Gold miners are under intensifying scrutiny over their environmental and social footprints as progress in cutting emissions was overshadowed by worsening sustainability risks in 2024.
The findings of the latest Gold ESG Focus 2025 review highlight a sector struggling to reconcile profitability with the global shift toward climate accountability and responsible resource use.
The report’s message is blunt: ESG performance is no longer a reputational add-on but a determinant of who secures financing, project permits, and social license.
Investors are increasingly benchmarking miners against frameworks like the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Global Reporting Initiative, and weak performance is translating into financial and political risks.
Carbon reductions but intensity climbs
For the first time in a decade, aggregate scope 1 and 2 emissions among leading producers fell below 30,000 kilotons of carbon dioxide equivalent, a 2 percent year-on-year drop. This reflects efficiency drives such as ventilation-on-demand systems, mine electrification, and greater use of renewables.
Yet the picture is less rosy when viewed per ounce of gold. Emissions intensity rose 3 percent in 2024 as lower ore grades forced miners to process more rock for the same yield.
This dynamic of absolute cuts but worsening intensity illustrates why gold mining is considered a “hard-to-abate” sector in global climate policy. Even as miners electrify fleets and decarbonize grids, declining ore quality means each ounce is increasingly carbon and energy-heavy.
The dilemma makes the industry’s net-zero commitments harder to achieve without the use of disruptive technologies such as hydrogen-powered trucks or low-carbon processing.
Energy lags, water risks sharpen in stressed regions
Energy use remained uneven. Average intensity stabilized at 9.3 gigajoules per ounce, but this was still nearly one-third higher than a decade ago.
Renewables only supplied 10 percent of sector electricity—far below levels in industries like steel or power utilities. Rollouts in the US and Australia showed glimpses of progress, but most African and Latin American projects remain tethered to fossil-heavy grids.
Meanwhile, water use fell slightly in absolute terms, but intensity rose as recycling slipped from 72 to 70 percent.
The uneven results matter because many mines operate in arid regions or near farming communities. Disputes over water have already delayed or derailed projects from Chile to West Africa, and the report warns that miners who fail to improve efficiency risk escalating conflicts with host communities.
Waste climbs as grades fall
While waste rock and tailings surged in 2024, pushing waste intensity to its highest level in a decade, another lateral issue driving up emissions intensity emerged: declining ore grades.
With more earth moved for less gold, the environmental footprint widens even when overall production holds steady.
Furthermore, the constant use of cyanide means community trust remains fragile after past related disasters.
Some miners have turned to circular-economy initiatives, such as recycling textiles, plastics, or scrap metals to improve optics, but the scale pales in comparison to the millions of tons of mine waste generated annually.
Biodiversity and land pressure
Mining’s land footprint declined modestly last year but remains far above 2015 levels.
More alarming is the rise in threatened species near mining sites, up 16 percent to 628. This trend is colliding with a surge in “nature-positive” regulations worldwide.
The EU, for instance, is moving toward mandatory biodiversity disclosures, and insurers are beginning to price ecosystem risks into coverage.
China’s rising footprint
The inclusion of Zijin Mining Group (OTC Pink:ZIJMF,HKEX:2899,SHA:601899) and Shandong (SHA:600547) among the world’s top 15 producers signals China’s growing sway in the global ESG debate.
Zijin’s emissions were the highest of any single company, while its waste rock output—nearly a billion tons—was double Barrick Mining’s (TSX:ABX,NYSE:B), one of the world’s largest mining firms.
At the same time, it reported some of the largest community payments and socio-economic investments, suggesting a state-driven emphasis on balancing extractive impact with local benefits.
Shandong, by contrast, reported lower totals but high intensity figures and weaker disclosure. For Western investors, this lack of comparability complicates ESG assessments.
A reckoning point
The Gold ESG Focus 2025 review depicts an industry struggling to hold gains on emissions while backsliding on its sustainability goals.
With financing, permits, and public trust increasingly tied to ESG performance, miners face mounting pressure to show results beyond targets.
In 2025 and beyond, the report emphasizes that gold’s future will be defined as much by how responsibly it is mined as by how much of it is produced.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
