The key to nature-positive mining

As the global mining sector races to meet the demand for energy transition minerals, companies are facing the dual challenge of delivering more critical materials to power the green economy – like lithium, copper, and nickel – while reducing their environmental impact.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that mineral production needs to increase fourfold to meet the goal of the Paris Agreement, making transparent, data-driven biodiversity management essential. With over half of the world’s GDP (US$44 trillion) being dependent on nature, COP15 was a pivotal moment for the biodiversity agenda, with large-scale global biodiversity targets set via the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and the launch of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) recommendations. The mining industry, led by initiatives like the ‘nature-positive’ principles by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), is also shifting from avoidance of harm towards ecological recovery.

With four of the top five global business risks over the next decade being environmental, nature preservation is not only an ethical responsibility, but also a financial imperative. Mining corporations have already started using nature technology tools to determine where to locate new mines, how to establish habitat corridors, and identify which species groups require the most conservation support. In addition, some of the leading mining companies have developed their own biodiversity protocols and internal strategies to align efforts towards the nature-positive goals and global biodiversity targets they have committed to.

A regulatory shift

Beyond sector-specific commitments like ICMM’s nature-positive principles, the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) or Copper Mark standards, global frameworks – such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), or Science Based Targets for Nature (SBTN) – are redefining how companies plan, assess, and report on their activities. These regulations increasingly require specific information beyond species lists and demand insights into how ecosystems function, how habitats are connected, and how resilient landscapes are.

For mining companies, this means building credible, science-based assessments throughout the lifecycle of a project – including monitoring remediation success at all stages of the mitigation hierarchy in line with IFC Performance Standard 6 and global best practice. Early mapping of biodiversity risk before investment enables ecosystem mitigation efforts and nature-positive initiatives to be more targeted, transparent, and effective over time. Examples of such risk mitigation include: the detection of endemic and IUCN red listed species for conservation, identifying invasive species populations, mapping critical habitats and Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) for conservation and restoration.

Embedding habitat data across the mining lifecycle

High-quality, scalable habitat data is becoming an important asset for mining companies as it enables a landscape-level view of ecosystem integrity throughout the life cycle of the site. This is especially important given that 17% of battery metal mining operations are already within a kilometre of key biodiversity areas.

Companies such as NatureMetrics are working to develop innovative tools to address these challenges, which are particularly interesting for the mining sector. Their environmental DNA (eDNA) technology provides a base layer of insight by detecting traces of genetic material that organisms leave behind in their environment, such as in water (marine or freshwater), soil, sediment, and even air. Using a process called metabarcoding, these samples are sequenced and compared to reference libraries to identify which species are present. Another proprietary tool, Habitat Insights, powered by geospatial earth observation, analyses landscape characteristics such as land cover, vegetation health, and habitat connectivity, and provides broad-scale ecological assessment without requiring ground access.

The integration of these technologies creates a logical workflow throughout the mining lifecycle. Habitat Insights allows companies to conduct initial landscape assessments, identifying high-risk biodiversity areas and prioritising low-impact corridors before any ground disturbance occurs. Groundtruthing with eDNA can be conducted by exploration geologists rapidly and easily to ground-truth and screen a site for important fauna. The data obtained using eDNA can help not only to inform the development of effective biodiversity action plans or management plans (BMP’s, BAP’s) and contribute to National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plans (NBSAP’s), but also to monitor biotic and ecosystem trends over time (with objective, accurate, and comparable data – unaffected by sampler skill or staff turnover), while minimising health and safety risks.

At the Woodsmith polyhalite project in the UK, for example, Anglo-American partnered with NatureMetrics to deploy eDNA monitoring as part of its efforts to better understand local biodiversity and inform sustainable site development. The sampling revealed over 500 aquatic insect species and 522 invertebrate taxa, with approximately 60% of them identified at the species level.

Following this project, a 2022 Anglo American Shipping partnership with NatureMetrics in Saldanha Bay, South Africa, set out to assess biodiversity impacts from mine to port using eDNA sampling. The project detected over 3400 species, including six vulnerable species, several invasive species, and potentially harmful species within the ship’s ballast water. The insights generated through these projects provide an important and sensitive baseline measure of biodiversity and ecosystems and will help shape and inform companies’ biodiversity decision-making.

Future-proofing mining initiatives

As the sector strives to meet the needs of the energy transition, it must also address the risks posed by biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. Overcoming these challenges requires not just compliance with new standards but leadership in integrating nature monitoring into the core decision-making processes. Mining companies need to show a willingness to go above and beyond mere regulatory or compliance standards and to set the bar for international best practice, while fostering a community of practice, sharing learnings and data outside of silo’s – thus allowing broader landscape-level approaches to more efficiently monitor ecosystems.

By embedding tools like eDNA and Habitat Insights in exploration, operational and restoration activities, early on in an assets life cycle, the industry can make smarter, faster decisions to avoid harm, reduce environmental and reputational risk, avoid costly delays and unlock nature-positive outcomes. These technologies are facilitating a shift from reactive impact mitigation to proactive, nature-first action, informing decision-making across governance, risk, and regulatory disclosure processes.

Biodiversity efforts are often the first cut in tough times, but this risks long-term project resilience. Investing in credible biodiversity measurement is not simply a nice-to-have – it is a strategic necessity to future-proof projects against climate-related and regulatory risks.

Nature-positive mining is not just a vision for the future. It is a business-critical strategy that is imperative for success, which starts with understanding and investing in the ecosystems and habitats surrounding every operation.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/environment-sustainability/31072025/the-key-to-nature-positive-mining/