A report highlighting increased VC and other early-stage funding flows into mining’s global innovation ecosystem over the past five years indicates it won’t be enough to fuel meaningful growth in the nascent mining technology and services bases of Global South mining heavyweights such as Zambia, Indonesia and Chile.
Expansion of critical minerals production – including copper, nickel and cobalt – in these countries could bring broader “picks-and-shovels” mining boom economic and social benefits. Clean, green technologies and high-value services being the key opportunities of the new age with actual mining machinery manufacturing likely to stay anchored in the northern hemisphere.
US-based Cleantech Group and Quadrature Climate Foundation (QCF), headquartered in London, have examined the potential for domestic “rock warehouse” innovation hubs to help fill what they see as critical gaps in the innovation landscapes of mineral-rich Global South countries such as Indonesia, South Africa and Zambia.
Technology can be a key enabler of “responsible production” of the nickel, lithium and copper the world needs. Broader participation in the so-called innovation ecosystem, at the local level, can help “accelerate the supply of critical minerals in a just and equitable manner”.
However, research by Cleantech and QCF suggested significant public and maybe philanthropic interventions could be needed to change the status quo in mining and metals technology development and commercialisation, in particular.
