Critical minerals impact all of us, from electric buses and cars to power distribution and windmills. The demand will only get greater and we must make sure that we conserve, reuse and reduce our impact on the planet and peoples.
Let's unpack this further.
First, critical minerals are not called “critical” because we’re about to run out.
In most cases, there’s actually enough of these minerals in the Earth. The real challenge is where they are.
Critical minerals are not spread evenly around the world. Many of them are concentrated in just a few countries, which means those countries end up controlling a big part of the supply.
That becomes a problem to solve when demand shoots up—as it is now. Electric cars, wind turbines, batteries, power grids… all of them rely on the same materials. If supply is disrupted or produced by a small group of producers, everything slows down.
That includes the global green energy transition.
In this Why We Mine podcast episode, they give rare earths as an example—a group of critical minerals like neodymium and dysprosium, which are essential for electric motors in cars but also in direct drive wind turbines.
Without neodynium and dysprosium, many clean technologies become harder or more expensive to make at scale. These materials are difficult to substitute with equally effective alternatives today, and recycling rates are still very low.
Second, mining these minerals has real impacts on people and nature.
Mining has great impact on land, pollute water, and harm local ecosystems. These effects are often felt most strongly by the communities living closest to mining sites.
There can also be social challenges, such as worker safety, community disruption, and questions around how fairly the benefits of mining are shared. That said, the need for supply chain transparency and responsible sourcing and mining practices with clear principles has never been more important.
Increased collaboration is needed in the critical minerals value chain to ensure responsible production occurs from extraction to recycling.
Building on our learnings from the Sodexo Community of Practice, we are working with Teck, a leading Canadian resource company, to bring key actors across the value chain together to explore opportunities for collaboration.
One element that inspired our collaboration with Teck was the North Pacific Green Corridor. A pioneering example of catalysing collaboration in the value chain.
This was developed out of a need for collaboration to support the decarbonisation of transportation, clean energy security and supply chain resilience between North America and Asia.
The consortium unites stakeholders across the value chain, including commodity producers, transport providers (rail, intermodal, marine), clean technology providers, and more.
The members are CN Rail, Mitsubishi Power Canada, Ltd. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, NYK Bulk & Projects Carriers, Oldendorff Carriers GmbH & Co. KG, Prince Rupert Port Authority, Teck Resources Limited (Teck), Trigon Pacific Terminals Limited and the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.
We are now actively exploring where we can scale this approach. I love the idea of nature corridors and protecting the places where we are situated or move through.
Do critical minerals impact your work at all? Are you working with an organisation that is adjacent or connected to critical minerals? Talking about these themes openly and publicly is great way to co-create influence and momentum towards solving these challenges.
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