PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Australia has signed on to the Sustainable Critical Minerals Coalition, which is an initiative led by Canada to promote sustainable, environmentally and socially responsible mining practices for the critical minerals sector.

Other signatories will include Canada, the UK, France, Germany and the US.

Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Madeleine King said mining and processing of critical minerals was crucial to help the world lower emissions, and it was important those minerals were developed to high environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards.

“Australia is strongly committed to sustainability and the highest ESG standards, and we believe the development of new low-emissions technologies provides a great opportunity to promote those ESG standards across the world,” King said.

“Australia congratulates Canada for taking the initiative, and we are proud to become a foundation member of the Sustainable Critical Minerals Coalition.”

Members of the group commit to voluntarily working to develop and use critical minerals that employ a nature forward approach by collaborating with industry on practices that prevent biodiversity loss, protect species at risk and support nature protection, including driving towards net-positive benefits to the natural environment.

The group has also committed to support local and Indigenous communities by promoting safe working conditions and responsible labour standards, diverse and inclusive workforces, supporting Indigenous and local community benefits, and respecting the rights of local and Indigenous peoples, and to help fight climate change by reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and working towards achieving net-zero emissions by no later than 2050 by promoting net-zero mining practices.

Furthermore, signees also committed to: restore ecosystems by adopting requirements for reclamation and remediation to close and return mine sites to their natural state, holding responsible parties accountable for environmental harm, and build a circular economy by accelerating the reuse and recycling of critical minerals, which may reduce the number of new mines necessary to supply the minerals needed.

The Sustainable Critical Minerals Coalition was launched on the sidelines of the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montréal in December 2022.