IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jrpoli/v85y2023ipbs0301420723007651.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

ESG risks to global platinum supply: A case study of Mogalakwena Mine, South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Cole, Megan J.

Abstract

Global demand for metals is expected to continue to grow significantly to 2050, partly driven by the need for climate change mitigation measures that require energy transition metals including platinum group metals (PGMs). The environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks of mining these metals are seldom acknowledged in energy transition scenarios and pose a risk to future metal supply. Multiple ESG drivers at different scales create direct and indirect pressures and risks to a specific mine site and their interactions across scales create complex system dynamics. Although mining companies identify ESG factors as their biggest risks (and opportunities), interdisciplinary mining research is in its infancy and ESG factors are often oversimplified or overlooked. While global studies are important for providing an overview of the industry, and highlighting trends and patterns, they cannot communicate the complexity found at the local scale. This paper describes ESG risks, opportunities, and impacts across nine dimensions (water, energy, biodiversity, waste, air quality, community, social vulnerability, land use, and governance) for Anglo American Platinum’s Mogalakwena PGM mine in South Africa. It provides insight into a developing country African context and an in-depth view of the complex ESG risks around PGM mining in South Africa. Given South Africa hosts 91% of global PGM resources, understanding and addressing these ESG risks is critical for ensuring long-term PGM supply and enabling a just energy transition.

Suggested Citation

  • Cole, Megan J., 2023. "ESG risks to global platinum supply: A case study of Mogalakwena Mine, South Africa," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:85:y:2023:i:pb:s0301420723007651
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2023.104054
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420723007651
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resourpol.2023.104054?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Owen, J.R. & Kemp, D. & Marais, L., 2021. "The cost of mining benefits: Localising the resource curse hypothesis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    2. Gibson, Clark C. & Ostrom, Elinor & Ahn, T. K., 2000. "The concept of scale and the human dimensions of global change: a survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 217-239, February.
    3. Éléonore Lèbre & Martin Stringer & Kamila Svobodova & John R. Owen & Deanna Kemp & Claire Côte & Andrea Arratia-Solar & Rick K. Valenta, 2020. "The social and environmental complexities of extracting energy transition metals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-8, December.
    4. Elshkaki, Ayman & Shen, Lei, 2019. "Energy-material nexus: The impacts of national and international energy scenarios on critical metals use in China up to 2050 and their global implications," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 903-917.
    5. Gavin Capps, 2012. "Victim of its own success? The platinum mining industry and the apartheid mineral property system in South Africa's political transition," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(131), pages 63-84, January.
    6. Michael Noble & Helen Barnes & Gemma Wright & Benjamin Roberts, 2010. "Small Area Indices of Multiple Deprivation in South Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 95(2), pages 281-297, January.
    7. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    8. Nicholas Bainton & Deanna Kemp & Eleonore Lèbre & John R. Owen & Greg Marston, 2021. "The energy‐extractives nexus and the just transition," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(4), pages 624-634, July.
    9. John R. Owen & Deanna Kemp & Alex M. Lechner & Jill Harris & Ruilian Zhang & Éléonore Lèbre, 2023. "Author Correction: Energy transition minerals and their intersection with land-connected peoples," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 6(8), pages 1024-1024, August.
    10. Davide Castelvecchi, 2022. "How the hydrogen revolution can help save the planet — and how it can’t," Nature, Nature, vol. 611(7936), pages 440-443, November.
    11. Lèbre, Éléonore & Owen, John R. & Kemp, Deanna & Valenta, Rick K., 2022. "Complex orebodies and future global metal supply: An introduction," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    12. John R. Owen & Deanna Kemp & Alex M. Lechner & Jill Harris & Ruilian Zhang & Éléonore Lèbre, 2023. "Energy transition minerals and their intersection with land-connected peoples," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 6(2), pages 203-211, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lèbre, Éléonore & Owen, John R. & Kemp, Deanna & Valenta, Rick K., 2022. "Complex orebodies and future global metal supply: An introduction," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Månberger André, 2023. "Critical Raw Material Supply Matters and the Potential of the Circular Economy to Contribute to Security," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Sciendo, vol. 58(2), pages 74-78, March.
    3. Lee V. White & Bradley Riley & Sally Wilson & Francis Markham & Lily O’Neill & Michael Klerck & Vanessa Napaltjari Davis, 2024. "Geographies of regulatory disparity underlying Australia’s energy transition," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 92-105, January.
    4. Elshkaki, Ayman, 2023. "The implications of material and energy efficiencies for the climate change mitigation potential of global energy transition scenarios," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    5. Cheng, Yingchao & Watari, Takuma & Seccatore, Jacopo & Nakajima, Kenichi & Nansai, Keisuke & Takaoka, Masaki, 2023. "A review of gold production, mercury consumption, and emission in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM)," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    6. Paulina Schiappacasse & Bernhard Müller & Le Thuy Linh, 2019. "Towards Responsible Aggregate Mining in Vietnam," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, August.
    7. Pina Puntillo, 2023. "Circular economy business models: Towards achieving sustainable development goals in the waste management sector—Empirical evidence and theoretical implications," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 941-954, March.
    8. Robert Costanza & Shuang Liu, 2014. "Ecosystem Services and Environmental Governance: Comparing China and the U.S," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(1), pages 160-170, January.
    9. Grillitsch, Markus & Asheim, Björn & Fünfschilling, Lea & Kelmenson, Sophie & Lowe, Nichola & Lundquist, Karl Johan & Mahmoud, Yahia & Martynovich, Mikhail & Mattson, Pauline & Miörner, Johan & Nilsso, 2023. "Rescaling: An Analytical Lense to Study Economic and Industrial Shifts," Papers in Innovation Studies 2023/11, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    10. R. Ebrahimi & S. Choobchian & H. Farhadian & I. Goli & E. Farmandeh & H. Azadi, 2022. "Investigating the effect of vocational education and training on rural women’s empowerment," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    11. Bárbara Galleli & Elder Semprebon & Joyce Aparecida Ramos dos Santos & Noah Emanuel Brito Teles & Mateus Santos de Freitas-Martins & Raquel Teodoro da Silva Onevetch, 2021. "Institutional Pressures, Sustainable Development Goals and COVID-19: How Are Organisations Engaging?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, November.
    12. Sagarika Dey & Priyanka Devi, 2019. "Impact of TVET on Labour Market Outcomes and Women’s Empowerment in Rural Areas: A Case Study from Cachar District, Assam," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 13(3), pages 357-371, December.
    13. Maria Sassi, 2020. "A SEM Approach to the Direct and Indirect Links between WaSH Services and Access to Food in Countries in Protracted Crises: The Case of Western Bahr-el-Ghazal State, South Sudan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-13, November.
    14. Olga Stepanova & Magdalena Romanov, 2021. "Urban Planning as a Strategy to Implement Social Sustainability Policy Goals? The Case of Temporary Housing for Immigrants in Gothenburg, Sweden," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-17, February.
    15. Michel, Hanno, 2020. "From local to global: The role of knowledge, transfer, and capacity building for successful energy transitions," Discussion Papers, Research Group Digital Mobility and Social Differentiation SP III 2020-603, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    16. Hervé Corvellec & Johan Hultman & Anne Jerneck & Susanne Arvidsson & Johan Ekroos & Niklas Wahlberg & Timothy W. Luke, 2021. "Resourcification: A non‐essentialist theory of resources for sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 1249-1256, November.
    17. Wilson Charles Wilson & Maja Slingerland & Frederick P. Baijukya & Hannah Zanten & Simon Oosting & Ken E. Giller, 2021. "Integrating the soybean-maize-chicken value chains to attain nutritious diets in Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(6), pages 1595-1612, December.
    18. Jones, Lindsey & d'Errico, Marco, 2019. "Whose resilience matters? Like-for-like comparison of objective and subjective evaluations of resilience," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-1.
    19. Bin Xue & Bingsheng Liu & Tao Liang & Dong Zhao & Tao Wang & Xingbin Chen, 2022. "A heterogeneous decision criteria system evaluating sustainable infrastructure development: From the lens of multidisciplinary stakeholder engagement," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 556-579, August.
    20. Sudheesh Ramapurath Chemmencheri, 2016. "Social Protection as a Human Right in South Asia," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 10(2), pages 236-252, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:85:y:2023:i:pb:s0301420723007651. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30467 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.