunities offered by ongoing technological innovation.”

The project will focus on jointly developing metal dissolving technologies, using metals such as nickel, cobalt and manganese, to facilitate a more efficient use of battery materials, from either mined or recycled routes, with the intention of improving existing processes as well as exploring the use of new materials not currently employed in the battery value chain.

China is the world’s largest EV market, with an expected eight million vehicles sold in 2023. GEM is a leading global battery material producer, with pioneering technology and capability to recycle batteries through the extraction of the minerals they contain, Anglo American says.

Professor Xu Kaihua, founder and Chairman of GEM, said: “We have over two decades of experience in recycling batteries and electronics and have invested heavily in understanding the processes needed to recover raw materials essential for the energy transition. This collaboration marks an important step for us, as we seek to drive synergies with industry leaders such as Anglo American that participate in the critical raw materials value chain and share our commitment to advancing technological development to shape a more sustainable future for the transport sector.”

BHP, Anglo American, Antofagasta, Codelco, Collahuasi team up to tackle cybersecurity

BHP, together with the mining companies Anglo American, Antofagasta Minerals, Codelco and Collahuasi, have launched the Mining Cybersecurity Corporation in an effort to tackle rising cybersecurity risks in Chile.

More than 4 billion cyber-attacks took place in Chile during the first half of 2023, positioning it as the fifth country in Latin America with the most incidents, according to BHP. The unprecedented technological progress in recent years brings important benefits, but also involves several cybersecurity risks.

Studies indicates that, by 2025, cyber attacks will cost companies approximately $10.5 billion.

Aware of the risks to the industry, these companies have come together in what BHP says is an unprecedented initiative led by Corporación Alta Ley and supported by the Chilean Ministry of Mining. The aim of the partnership is to generate and share cyber-intelligence information for early warning and response, and to promote a culture of cybersecurity in mining operations.

Ezequiel Fagetti, Cybersecurity Manager BHP Minerals Americas, said: “As BHP we are enthusiastic about this initiative and, therefore, we want to contribute with our experience in the protection of assets and systems. Cybersecurity is vital for the proper functioning of the different production systems and, ultimately, for us to continue contributing to the country. If we strengthen this aspect, we strengthen the mining industry as a whole, its value chain, and safeguard the benefits for everyone.”

Rolls-Royce truck engine repower project lowers emissions at Los Bronces

Rolls-Royce Solutions and its Chile-based distributor Detroit Chile S.A. have helped lower emissions associated with Anglo American’s Los Bronces haulage operation thanks to a strategic engine repowering project on its 30-strong fleet of Komatsu 930E haul trucks.

The project for Los Bronces, a copper mine in Chile, originated with the mining company looking to comply with incoming emission guidelines for mine operations, as well as Anglo American’s own plans to make operations increasingly sustainable over the long term.

For the fleet at the Chile mine, the company was looking at engines to repower the trucks that would meet the emissions targets without compromising performance. Together with Detroit Chile S.A., the company found what it was looking for in the mtu Series 16V 4000 C05, which, in addition to significant emission savings, also offered other benefits for operations in the South American mine, Rolls-Royce says.

This project kicked off back in January 2018, with all 30 trucks in the fleet having now been equipped with mtu engines. An operating time of around 24,000 hours was calculated for each engine and, up to today, this fleet has surpassed 720,000 cumulative operating hours.

“Another and undoubtedly the biggest benefit of this repower project is the cleaner operation of these engines, or the tremendous reduction of emissions,” Rolls-Royce says. “To comply with local emissions regulations, the previous engines required to add a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system to meet Tier 4 emissions. This includes additional maintenance and extra failure points that impact truck operation, the use of Diesel Exhaust Fluid and the potential for the catalyst to become contaminated at any time through regular operation of the truck, requiring replacement of the catalyst.

“Since the mtu engine meets Tier 4 emissions without the SCR system, this results in less downtime, less maintenance and lower operating costs.”

With the mtu Series 16V 4000 C05 engines, Anglo American is cutting CO2, particulate matter and nitrogen oxide emissions, according to Rolls-Royce. These engines comply with US EPA Tier 4 regulations, they consume less fuel than Tier 2 engines and still deliver the same power as previous engines.

Since the start of the repower project in January 2018, around 9,960 t of CO2, 91 t of particulate matter and over 3,000 t of nitrogen oxide have been eliminated, according to Rolls-Royce. As a result, the mining haul trucks meet local emission targets and bring Anglo Americans operations at the Los Bronces mine closer to the goal of net zero.

mtu Series 2000 and 4000 Tier 4 emission reduction technologies include a common rail injection platform, advanced electronics, two-stage turbocharging and exhaust gas recirculation

Rolls-Royce said: “An important factor in the decision for our solutions was the holistic approach: together with Detroit Chile S.A., we were able to provide engines, repower kits and ongoing comprehensive service that gets the most out of the mtu engine.

“The first of the trucks recently achieved over 24,000 hours of operating time, in mid-2023, and is still operating as expected. This proves the project is a strong, sustainable milestone not only for Anglo American, but also for other mining companies.

“The future has already begun and together, we are providing a cleaner future for the world.”

Thiess re-enters the Northern Territory with GEMCO manganese contract

Thiess has been awarded a three-year contract with GEMCO, a manganese operation on Groote Eylandt, Northern Territory, owned jointly by South32 and Anglo American.

The mining services contract, valued at approximately A$120 million ($79 million), marks Thiess’s re-entry into the Northern Territory.

Thiess says it is committed to efficient and safe mining operations, sustainability, and local community engagement and employment.

Thiess Group Executive Chair and CEO, Michael Wright, said: “This award demonstrates Thiess’ commitment to delivering sustainable mining solutions for our clients, strongly supporting the further development of the local community. For Thiess, the continued diversification into different commodities needed for the energy transition is a key part of our strategy, with manganese playing a crucial role in steel production and having the potential to replace cobalt cathodes in lithium-ion batteries.”

The three-year deal, with the potential for a two-year extension, encompasses a range of services critical to GEMCO’s manganese operation. Thiess will supply, operate and maintain the equipment for the pre-strip mining operations, as well as undertaking the design and construction of support infrastructure, including workshops and related mobile maintenance facilities.

Thiess Group Executive Australia West, David Greig, said: “This contract win represents a significant milestone for Thiess as we re-enter the Northern Territory.

“This contract award is a testament to the collaborative efforts of our Australia East and West regional teams, showcasing the strength and synergy within Thiess. It reflects our ability to leverage expertise from across our company to deliver exceptional outcomes for our clients.”

This contract win follows the scope awarded to FleetCo earlier this year, which included the provision and major servicing of excavators, trucks and ancillary equipment.

FAM ship loader keeps copper ore moving at Anglo American Quellaveco

FAM, a member of the BEUMER Group, is helping Anglo American keep copper ore moving continuously at the Quellaveco mine in Peru, with a closed-loop ship loading system.

One of the world’s largest and best-known deposits with estimated reserves of 1,100 Mt of copper ore, Quellaveco is located near the port city of Ilo – just under 37 km northeast of Moquegua in southern Peru.

Jointly developed by Anglo American and Mitsubishi Corporation, the goal is to mine 1.1 Mt/y of copper. The mine hit commercial production in September last year.

To ship this amount of raw material to target countries, Peru is investing heavily in the country’s infrastructure – for example, in a new port terminal located just under 20 km south of the city of Ilo, BEUMER Group says. The terminal is operated by the energy company, ENGIE. In search of a suitable partner to supply the ship loading system, the project managers selected FAM Minerals & Mining GmbH, a Germany-based manufacturer of conveyor systems. Since the summer of 2022, FAM has been wholly owned by the BEUMER Group, headquartered in Beckum, Germany.

The Quellaveco open-pit mine relies on a high level of automation to protect workers and minimise dust pollution. The copper ore is transported via a conveyor belt to the truck loading station. Sensors signal when a truck arrives for transport. The gate opens automatically and closes again behind the truck. An extraction system is activated to prevent dust from escaping during loading. Once the raw material has been loaded and hermetically sealed on the truck, the gate opens again. Now the truck continues to a tyre wash facility. “The facility is automatically activated via sensors – until the tyres are 100% clean,” Martín Cabrera, Port Project Manager at Anglo American, said.

No dust formation is to be expected when the copper ore is received, stored and shipped. To be on the safe side, however, the plant operator has installed systems that can capture the particles. “These efficient systems work similarly to large vacuum cleaners,” Karen Huaraca, Anglo American’s Environmental Officer, explains. “They filter the dust and then release the clean air into the environment.”

All the information collected by the sensors is sent to the operations centre in real time, enabling the plant to be controlled automatically. This facility is about 90 km from Quellaveco.

The trucks transport the raw materials to the port. There, the copper ore is stored in a warehouse, which has a capacity of more than 80,000 t. A conveyor system conveys the material from the mainland and transfers it to the new SL1320.51/30 ship loader. The loader has a swivelling superstructure. At the end of the boom is the loading device with a belt conveyor. The material slides down a telescopic tube into the cargo hold. This means there are no major environmental emissions during loading. The telescopic tube can be swivelled hydraulically to reach every corner of the cargo hold. The ship loader has a conveying capacity of around 1,320 t/h.

FAM successfully commissioned the system at the end of 2022. The supplier also handled the installation of all the mechanical components, as well as the electrical and control engineering, project planning, production, transportation and consulting.

FAM Project Leader, Alexander Kammerer, said: “This project was challenging in many ways. We had to deal with both high seismic loads and COVID-19 pandemic delays. But thanks to the support of our colleagues from FAM América Latina Maquinarias Limitada in Chile, we succeeded in implementing the project within the given parameters.”

Sakatti-FutureSmart Mining

Anglo American highlights next FutureSmart Mining advances at Woodsmith, Sakatti

Anglo American has provided its latest sustainability performance update, highlighting a number of technological advancements the company is looking to take at its in-development Woodsmith polyhalite mine in the UK and its exploration asset, Sakatti, in Finland.

Anglo American says it has an integrated approach to sustainability in project development, helping secure its ability to deliver responsible long-term growth in future-enabling metals and minerals.

The company is moving towards its goal of carbon neutral operations by 2040, evolving its pathways as it progresses, learns and as technologies develop.

At the end of 2022, its Scope 1 and 2 emissions were 21% below the peak levels of 2019 – a significant reduction that, Anglo American says, reflects its transition to 100% renewable electricity supply across its South America operations, with Australia to follow in 2025.

In southern Africa, it is working in partnership with EDF Renewables to build a 3-5 GW renewable energy ecosystem of wind and solar generation capacity, designed to tackle its largest remaining source of Scope 2 emissions and support energy reliability and grid resilience while catalysing broad socio-economic opportunities.

While Scope 3 emissions reduction is largely dependent on the decarbonisation of Anglo American’s value chains and the steel industry, in particular, it is progressing towards its ambition to halve these emissions by 2040.

Tom McCulley, CEO of Anglo American’s Crop Nutrients business, provided several references to Quellaveco, Anglo American’s most technologically-advanced mine that uses automation, a remote operations centre and high levels of digitalisation, when looking at its FutureSmart Mining™ plans at Woodsmith, a 5 Mt/y operation that could ramp up to 13 Mt/y.

McCulley, who also led development of Quellaveco, said Woodsmith will be developed as a benchmark for sustainable mining. This includes plans for the mine to be a low carbon, low water and low waste operation, with no tailings generation and with a minimum impact design.

“We hope this can show a way of how mining can be done in the future,” McCulley said of this approach at Woodsmith.

When it comes to Sakatti, Alison Atkinson, Projects & Development Director, said the development could end up being “our next greenfield project”.

The project is a rich multi-metal deposit with not only copper, nickel and cobalt resources, but also platinum, palladium, gold and silver.

“High concentrations of metal combined with consistency of the mineralisation between the boreholes make Sakatti a unique deposit,” Anglo American says of the project. Its resources are estimated to be sufficient for mining operations to last more than 20 years.

Atkinson said Sakatti is being designed as the next generation of FutureSmart Mining, building on what it has learned from Quellaveco and Woodsmith, particularly when it comes to ensuring there is minimal surface footprint and “using technology and innovations to deliver even better sustainability outcomes”.

She added: “Sakatti is set to be a remotely operated, low carbon-underground mine with an electric mining fleet using technology and mining methods that will create zero waste and enable high degrees of water recycling, contributing to a sustainable supply of critical minerals.”

The company also sees the potential to use sorting technologies for coarse particle rejection and material recovery opportunities.

Equipping mining with the tools to minimise the biodiversity cost of decarbonisation

As the race to net-zero intensifies, it is increasingly clear that the extractives industry has a crucial role to play supplying the raw minerals needed for decarbonisation. While navigating the balance between accessing new deposits and environmental sustainability is challenging, new methods of biodiversity monitoring offer a potential solution to minimise impacts on nature, Joe Huddart* says.

The race to net-zero is driving the fastest energy transition in history, and with the International Energy Agency (IEA) suggesting we will need to quadruple our mineral inputs by 2040 if we are to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, there has been an emphasis on the need for the extractives industry to ensure they can meet this demand.

However, given that 20% of existing mines tracked by the MSCI ACWI Investable Market Index (IMI) are in biodiversity hotspots, accurately assessing and measuring the impact of existing and future mines on biodiversity and the environment is vital. The Earth’s biodiversity remains our greatest asset, not only acting as “our strongest natural defence against climate change” according to the UN, but also fundamental to our global economy. The World Economic Forum estimates that more than 50% of global GDP “is moderately or highly dependent on nature”.

Therefore, it is critical that risks to biodiversity are central to decision making in all sectors to drive a sustainable future in the race to net zero. Of course, this includes mining. A sector which has historically been seen as a driver of environmental degradation; destroying ecosystems within their immediate footprint while damaging communities and ecosystems beyond their area of influence via pollution and contamination.

However, coupling this expected sector growth with the fact that 20% of global mines tracked by the MSCI ACWI Investable Market Index (IMI) are located in biodiversity hotspots, accurately assessing and measuring the impact of mining operations on their surrounding environments is essential. The Earth’s biodiversity is our greatest asset, not only acting as “our strongest natural defence against climate change” according to the UN, but also fundamental to our global economy.

The World Economic Forum estimates that more than 50% of global GDP “is moderately or highly dependent on nature”. Therefore, it is critical that nature-based considerations are central to decision making in all sectors to drive a sustainable future in the race to net-zero. This includes mining, which has historically been seen as a driver of environmental degradation, while also posing health risks to communities and ecosystems exposed to the pollution it creates.

As biodiversity loss, externalities, material risks and dependencies on nature go mainstream, the importance of protecting biodiversity is reflected in the alphabet soup of frameworks that have been launched in recent years, including the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), Science Based Targets Networks (SBTN) and the recently announced Task-Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD). The latter being a nature equivalent to the earlier Taskforce on Carbon-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) which is now incorporated into legal frameworks in many countries. The common goal of these frameworks and by those who have already adopted them, is to preserve biodiversity and establish the nature-positive practices necessary for a sustainable future. For business, there is a significant first-mover advantage for early adopters, as nature reporting mirrors the journey from voluntary to regulatory and compliance that carbon took. It is not just mining companies adopting these, but also financial institutions; with lenders, from institutional investors to banks, adopting these frameworks as prerequisites to mining customers accessing finance. This is similar to the earlier development banks biodiversity lender requirements, such as the IFC’s PS6 and EBRD’s PR6.

However, these biodiversity frameworks all acknowledge the complexity of reporting on nature impact. Compared with carbon emissions which are measured and widely traded as tonnes of CO2, the similar commodification of biodiversity is far more challenging. Biodiversity, loosely defined as the variety and number of plant and animal species in a given location, varies considerably across ecosystems. Developing standardised metrics that can be used to accurately measure, track, assess and report on biodiversity across ecosystems, from deserts to rainforests, to even coral reefs and the deep ocean, is therefore much more difficult.

While the frameworks provide businesses with a means to understand what they are required to monitor and how to disclose it within a standardised system, how to acquire the raw data needed to fulfil these requirements remains an elephant in the room. This is a shift away from species-specific monitoring of ‘trigger’ species – those that are particularly rare, threatened or indicators of ‘critical habitat’ – towards comprehensive, all-inclusive biodiversity baselining across taxonomic groups, from fungi to mammals, which comes with a range of issues and an expensive price tag.

“We cannot decarbonise without exploring, developing and exploiting existing and new mineral deposits, but we can minimise the impact this will have on biodiversity and nature”

To monitor species at the biological community resolution using conventional, observation-based methods is often prohibitively time-consuming, expensive and invasive or destructive. For instance, it is almost impossible to survey fishes at scale without using nets, which nearly always results in high mortality, with mortality often needed to identify collected specimens to species-level back in the laboratory. Even then, there is a very real chance many species are missed as nets will miss certain habitats and so datasets remain incomplete.

We also need to ask ourselves: if, during the limited time in which ecological teams are in the field, environmental teams can they reasonably be expected to encounter, detect and identify all the fauna and flora present in biological communities? This is challenging in some of the species-poor regions of the world, but near impossible in the richest, the biological hotspots where many mines will need to be located. Then there are the considerable health and safety risks of having such teams in the field for extended periods of time to contend with, too.

The rise of nature intelligence

Thankfully, the last few years has seen the emergence of innovations in ‘nature intelligence’ technology, such as environmental DNA (eDNA), which are equipping companies with the means to measure nature accurately and cost-efficiently on a scale never before seen.

All life on earth – from bacteria to blue whales – leaves tiny traces of DNA in its environment. eDNA technology allows us to sample the environment for these fragments of DNA to reveal a complete picture of the biodiversity of that ecosystem. eDNA surveys allow organisations to survey for and identify at-risk invasive or protected species, alongside wider biological groups, simultaneously. This establishes comprehensive biological baselines from which changes in biodiversity, good and bad, can be detected. This allows companies to link activities to impacts and so better understand biological risks, monitor progress and guide the implementation of effective management actions.

The emergence of innovations in ‘nature intelligence’ technology, such as environmental DNA, is equipping companies with the means to measure nature accurately and cost-efficiently on a scale never before seen

Combining eDNA surveying with other nature intelligence technologies that capture the complexities of nature, such as Earth observation/GIS, bioacoustics and drones, is proving a game-changer. The granular scale at which biodiversity can be repeatedly monitored and assessed is enabling companies to track, understand, report on and, above all, better manage their operations’ relationship with nature.

Moving the dial towards nature-positive in mining

As it ramps up operations while faced with increasingly sophisticated biodiversity regulations, the mining industry is in a difficult position. The Lassonde Curve, the time from discovery to commercial extraction, still takes some 16 years; closing this gap will be vital to meet decarbonisation goals. However, this should not result in the loosening of environmental standards or ‘red tape’ and so come at the expense of already beleaguered biodiversity and the environment. If anything, quite the opposite. In conjunction with nature reporting, the need to speed up mining developments should catalyse the adoption of increasingly sophisticated environmental management by the mining sector through the deployment of nature intelligence to improve the quality and scale of biodiversity data. This will not only demonstrate improved due diligence and ‘going the extra mile’ to produce better environmental impact assessments but enable regulators to make faster decisions.

Many companies, including Anglo American, Sínese and Rio Tinto have already found success using these technologies for different purposes to support their drive to nature-positivity.

For Anglo American, eDNA has transformed their biodiversity monitoring across the project cycle, and they have deployed the technology in 16 projects across 11 countries since 2020.

Warwick Mostert, Biodiversity Principal at Anglo American, believes eDNA monitoring has “huge applicability…[firstly] in the discovery and exploration phase, where knowledge is limited about the potential biodiversity risk in the area…[also] when a mine is in full operation, it will become a key part of the ongoing monitoring and evaluation in terms of biodiversity performance…[and] when we start to get to the point where an operation is coming to closure, it will allow us to make sure the work has been done and we can meet our objective of restoring an environment to better than its pre-mining state”.

The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) has also noted the useful potential of the data that mining companies can generate, saying, “Mining companies can play a huge role in contributing biodiversity and environmental monitoring data in areas where such data has typically been scarce. Technologies like eDNA can also be used to unlock new pathways in democratising the collection of and access to data. More radical participation, transparency, openness and access to data is required to shift us towards a nature positive future. This should be at the core of both developing and implementing any corporate nature positive strategy.”

The mining industry has found itself at the nexus of two existential crises, climate and biodiversity. We cannot decarbonise without exploring, developing and exploiting existing and new mineral deposits, but we can minimise the impact this will have on biodiversity through nature intelligence. This will play a key part at all stages of the mining life cycle, ensuring mines can improve their management of biodiversity and that this can be reported efficiently in the incoming frameworks.

Lastly, we have to remember that mines have a lifetime, and mine closure is a vital yet historically neglected stage in the life of mine cycle. Nature intelligence can assist here to ensure mines are demonstrably rehabilitated and handed back to communities in a decent biological condition that does not constitute an ongoing risk to humans, fauna and flora, but can actually benefit local communities and ecosystems. All biodiversity impacts are environmental impacts and – given our dependency on natural systems and ecological functions – all environmental impacts are ultimately social impacts. Nature intelligence will therefore ensure we embark on a mining trajectory that improves outcomes for both nature and society.

*Joe Huddart is Subject Matter Expert and Freshwater Ecologist at NatureMetrics