Making Mining Cool Again

As a metals and  mining banker and sector enthusiast, I constantly find myself discussing (oftentimes explaining) what I do for a living to nonsector-related humans. Almost as frequently, I encounter significant misinformation around not only the relevance of metals in our day to day, but how critical they are to our future.
True, historically, mining has had a bad rep. A natural resource activity that has always been exposed to enhanced environmental and social risks was bound to have exalted scrutiny over the decades. But now with the global detachment to coal (and thus coal mining), and overall focus from stakeholders in the sector around ESG matters, the metals and mining arena has transformed into a true ‘green’ engine. 
Green energy, energy transition, electromobility – all these need the critical green metals that are crucial for the global transformation. EVs won’t dramatically gain market share without a steady production and stable market for lithium; copper is needed for massive development across wind and solar generation, transmission lines and other wiring requirements in the electrical world; nickel, cobalt and manganese are needed for carbon capture and storage. If such materials are extracted, as many are nowadays, in a neutral/positive manner to our world from an environmental and social perspective, then the sector is by far one of the largest contributors to the energy transition by providing de facto the fundamentals we need to reach our sustainable goals. Estimates from the IEA see new investment in CAPEX around US$2 trillion over the next two decades in metals extraction due to rising demand for the transition, a monumental task that needs to be addressed through cooperation among financing parties, developers and governments across the globe.    
And yet, the reputation persists to the untrained eye. We should speak about this more; we can, for example, explain that steel and aluminum are primed to be net negative GHG emissions over the next decade. We should be able to attract more young talent because of this, by explaining that they are part of a broader, crucial element to creating the world of the future. We should be able to obtain similar capital, in quantum and price, than other sectors (like power or infrastructure). Many global investors for instance, who are actively pushing their recently raised “transition funds” still see the metals and mining sector as an asset class too far from home; they shouldn’t. It should be core to the entire ecosystem of the energy transition. To provide some context into the landscape, the largest 10 infrastructure funds globally reached over US$1 trillion in capital raised in 2023, of which a subset is related to “transition” or “clean” – almost none of which explores the debt and equity financing into the metals and mining landscape.
This adds to challenges to bring projects online in a timely manner. As the cost of capital rises and permitting and scrutiny over environmental and social aspects loom, the steady source of production of critical metals continues to seem unattainable. This is both ironic and dangerous. On the one hand, it is ironic that the same scrutiny over these issues does not capture and understand the underlying necessities of the world – and is, in fact, hindering in some instances the very issues it tries to solve; and it’s also dangerous because lagging on the much needed investments will inevitably push our goals further away, making the investments in metals so much more critical and urgent – driving pricing and other market variables in the opposite direction, and making the transition all that more expensive and complex.
It seems to me that much of this is perception. If the sector itself was a brand, a full repositioning would solve this; however, that is not the case, so it is incumbent upon all of us to speak loudly and clearly about this. In a world where going green is not only commonplace, but actually cool, it seems counterintuitive that the responsible extraction of metals hasn’t reached the popularity it deserves. So, here is my little contribution. A small attempt at Making Mining Cool Again!   
Humanity has historically relied on our natural resources for global development and economic growth. Now, we must do so more than ever in a responsible way to allow for the well-being of generations to come. A proper global coordination and planning of our natural resources is the only path forward, as the balancing act of energy security, energy transition and economic value must be cared for and maintained for a successful path to be drawn.
In the aftermath of 2023, a year full of geopolitical uncertainties, a rising rate environment and a boom and bust commodity cycle in certain green metals, I’m hopeful stakeholders worldwide will continue to better understand what the world needs to achieve to move forward, in an environmentally and socially responsible manner, and in this understanding, I’m hopeful more and more metals and mining endeavors will find their standing as a critical conduit for this goal.