Production of critical minerals and metals: Empirical investigation of sustainability aspects

Abstract: The threat of global climate change has brought on the need for a transition towards renewable energy sources and electrification, thereby creating a significantly increased demand for energy minerals and metals. Despite being on a path towards an energy system with net-zero emissions, the European Union (EU) is currently highly dependent on the import of these minerals and metals from outside of the Union. In addition to constituting a supply risk, the sourcing of energy minerals and metals form outside of the EU also leads to the displacement of the impacts that mining has on the environment, society, and the economy in places where pre -existing environmental and social vulnerabilities often enhance these damages. This study sets out to explore how the mining industry of the EU could contribute to the sustainable supply of energy minerals and metals,considering the current state of the industry and the interactions of different associated environmental, social, and economic sustainability aspects on different spatial scales. It is empirically explored from the perspective of the potential mining of battery minerals and metals in Sweden. Media articles on the subject are reviewed and stakeholders of such a potential mining sector are interviewed. Both sets of data are analysed using the frameworks of systems theory and environmental justice, as well as theories on the resistance to and acceptance of mining. The analyses of the empirical findings suggest that there are some unavoidable trade-offs associated with mining, where the global need to mine is put against local concerns. It is concluded that while there is potential for the EU mining sector to produce energy minerals and metals more sustainably than is currently the case, some environmental, social, and economic damages cannot be avoided. To enable the energy transition, there is a need to make trade-offs between different aspects of sustainability. However, there is a lack of guidelines for how these trade-offs, which often involve more than one spatial scale, should be made.Ultimately, the sustainability contributions of a EU energy mineral and metals mining sector is dependent on how sustainable mining is defined and which spatial boundaries are applied. To deal with the limitations of the sustainability concept, it is proposed that the question is also approached from a perspective of justice.