40 CIM Magazine V ol 15 No 3 O ver the past y ear BHP Rio Tint o V ale and T eck ha ve pledg ed t o r each netz er o emis sions by 2050 N o w the r a c e is on in Canada and f a rther af ield miners ar e decar bonizing by deploying electric f leet s sour cing gr eener power and developing cleaner str at egies f or smelting and shipping pr oc es ses Going gr een used t o be nic e t o ha ve N o w it s become main str eam with the lik es of mutual fund compan y BlackRock com ing out t o say that en vir onment al social g o vernanc e ESG a c c ount ability f orms a major part of it s decisions on whether t o in vest in mining st ocks said Julian K e t tle vic e pr esident of met als and mining at ener gy consult ancy W ood Mack enzie Decarboniz ation eff ort s by miners thus f ar ha ve been under whelming he said and pr omises lik e Rio Tint o s r e c ent pledg e t o spend US1 billion C AD1 4 billion on gr een initiatives ar e a g ood st art but need t o r amp up quickly a course he not ed that is now complicat ed by the outbr eak of CO VID 1 9 Some path w a ys t o decarboniz ation sit es ar e tried t est ed and cost competitive A t new mines r enew able ener gy sour c ed elec tricity of t en mak es busines s sense given that clean ener gy is by def inition gr eener and can also be cheaper than power sour c e d fr om f o s sil fuels Other decarboniz ation str at egies r equir e fur ther innov a tion and in vestment T he a v ailability and maturity of electric equipment f or surf a c e mining is lag ging behind under gr ound mining and eff ort s t o decarboniz e carbonint ensive pr oc es ses such as st eelmaking and aluminum smelting incr eas ingly seen as partly the mining sect or s r esponsibility ar e in an even mor e g erminal st ag e Scrutin y of carbon emis sions inevit ably beg et s mor e scrutin y and r eveals a further challeng e t o commodity pr oduc ers Scope 3 emis sions or emis sions incurr ed off sit e and further down the chain including shipping smelting and end use of mat erials can be as much as 30 t o 40 times higher than a mine s onsit e oper a tional and power emis sions F or example in 2019 T eck pr oduc ed 290 kilot onnes of carbon emis sions fr om off sit e electricity 2 936 kilot onnes at it s oper ations and 7 3 000 kilot onnes lat e r down the supply chain In other wor d s 96 per c ent of carbon emis sions wer e incurr ed aft e r the mat erials lef t oper ations Sim ilarly in 2018 V ale s scope 3 emis sions wer e r esponsible f or 96 per c ent of the compan y s t o t al emis sions T hese wer e primarily split between shipping ves sels two per c ent and client s 93 9 per c ent As such a gr owing number of in vest ors and con sumers ar e calling on the industry t o expand netz er o pledg es t o include scope 3 emis sions Miners ha ve so f ar omit t ed supply chain emis sions fr om their 2050 commitment s noting that they ar e har d t o measur e and shar ed among a m yriad of companies but at titudes ar e chang ing with major industry as sociations acknowledging the need t o r eport scope 3 and the adv ent of a gr owing number of collab or ations between mining companies and downstr eam cust omers that set out t o bet t er count and t ackle supply chain emis sions Mor eover a mor e holistic and eas y ac counting r egime f or the mining sect or beck ons thanks t o a new carbon ac counting fr amework being developed by a Rock y Mount ain Institut e led coalition Electric dr eams While Canada is home t o man y of the under gr ound mines that ar e deploying bat t ery electric equipment including N e wmont Zer oing in on CO 2 As miners commit to r educing their carbon footprints the scope of that commitment continues to gr ow By Cecilia Keating