De-Risking Investments in Mining Sector Through Community Engagement and Global Partnerships

The increasing demand for renewable energy presents a paradox. These clean technologies, essential for achieving net-zero targets, relies heavily critical minerals mining. The mining industry is faced with many risks and challenges, primary among them is the financial challenge. Due to lack of long term demand visibility and processing technology, investors hesitate in making big commitments.

At the Sustainable Mining Forum - The Green Imperative organised by Outlook Planet on August 8, Rishabh Jain, Senior Programme Lead, CEEW said investment in exploration of mines faces the risk of uncertainty of their economical viability.

He says, "One of the ways of de-risking the sector is by investing as a country in more and more exploration."

He further adds, "Engaging with the community of the mining site to build trust can reduce delay and chances of cancellation of the projects. Government can play a major role in this," says Jain.

There is also the risk of the changing technology in the renewable energy sector. For example, cobalt use in batteries has reduced significantly and silver use has reduced in solar modules.

On India's clean energy targets, Jain said that 2030 renewable energy target, 2047 Atmanirbhar Bharat target and 2070 net zero target helps in building political certainty among all the political parties. "It is good to have such country-wide targets but the next step should be to build robust manufacturing capacity and going back to strengthening supply chain by focusing on mining minerals."

Sanjiva de Silva, Counsellor Energy & Resources, Australian High Commission said that partnerships between countries offers a solution for the sector. "India and Australia are remarkably well-aligned due to their common interests in developing manufacturing capacity for clean energy minerals," he said while also adding that both the countries are not competitors. "While India is moving up the supply chain of batteries, we are moving downwards," he added.

India and Australia have made a lot of progress on cooperation on critical minerals. Both the countries sealed an ambitious renewable energy partnership, setting their eyes on a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement.