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3 days ago
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A new approach to dealing with the dangers of tailings
Mining is a process that produces vast amounts of material, for which the industry is trying to find a sustainable – and profitable – use. Tailings production is an inherent part of mining and metals processing and will remain so for the foreseeable future. There is also a serious safety concern inherent in the process, with tailings likely to be a dangerous source of toxic chemicals. 'I have seen estimates for global tailings production of around 14.5 billion tonnes a year, all of which must be stored safely for a significant amount of time – if not in perpetuity,' Simon Jowitt, director and state geologist of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, tells Mining Technology. That amount is also unlikely to decrease at any time soon, 'so the continued storage of this […] material, [which] is often challenging to keep safely, remains a major concern for the industry'. Tailings can contain significant amounts of metals that either were ignored the first time around because of low demand for the metal at the time of mining (or a lack of consideration of potential extraction), or because of poor recovery. 'There are several efforts globally to characterise both legacy tailings (post-mining) and tailings at currently active mines for the extraction of critical and other metals. We are currently doing some of this work in Nevada, and I have also been involved in work assessing the potential of tailings and other mining waste for tellurium and other metal production,' Jowitt adds. There are other potential uses for tailings from certain mineral deposits, such as carbon dioxide sequestration. Emma Gagen, director, International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), tells Mining Technology that if not managed responsibly, "tailings pose environmental and societal risks'. However, companies' robust implementation of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management across sites 'can help to support continual improvement in the safe, responsible and transparent management of tailings'. She adds that reducing tailings is an 'ambitious challenge that requires an integrated approach across most parts of the mining process'. The ICMM published a Tailings Reduction Roadmap in 2022 to provide strategic direction to the mining and metals industry on how to accelerate the development and adoption of some of the most promising technologies to reduce tailings – including approaches such as reusing existing tailings for new purposes and products. This helps to reduce the volume being stored whilst creating additional value. Moving beyond minerals and metals recovery, there are other opportunities to minimise the waste associated with tailings and turning them into something of real commercial use. In mid-May, a sustainable mining start-up – OreSand, led by Professor Daniel Franks of the Sustainable Minerals Institute – backed by University of Queensland (UQ) researchers, was recognised by the World Economic Forum (WEF) for advancing tailings management. WEF's Uplink Top Innovators programme named the project has as one of eight global winners that will gain access to networks capable of supporting and scaling it up. OreSand offers mining companies research-backed data to help them drastically reduce waste, as well as produce useful sand byproducts at a time when global demand for the material is surging, according to statement from UQ. 'Most of the minerals we mine are only a tiny fraction of the millions and millions of tonnes of ore we end up producing as a result. Hence, we end up blasting, crushing and grinding an awful lot of material we don't actually need or use,' says Franks. The main commodities that contribute to this large amount of material are coal, copper, gold, iron ore, phosphate and zinc. As the energy transition is metals-intensive, investment in renewable energy, energy storage and electric vehicles will increase demand for critical materials such as copper, cobalt and nickel – which, in turn, will lead to greater production of tailings under current production processes. 'But,' says Franks, 'the really in-demand solid material used by humans is sand, and the amount of gravel, crushed stone and sand being used is close to 50 billion tonnes a year. Sand is now becoming a major global sustainability issue, especially when it is extracted from dynamic ecosystems, such as rivers, lakes and the ocean.' 'What we have tried so far is to reuse and repurpose tailings, and it hasn't worked, for two reasons: tailings are not fit for purpose, and lack the required characteristics of the product; and governments and the general public have been rightly quite wary of using the mining industry's waste,' adds Franks. However, Franks points out that processes have been added over the past five years to extract sand as a byproduct of mining – and produce something called OreSand, a type of manufactured sand that can be used in either construction and other industrial processes. 'Technically, this is not tailings repurposing, this a product made from the ore. This is a process that reduces or avoids waste and should really be viewed as a change in perspective,' he adds. Franks points out that the 'major advantage of OreSand from a construction perspective is that you get the crushing and grinding for free, as this was necessary for the primary metal. This also means of course that the sand is a lower-carbon product'. OreSand can be used as a substitute for construction and industrial sand, and is suitable for applications such as road construction, brickmaking and the manufacture of concrete. OreSand can also be viewed as an integral part of the circular economy as it is a product of the ore itself, not a byproduct of mining waste. Poorly managed tailings can have significant environmental impacts, says Jowitt: all you need to do is look at events at Brumadinho, Bento Rodrigues, Sino-Metals in Zambia, Jagersfontein, and more, even back to 1966 and Aberfan in Wales (when a colliery spoil tip collapsed, killing 144 people). 'True, recent reassessments, developments and improvement in tailings storage facility design have been made (as a result of high-profile failures), but tailings storage facilities are sometimes built in areas where failures could have extreme consequences,' he adds. There is a lot of potential to generate wealth from waste, says Jowitt. The concept of not-for-profit mining is actively being discussed, 'where revenue from (for example) critical metal extraction from tailings is used to remediate problematic mine sites, as well as developing secure domestic critical metal and mineral supply chains'. 'Obviously, there is likely to be profits made as well, but more Good Samaritan-type legislation may be needed to more fully realise this potential,' says Jowitt. A spokesperson from Fortescue, a global metal mining company headquartered in Australia, told Mining Technology that the industry is 'increasingly collaborating on circular economy initiatives, with growing potential to recover residual minerals from stored tailings or repurpose tailings for other projects', while the company remains committed to reducing and recycling waste. "A new approach to dealing with the dangers of tailings" was originally created and published by Mining Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Innovation comes to tailings management
Today, it is impossible to talk of mine tailings – the unfortunate but unavoidable legacy of mining – and not think of the Brumadinho dam disaster in Brazil, which, in 2019, claimed 259 lives. Aidan Davy, co-COO of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) called it a 'stark wake-up call', adding that it 'marked the beginning of a vital journey to make these facilities safer for people and the environment'. That journey should not only focus on strong governance but also the implementation of "good engineering practices" for tailings management across the life cycle, the ICMM noted in its latest updated guidance, published in February. Kim Morrison, an environmental, social and governance consultant with 30 years' experience and former senior director for global tailings management and technical services at Newmont, couldn't agree more. 'Technological approaches and innovative solutions are the best way the industry can achieve impactful and positive change in how it manages tailings,' says Morrison, who was also managing editor of the Tailings Management Handbook: A LifeCycle Approach and is a committee founding chair and fellow of the Society of Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration. Fortunately, in reaction to the Brumadinho tragedy, innovation in tailings is springing up ─ and despite the industry being notoriously cautious about adopting new technologies, pilots are tentatively under way. Anglo American is trialling a patented Hydraulic Dewatered Stacking technology, which it developed with partners including WSP at a 150,000m³ capacity tailings facility at the El Soldado copper mine in Chile. This technology was developed after the company successfully implemented coarse particle recovery (CPR) technology. CPR recovers particles much larger than those traditionally targeted in the mill flotation process, resulting in particle sizes that are easier for tailings engineers to manage. Erick Vlot, global manager for tailings and backfill at engineering solutions provider Weir, says these new processes requires less energy to grind rock, making them an attractive prospect for miners. Weir is working with mineral processing equipment provider Eriez on developing coarse particle flotation systems. Vlot says that Anglo American realised it could use the coarse tailings to make "a float of layers" and then discharge the fine tailings in-between those layers to make more solid and dry, and thus stable, tailings. 'This is why this collaboration is so important,' he adds. 'The finer the tailings, the more problematic it becomes to dewater them. The coarser they are, the easier it is to dewater them, but also there [are] energy savings at the beginning and at the end of the circuit." The process essentially allows Anglo American to reclaim and reuse tailings water in the mining process and create stable, dry land post-mining. The company says early results measured water recovery at more than 80%, and the extensive instrumentation is confirming that the tailings remain unsaturated. Vlot says the technology is now proven, and more and more mining companies are open to using it, including several he is working with in North and South America, and Australia. Historically, filtered tailings applications, which increase the amount of water returned to the plant for reuse, as well as decreasing the amount of water lost to evaporation and seepage, have been under 20,000 tonnes per day (tpd), says Morrison. However, she adds that now the largest filtered tailings plant, at Karara Mining Australia, has capacity of around 35,000tpd. 'Because grades of ore are reducing, the throughput of the processing mills are increasing in order to achieve the same sort of quantities of valuable commodity,' explains Morrison, who will be joining Australia-based consulting engineering company ATC Williams as CTO in July. 'So we need to look at increasing filter capacity and a faster rate.' She cautions, however, that while these methods do produce tailings that have a reduced moisture content and hence should be easier to manage and more stable, they still require proper design, construction, instrumentation and monitoring. She points to a failure late last year of a filter tailing stack at Jaguar Mining's Turmalina mine in Brazil. 'This demonstrates that you can't think that if you filter your tailings, you don't need to do anything further,' she says. Another technological method being explored is commingling. This is where tailings are combined with waste rock to improve both the geotechnical and geochemical behaviour. This is the opposite to a process known as 'stream separations', which involves separating out the coarse fractions and filtering them, while placing the fine fractions inside a pit to reduce metal leaching risk and potentially eliminate requirements for a dam. However, managing two waste streams [strip rock and tailings] separately requires a much larger footprint than combining them, explains Morrison. The GeoStable Tailings Consortium, for which Morrison was previously a chair of the Steering Committee, is focused on developing geotechnical and geochemically stable facilities with commingling. Consortium member the Antamina Mine in Peru, a large copper and zinc operation in the Andes mountains, is currently working to advance GeoStable tailings technology for future expansion. The new focus on improving tailings management, as well as the wider political rush to recover critical minerals, has also spurred start-ups to develop and push alternative solutions. One is Canadian clean-tech company Tersa Earth. It uses patented microbial fuel cell technology, in a self-powering process, to extract metals such as copper, nickel, zinc, cobalt and gold from tailings – and to neutralise acidic water, which can then be reused in the mining process. 'We are, as far as we are aware, one of the only solutions that generates revenue while the company is fulfilling their remediation obligations. Our unit also does not impede on current processes,' says Barinder Rasode, company CEO and co-founder. Tersa Earth, which is currently running a financial raise, won the BHP Global Water Challenge and will trial the technology with BHP over the next 18 months. In addition, CoTec Holdings is developing technology that can concentrate and extract minerals from very fine tailings. The company has 31 iron ore mining claims in Lac Jeannine, Quebec, Canada. Pending positive testing results and permitting, CoTec plans to recover and produce low-cost and low-carbon iron ore pellets from the waste at these sites. 'The end result [at Lac Jeannine] will be a much smaller footprint of the waste and much more beautiful and pure and natural environment, plus the rehabilitation liability will be significantly reduced,' says company president, CEO and director Julian Treger, who was formerly the CEO of Anglo Pacific Group. Treger believes waste presents big, low risk-high reward opportunities. His wider ambition is to have 20–30 projects like Lac Jeannine. BAIE Minerals is also developing novel and proprietary fluid-based technologies for cleaning up abandoned mine tailings and extracting saleable minerals and metals. It plans to pilot the technology at an old asbestos mine in Baie Verte, Newfoundland. Trina Barrett, managing director of regulatory and environmental affairs at BAIE, says the planned path towards commercialisation is largely driven by customer demand for extracted minerals in the large global cement, construction material and fertiliser markets. Once proven, the company hopes to license the technology. Morrison says technology that can extract metals and minerals from waste is very important but faces challenges such as understanding what the resources are, which can be difficult as resource models aren't built for tailings but geology, and how to safely remove those tailings and process them. Similarly, Vlot agrees that some of the emerging early-stage technologies are "quite promising", including those that bioengineer tailings or offer carbon sequestration. 'Technologies that handle tailings and enable them to be cemented when they are deposited are really promising,' Vlot says. However, he cautions that most are in the early stages of development and it could be at least a decade before adoption. 'We should promote [these initiatives] and drive for change,' he adds. This can be challenging for an industry that is characterised as being a 'fast follower' rather than an 'early adopter', characteristically leaning towards caution – or as Treger puts it, "always leaving the waste for another day". Ultimately, adoption of new or improved tech comes down to cost ─ and it is typically more expensive to adopt, at least initially, than existing methods. However, Morrison says they are only more costly if viewed through the lens of "net present value". 'This is extremely flawed because you are managing your tailings in perpetuity, so should be looking at it on a 20–30 year mine-life basis,' she says. The Global Tailings Review estimates that the cost of mine tailings management can be around 15% of mine development, with ongoing operational costs generally less than 5% of the total cost of production. Morrison believes attitude change must start "at the top" by educating mining executives on the financial benefits of investing in advanced tailings technologies that can reduce later liabilities and ongoing management costs. 'We need to, as an industry, highlight more case studies and continue to emphasise the impact tailings have on company reputation and social licence to operate,' adds Morrison. 'A bold and courageous approach to technology is necessary.' "Innovation comes to tailings management" was originally created and published by Mining Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Business Mayor
14-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Minerals for muscle? Why Trump's Ukraine resources deal could be a sign of things to come
An employee works at a pink salt production site on Lake Sasyk-Sivash near Yevpatoria, on September 21, 2023. Stringer | Afp | Getty Images A landmark resources deal between the U.S. and Ukraine is expected to lay the ground for further so-called 'minerals for muscle' agreements. Washington and Kyiv signed a highly anticipated minerals deal earlier this month. The agreement, which has since been ratified by Ukrainian lawmakers, is designed to deepen economic ties, bolster Ukraine's reconstruction and position the country as a supplier of strategically important minerals to the U.S. Long coveted by U.S. President Donald Trump, the partnership followed months of tense negotiations and came more than three years since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ro Dhawan, CEO of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), a trade body representing roughly one-third of the global industry, said the U.S.-Ukraine deal is not the first and certainly won't be the last bilateral agreement where minerals and geopolitics mix so closely. 'I think we're likely to see more outreach to producer countries to make deals which could take the form of what I have previously called 'minerals for muscle.' So, 'give me your minerals and I'll give you security,' or other forms of trade agreement,' Dhawan told CNBC by video call. For instance, ICMM's Dhawan said he could 'absolutely imagine' a deal between the U.S. and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has the world's largest reserves of cobalt, in the near future. Natural resources could also play a pivotal role in the thawing of 'pretty frosty' diplomatic ties between the U.S. and South Africa, Dhawan said, as well as the U.S. and Canada. 'We're at a turning point in the way minerals are a part of the global conversation. We've seen the first act, probably, with Ukraine, and I think there are a few more twists and turns to come in the way that this now starts to take shape,' he added. Critical minerals refer to a subset of materials considered essential to the energy transition. These minerals, which tend to have a high risk of supply chain disruption, include metals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements. Resource nationalism China is the undisputed leader of the critical minerals supply chain, accounting for roughly 60% of the world's production of rare earth minerals and materials. U.S. officials have previously warned that this poses a strategic challenge amid the pivot to low-carbon energy sources. Heidi Crebo-Rediker, a senior fellow in the Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S. think tank, said Washington and Beijing's geopolitical rivalry has put critical minerals at the center of the U.S. national security agenda. Assuming they are commercially recoverable, Crebo-Rediker said Ukraine's vast reserves of critical minerals and rare earth elements could 'provide a future potential secure supply chain of many materials the United States needs.' In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, and President Donald Trump, talk as they attend the funeral of Pope Francis in Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP Timothy Puko, director of commodities at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy, said he was 'a little bit skeptical' about the prospect of a wave of bilateral 'minerals for muscle' agreements. 'There's certainly some truth to it. I think that's what you're seeing in Ukraine. I think that Kinshasa is very clearly trying to pursue that right now, with their cobalt-copper situation and the [Rwandan-backed] M23 rebels,' Puko told CNBC by video call. Aside from Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, however, Puko said he was 'hard-pressed' to foresee any further agreements. Canada, Australia, Indonesia and several mineral-rich Latin America countries would all be unlikely to pursue minerals for muscle-type deals with the U.S., he added. Earth and minerals are loaded onto trucks at an open-pit mine near the frontline, despite the threat of bombing by Russian invading forces on February 26, 2025 in Donetsk Region, Ukraine. Pierre Crom | Getty Images News | Getty Images 'Outside of Ukraine and DRC, and possibly not even DRC, no other country right now really wants to trade away all that midstream business. Resource nationalism is the name of the game right now and the trend is really the opposite,' Puko said. 'There's definitely horse-trading to be done here. It's a huge geopolitical issue. I'm sure it's coming up right now in the ongoing bilateral trade talks but there are huge barriers to replicating what Ukraine is trying to do with a lot of other countries.' Canada needs 'more certainty' on trade Trump's trade tariff policy and repeated calls to make Canada the 51st state has strained diplomatic ties between the neighboring countries and fueled a swell of national pride and anger at the U.S. Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told Trump at the White House earlier this month that his country is 'not for sale' — and 'won't be for sale ever.' Trump replied: 'Never say never.' Heather Exner-Pirot, director of energy, natural resources and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a public policy think tank based in Ottawa, said Canada does not need a minerals for muscle agreement with the U.S. 'What we need is more certainty in our trade relationship. That is the biggest hurdle right now to reshoring mineral production and processing to North America in order to combat Chinese manipulation of global mineral markets,' Exner-Pirot told CNBC via email. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks to the media after a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the Embassy of Canada to the United States in Washington, DC, on May 6, 2025. Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images Canada and the U.S. have developed interdependently over the course of 150 years and through world wars, Exner-Pirot said, noting that the countries are each another's largest suppliers and destinations of mineral exports. What's more, Exner-Pirot said Canada and the U.S. already collaborate in both NATO and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). A binational organization between Canada and the U.S., NORAD is primarily responsible for aerospace control and maritime warning in the defense of North America.
CNBC
14-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Minerals for muscle? Why Trump's Ukraine resources deal could be a sign of things to come
A landmark resources deal between the U.S. and Ukraine is expected to lay the ground for further so-called "minerals for muscle" agreements. Washington and Kyiv signed a highly anticipated minerals deal earlier this month. The agreement, which has since been ratified by Ukrainian lawmakers, is designed to deepen economic ties, bolster Ukraine's reconstruction and position the country as a supplier of strategically important minerals to the U.S. Long coveted by U.S. President Donald Trump, the partnership followed months of tense negotiations and came more than three years since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ro Dhawan, CEO of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), a trade body representing roughly one-third of the global industry, said the U.S.-Ukraine deal is not the first and certainly won't be the last bilateral agreement where minerals and geopolitics mix so closely. "I think we're likely to see more outreach to producer countries to make deals which could take the form of what I have previously called 'minerals for muscle.' So, 'give me your minerals and I'll give you security,' or other forms of trade agreement," Dhawan told CNBC by video call. For instance, ICMM's Dhawan said he could "absolutely imagine" a deal between the U.S. and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has the world's largest reserves of cobalt, in the near future. Natural resources could also play a pivotal role in the thawing of "pretty frosty" diplomatic ties between the U.S. and South Africa, Dhawan said, as well as the U.S. and Canada. "We're at a turning point in the way minerals are a part of the global conversation. We've seen the first act, probably, with Ukraine, and I think there are a few more twists and turns to come in the way that this now starts to take shape," he added. Critical minerals refer to a subset of materials considered essential to the energy transition. These minerals, which tend to have a high risk of supply chain disruption, include metals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements. China is the undisputed leader of the critical minerals supply chain, accounting for roughly 60% of the world's production of rare earth minerals and materials. U.S. officials have previously warned that this poses a strategic challenge amid the pivot to low-carbon energy sources. Heidi Crebo-Rediker, a senior fellow in the Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S. think tank, said Washington and Beijing's geopolitical rivalry has put critical minerals at the center of the U.S. national security agenda. Assuming they are commercially recoverable, Crebo-Rediker said Ukraine's vast reserves of critical minerals and rare earth elements could "provide a future potential secure supply chain of many materials the United States needs." Timothy Puko, director of commodities at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy, said he was "a little bit skeptical" about the prospect of a wave of bilateral "minerals for muscle" agreements. "There's certainly some truth to it. I think that's what you're seeing in Ukraine. I think that Kinshasa is very clearly trying to pursue that right now, with their cobalt-copper situation and the [Rwandan-backed] M23 rebels," Puko told CNBC by video call. Aside from Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, however, Puko said he was "hard-pressed" to foresee any further agreements. Canada, Australia, Indonesia and several mineral-rich Latin America countries would all be unlikely to pursue minerals for muscle-type deals with the U.S., he added. "Outside of Ukraine and DRC, and possibly not even DRC, no other country right now really wants to trade away all that midstream business. Resource nationalism is the name of the game right now and the trend is really the opposite," Puko said. "There's definitely horse-trading to be done here. It's a huge geopolitical issue. I'm sure it's coming up right now in the ongoing bilateral trade talks but there are huge barriers to replicating what Ukraine is trying to do with a lot of other countries." Trump's trade tariff policy and repeated calls to make Canada the 51st state has strained diplomatic ties between the neighboring countries and fueled a swell of national pride and anger at the U.S. Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told Trump at the White House earlier this month that his country is "not for sale" — and "won't be for sale ever." Trump replied: "Never say never." Heather Exner-Pirot, director of energy, natural resources and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a public policy think tank based in Ottawa, said Canada does not need a minerals for muscle agreement with the U.S. "What we need is more certainty in our trade relationship. That is the biggest hurdle right now to reshoring mineral production and processing to North America in order to combat Chinese manipulation of global mineral markets," Exner-Pirot told CNBC via email. Canada and the U.S. have developed interdependently over the course of 150 years and through world wars, Exner-Pirot said, noting that the countries are each another's largest suppliers and destinations of mineral exports. What's more, Exner-Pirot said Canada and the U.S. already collaborate in both NATO and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). A binational organization between Canada and the U.S., NORAD is primarily responsible for aerospace control and maritime warning in the defense of North America.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
At U.N., mining groups tout protections for Indigenous people
Anna V. SmithHigh Country News This story is published through the Indigenous News Alliance, a collaboration between High Country News, Grist, ICT, Mongabay and other Indigenous media outlets. In mid-April, the Trump administration cleared the way for a controversial copper mine proposed for western Arizona. The mine would destroy parts of Chi'chil Biłdagoteel — known as 'Oak Flat' in English — over the objections of the San Carlos Apache Tribe and at least 21 other tribal nations. The administration then fast-tracked the project to fulfill President Donald Trump's goal of more aggressively developing domestic minerals such as copper and gold, which are essential for renewable energy technologies. Nine other mining projects were also fast-tracked, seven of them located in the Western U.S. The mine, which is operated by Resolution Copper, is a joint venture between the Australia-based mining company BHP and Rio Tinto, a British-Australian multinational. Both companies have previously destroyed or threatened Aboriginal cultural sites in Australia, and both belong to the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), a pro-mining organization. (Rio Tinto and BHP did not respond to requests for comment.) The ICMM made an appearance last week at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City, the world's largest annual gathering of Indigenous peoples, to stress their commitment to respecting Indigenous rights and obtaining the consent of Indigenous communities before mining. An estimated 50 percent to 80 percent of the minerals that are critical to the renewable energy transition are located on or near Indigenous lands globally. 'This does not give the industry license to mine at any cost,' said Haajarah Ahmed, senior manager at ICMM, which represents a third of global mining companies, on April 23. Ahmed highlighted ICMM's recently updated guidelines, which advise member companies such as Rio Tinto and BHP to engage with Indigenous people at the beginning of a project and to respect their rights and emphasize 'the importance of reaching an agreement through a process that recognizes free, prior and informed consent.' But the guidelines contrast bleakly with the reality on the ground. In the U.S., current laws and policies remain weak when it comes to tribal nations' efforts to protect their ancestral lands and sacred sites off-reservation, far from international standards regarding how corporations and governments should address Indigenous concerns about projects that affect them. In Canada, the courts have affirmed that the government has a duty to consult Indigenous communities on projects that might adversely impact their treaty rights. Nonetheless, many projects continue to move forward, including developments in Ontario's Ring of Fire region and in Secwépemc territories in British Columbia. Meanwhile, in the U.S., a case challenging the legality of the Resolution Copper mine is pending in the Supreme Court, which will consider whether the destruction of Chi'chil Biłdagoteel would violate Apache religious rights. The decision could impact other tribes' efforts to preserve sacred sites outside their reservation borders. 'The U.S. government is rushing to give away our spiritual home before the courts can even rule — just like it's rushed to erase Native people for generations,' said Wendsler Nosie Sr. of Apache Stronghold, the organization behind the lawsuit, which is made up of Apache and other Indigenous people and their allies. 'This is the same violent pattern we have seen for centuries.' Other mining projects fast-tracked by the administration last week have generated opposition from tribal nations. The Nez Perce Tribe is concerned that the proposed Stibnite Mine in Idaho could harm fishing and hunting rights, and the Fort McDermitt Tribe has long fought a proposed lithium mine on Thacker Pass in Nevada which would be built on a sacred site where U.S. cavalry troops massacred Indigenous people in 1865. All these concerns are matters that the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has said must be addressed. According to a study published in February by the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 'the absence or weakness of legal frameworks that protect the particular rights of Indigenous Peoples in the context of a global energy transition' is a 'major concern.' This lack of legal protection, they wrote, means that the mining companies have the responsibility to obtain the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous people, regardless of legal gaps. A shift in corporate and industry policy towards consent could push governments to adopt consent in their own law and policy, said Kristen Carpenter, a law professor at CU Boulder. 'It's promising to see companies and industry groups adopt FPIC-based policies and guidelines,' said Carpenter, a past appointee to the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which helps governments implement UNDRIP. 'Increasingly it seems that private actors have come to see FPIC as a risk mitigation tool, realizing that working toward agreement with Indigenous Peoples is likely to avoid objections, lawsuits, and protests that arise when projects violate Indigenous Peoples' rights.' While voluntary guidelines advocated for by organizations like the ICMM have the potential to move faster than law and policy, they aren't legally enforceable and can be created, or ignored, by industry, meaning they can't be a stand-alone substitute. 'We do not seek to replace state obligations, but we can help fill accountability gaps when states fall short,' said Scott Sellwood, who represented the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, or IRMA, at the forum. IRMA — which includes nonprofits, organized labor, mining companies and 'affected communities' — also has voluntary mining standards, but its members are audited by a third party and the reports are published publicly to ensure that they are following the standards. 'To do this effectively, voluntary mining standards should at minimum require mines to demonstrate that they have obtained (free, prior, and informed consent) from all affected Indigenous peoples.' This article was first published in High Country News
