All Things Sustainable (formerly ESG Insider)

How mining giant balances energy transition, nature and sustainability priorities

Apr 25, 2025

Emily Olson, Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer at Vale Base Metals, discusses the critical role of minerals in the low-carbon energy transition. She emphasizes balancing mineral production with community engagement and environmental stewardship. Olson shares insights on sustainable mining practices and the necessity of robust supply chains. Additionally, she highlights the company's efforts to work with Indigenous peoples and tackle climate risks while integrating innovative solutions in waste management. It's a compelling look at the future of mining in a sustainable world.

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INSIGHT

Sustainability At Core Of Mining

Mining integrates sustainability at all operational levels due to its significant impact on land and communities.
Social license to operate and creating shared value is essential from the start for mining companies.

ANECDOTE

Engagement With Indigenous Peoples

Vale Base Metals engages deeply with First Nations in Canada via impact benefit agreements.
They focus on equitable benefit distribution and long-term relationships based on seven generations thinking.

INSIGHT

Embedding Biodiversity Management

Biodiversity management is embedded from the start in mining sites, including flora and fauna surveys.
Valorization includes reforestation and notable improvements in water quality around operations.

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Building out the infrastructure needed for the low-carbon energy transition will require a substantial increase in the production of critical minerals and metals such as copper, nickel, zinc and lithium. These minerals are needed for many different technologies including electric vehicles and battery storage, clean hydrogen, geothermal, wind, solar and electricity networks.

In this episode of the All Things Sustainable podcast, we'll hear how one of the biggest producers of critical minerals, Vale Base Metals, is approaching this increased demand. And we'll explore how the company thinks about balancing those demands with other sustainability issues including community engagement, biodiversity, waste management, and physical climate risks.

We sit down with Vale Base Metals Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer Emily Olson on the sidelines of S&P Global’s CERAWeek energy conference. Vale Base Metals is a subsidiary of mining company Vale SA with operations in Canada, the UK, Brazil, Japan and Indonesia.

Emily says Vale Base Metals factors sustainability into its operations from the start. “You cannot be a miner without having sustainability in all of its elements integrated into how you run your operations," she says. “It's a big operation — we impact the land, we impact communities. And so for us, your social license and how you are willing to create that mutual and shared value, that's the first stop.”

Emily also discusses how the company is navigating current market uncertainty from tariffs and the potential impacts on the company’s supply chains. “Policy aside, mining needs dependable supply chains,” she says. “We are a long life, long lead business. Having dependable diversified supply chains is really important.”

Read S&P Global Sustainable1 research: Rocks and hard places: The ecosystem risks of mining for energy transition minerals

Learn more about the S&P Global Sustainable1 Nature & Biodiversity Risk dataset.

This piece was published by S&P Global Sustainable1, a part of S&P Global.

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