The reality of mining and sustainability
New mining projects take years to finance, permit and build, and they face ever tighter environmental and social requirements.
This lag, set against surging demand, heightens exposure to chokepoints in extraction and refining. Overdepfinishence on a tiny number of countries for critical inputs elevates geopolitical, regulatory and community-related risks that can quickly translate into equipment shortages and cost escalation for data centres.
At the same time, sustainability liabilities are intensifying. Mining contributes an estimated 4-7% of global greenhoapply gas emissions and is a significant driver of deforestation. Gold mining accounts for 41.7% of total mining-driven deforestation, followed by coal at 26.3%.
While the shift away from coal reduces some impacts, pressure is rising in regions extracting minerals for clean energy and digital supply chains.
Regional depfinishence and environmental costs
Supply is struggling to keep pace as projects contfinish with financing hurdles, permitting complexity and heightened community expectations.
Mineral depletion is increasing globally but is highly concentrated in specific geographies.
In resource-rich countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Mali, extraction dominates the economy but depletion levels are high, raising the risk of a resource trap if short-term gains give way to long-term sustainability and structural vulnerabilities.
Domestic environmental costs, from land degradation to air pollution and acidification, can be severe. Rwanda, for example, demonstrates a high ratio of environmental damage to economic gain driven by informal tantalum mining and low local value retention.
These dynamics underscore the importance of responsible sourcing and transparent value chains for data centre developers seeking to meet ESG commitments.
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