Happy new year! And welcome back to the Intelligent Miner newsletter. Our editorial theme this month is ‘resourced and resourceful’.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines a resource as “a useful or valuable possession or quality of a country, organisation or person”. If we gloss over the word possession (because no company or person can ever truly own a natural resource), and consider which resources mining companies have access to, then the most obvious answer and the one upon which they have traditionally been built is, of course, orebodies.
An integral part of being resourceful (resource-full) involves mineral exploration and the replenishment of an organisation’s reserves and resources as they deplete through extraction. Likewise, resource efficiency measures, such as preconcentration, are no longer ‘nice to have’, they’re a no brainer given the rising cost of production.
But increasingly, miners are expanding their resource remit to consider other materials and assets to which they have access. Tailings are a prime example. Once considered purely a waste stream, the fine-grained residues from mineral processing can contain a surprisingly high volume of metals, as well as water, micas and sand. All of these are valuable to different parties, and, with a little work, some could potentially be spun off into new products. Vale, LKAB and Boliden have interesting projects underway, among others.
Green hydrogen is an interesting one. A number of mining companies, including Fortescue and Anglo American, are developing hydrogen hubs which will not only serve to power, and thus, decarbonise their mining operations, but also create new markets.
What else? In arid regions, such as Chile, where the bulk of global copper production is focused, water is big business. Many mining companies are investing in desalination plants and surplus supplies could be sold to municipal authorities. Carbon is another. BHP is supporting the development of a blue carbon market in Australia. Secondary metal supplies created through recycling and refining, land leasing… the list is endless.
Why bother? Because it not only makes good business sense given the global shift towards a circular economy, but because actions like these can negate many of the negative social and environmental impacts that traditional mining activities carry and pay for the technologies needed to decarbonise existing supply chains.
This month, we’ll explore the expansion from mining companies to resource providers, and look at the way in which resources are valued and treated. Enjoy
Carly
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