Renewable energy production is necessary to halt climate change and reverse associated biodiversity losses. However, generating the required technologies and infrastructure will drive an increase in the production of many metals, creating new mining threats for biodiversity. Here, we map mining areas and assess their spatial coincidence with biodiversity conservation sites and priorities. Mining potentially influences 50 million km 2 of Earth's land surface, with 8% coinciding with Protected Areas, 7% with Key Biodiversity Areas, and 16% with Remaining Wilderness. Most mining areas (82%) target materials needed for renewable energy production, and areas that overlap with Protected Areas and Remaining Wilderness contain a greater density of mines (our indicator of threat severity) compared to the overlapping mining areas that target other materials. Mining threats to biodiversity will increase as more mines target materials for renewable energy production and, without strategic planning, these new threats to biodiversity may surpass those averted by climate change mitigation.
The Proterozoic Mount Isa terrain records the effects of four periods of intraplate tectonism. The
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. 1870 Ma Barramundi Orogeny was characterized by a massive felsic magmatic event, and global correlations suggest a physical link between Australia and Laurentia at this time. Thereafter, the terrain underwent an extensional history spanning 200 Ma involving repeated episodes of rifting, post-rift subsidence and associated depositional and magmatic phases. This protracted rifting history resulted in a cumulative stratigraphic thickness of up to 25 km above attenuated continental crust. Rifting was interrupted prior to the formation of ocean crust by the compressional Isan Orogeny (1590–1500 Ma). The Isan Orogeny was synchronous with low-pressure high-temperature metamorphism and widespread metasomatism. In the waning stages of shortening, the Mount Isa terrain evolved into a wrench system characterized by an extensive network of strike-slip faults. The current level of exposure in this terrain provides spectacular examples of superimposed rifts, basin inversion, and wrench geometries developed at middle to upper crustal levels.
Environmental, social and governance pressures should feature in future scenario planning about the transition to a low carbon future. As low-carbon energy technologies advance, markets are driving demand for energy transition metals. Increased extraction rates will augment the stress placed on people and the environment in extractive locations. To quantify this stress, we develop a set of global composite environmental, social and governance indicators, and examine mining projects across 20 metal commodities to identify the co-occurrence of environmental, social and governance risk factors. Our findings show that 84% of platinum resources and 70% of cobalt resources are located in high-risk contexts. Reflecting heightened demand, major metals like iron and copper are set to disturb more land. Jurisdictions extracting energy transition metals in low-risk contexts are positioned to develop and maintain safeguards against mining-related social and environmental risk factors.
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