Mining and metals advocacy group the ICMM warns that water availability could, in many regions, act as a constraint on the development of new mines and related facilities, particularly for the production of metals and minerals, such as platinum group metals, chromium, manganese, aluminium and steel, that are key to the energy transition.
In its 'Global Mining and Metals Water Dataset' report, published on July 22, the ICMM states that competition for finite water resources is not a future concern, but a present operational reality and a structural constraint on the expansion of the mining and metals sector, as well as the pace of the energy transition itself.
“Our research shows that water is already a material issue for the mining and metals sector. If water risk exposure is not better understood and managed across the wider economy, we risk sleepwalking into a major constraint on the energy transition. This is why leading mining companies including ICMM members have embedded water stewardship principles and practices, to manage water in ways that are socially equitable, environmentally sustainable and economically beneficial,” ICMM data and research director Dr Emma Gagen says.
She adds that this report, which draws on the ICMM's Global Mining Dataset of 12 000 facilities and which was produced in partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature and the the World Resources Institute (WRI), provides the first comprehensive, cross-commodity global assessment of how the mining and metals sector is exposed to water risk.
