Sustainable Mining: The Solutions Stack

Mining significantly contributes to climate change, costing the planet over £2.5 trillion in environmental damages per year. This has fuelled a wave of innovation within sustainable mining, from equipment electrification to the recycling of critical raw materials.

Sustainable mining plays an important role in the renewable energy transition since technologies like wind turbines rely heavily on critical raw materials (CRMs). Electric vehicles, for example, are highly dependent on lithium for batteries, and solar panels require large amounts of copper. The IEA estimates that to reach net zero, the demand for CRMs will more than triple by 2030.

What are Critical Raw Materials (CRMs)?

Critical raw materials (CRM) is a list compiled by the EU of minerals of high importance to the economy but hard to source. These materials form a strong industrial base and are essential in producing everyday goods like smartphones and computers.

Access to CRMs is a growing concern within the EU and across the globe. For example, the EU relies heavily on imports from China, which brings significant geopolitical risks. In other cases, such as with lithium, demand has skyrocketed, causing a shortage in supply.

The Sustainable Mining Solutions Stack

It’s estimated that up to 18% of the EU’s total consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions come from extraction and mining. Our Sustainable Mining Solutions Stack maps companies building solutions all the way from ideation to mass scale. Since 2020, investment in sustainable mining startups has tripled. Our map categorizes companies across the entire supply chain, from sourcing to recycling raw materials.

Mining Waste Management

When minerals are extracted from ore, they produce leftover materials called tailings, which contain a mix of water, fine particles, and residual chemicals. Tailings pose significant risks if not managed properly, as they can contain toxic substances that leach into the environment. Swedish startup GreenIron is addressing this by recycling waste from the steel and mining industries to create pure metals. By using hydrogen instead of fossil fuels, GreenIron’s furnaces can cut CO₂ emissions by up to 56,000 tonnes annually—equivalent to 80,000 round-trip flights between Stockholm and New York.

Precision Mining

Mining operations such as mineral separation, cooling machinery, and dust control can be extremely energy and water-intensive. To make matters worse, at least 16% of the world’s land-based critical mineral mines, deposits, and districts are located in areas already facing high or extremely high levels of water stress. Precision mining reduces energy and water consumption using techniques like bioleaching and Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE). For example, Canadian-based Novamera has developed a surgical mining technology that leverages real-time data, machine learning, and analytics to identify deposits. Novamera’s technology turns conventional drilling equipment into highly accurate “surgical” tools for mining by allowing the extraction of minerals from narrow veins and small deposits — something previously deemed impossible. This approach produces 95% less waste and 44% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional mining.

Electrification of Mining Equipment

It’s estimated that up to 30% of greenhouse gas emissions from mining come from diesel fuel used in mobile equipment like trucks, excavators, and loaders. Diesel-powered machinery can be replaced with renewable power sources to reduce emissions. This act alone could reduce carbon emissions by 85%.

SafeIAI retrofits heavy vehicles with open autonomous technology and AI-powered software to improve the efficiency of mining operations. The company recently teamed up with Siemens to develop zero-emission heavy vehicle fleets — an important step towards more sustainable construction sites.

Alternative Critical Raw Materials

CRMs can be substituted with more abundant materials, such as replacing cobalt with aluminum. Companies like Anovion are developing new materials that can replace CRMs. Anovion manufactures synthetic graphite, which is used to make long-duration batteries charge faster and last longer. This innovation is crucial in enabling the transition to electric vehicles and ensuring consistent supply.

Mining Exploration

Mining exploration involves searching for mineral deposits to determine if they can be economically mined. Success rates are discouragingly low, with estimates suggesting only 1 in 1,000 deposits are commercially viable, causing unnecessary harm through drilling and excavation. To avoid this, companies are using technologies such as geospatial analysis, remote sensing, and 3D geological modeling to enable more precise identification of mineral deposits.

Mining Extraction from Waste

Today, many valuable CRMs go to waste due to a lack of recycling. Startups like Olokun Minerals make sure that doesn’t happen by extracting minerals from used batteries, solar panels, and landfills. Olokun Minerals captures minerals such as sodium, magnesium, and lithium from brine waste streams. Nth Cycle is another company using technology to recover critical minerals. Nth Cycle offers a cleaner alternative to older, more polluting mining processes for refiners, miners, and battery recyclers. This allows them to transform metal scrap, electronic waste, untapped mining resources, and existing mine waste into high-purity critical minerals for new production.

Mining Software

Software tools play a critical role in improving safety while reducing the environmental footprint of mining operations. Today, software systems are used to monitor water usage, reduce emissions, and plan and monitor efforts to preserve local ecosystems. Take remote sensing platform Beholder, for example. Beholder uses AI and machine learning to allow for precise prediction of mineral deposits without physical intrusion. Beholder maps critical minerals for the green energy transition, rare earth elements, and energy resources, providing environmental impact data to inform decision-making.

Conclusion

Mining is the backbone of the  global economy, enabling energy, construction, and manufacturing. Technological innovation plays a key role in developing sustainable mining practices that don’t compromise the environment. While mining, by nature, will never be fully sustainable, technology can support the industry in transitioning to a circular economy. The goal is to meet our needs, both now and in the future, without sacrificing the planet.