Nevada Copper Corp NEVDQ

Global miners rank ESG as their top concern

[new2inv]

https://www.mining.com/web/column-global-miners-rank-esg-as-their-top-concern-really/

Environment, social and governance (ESG) issues are the top concern of global miners, knocking out commodity price risk for the first time, according to a new survey.

SIGN UP FOR THE COPPER DIGEST

SIGN UP

 

 

KPMG said it was a “significant milestone” as ESG for the first time topped the list of industry risks in its 12-year-old Global Mining Outlook.

While commodity price risk dropped to second place, another issue closely related to ESG, namely community relations and social license to operate, came in the third spot.

Rounding out the top five risks were political instability and nationalization at number four, and global trade conflict at number five.

Credit: KPMG

The top five risks for global miners neatly encapsulate the short-term issues as well as the overarching long-term factor of addressing climate change and decarbonization.

The question that executives should be answering is how they are preparing their companies to deal with the longer-term risks.

KPMG points out that addressing the challenges brings opportunities to “invest in innovative ways and adapt at a faster pace.”

The survey, released on Tuesday, shows that 72% of mining executives agree or strongly agree that “ESG will be a cause of major disruption in the industry over the coming three years.”

If mining executives really believe this, it seems somewhat strange that they have to yet to re-organise and re-orientate their management structures and efforts to reflect that view.

Not one of the biggest listed Western mining companies has an executive with the title of chief ESG officer, and only one has a person with a somewhat similar title.

While some of the companies do have executives tasked with ESG, they also tend to have several other responsibilities, which raises the question of how much of their time and effort goes into ESG.