Letter from Latin America: Mining companies change ESG tune after banner year

From Brazil to Chile to Peru, investing in ESG rises as commodity prices slip.

This column is for Callaway Climate Insights subscribers only, but it’s OK to share once in a while. Was it shared with you? Please subscribe.

The Samarco Mineração S.A. iron ore operation is a joint venture between Vale and BHP. Following a dam collapse in 2015, partial operation has been resumed in what BHP says is “a different, more sustainable way.”

(Michael Molinski is a senior economist at Trendline Economics. He’s worked for Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Wells Fargo, and previously as a foreign correspondent and editor for Bloomberg News and MarketWatch.) 

LIMA, Peru (Callaway Climate Insights) — From iron-ore mines in Brazil and lithium mines in Chile, to copper in Peru, Latin American mining companies are taking their profits from a banner year in 2022 and reinvesting it in ESG and anticarbon efforts, mining executives say.

Mining companies are one of the world’s biggest polluters, spewing carbon into the air and using up gallons of water in an effort to extract minerals from the ground. With metals and minerals all shooting up to record highs in 2022, ESG expenditures took a back seat as many miners concentrated on getting as much production as possible.  

But with commodities taking a bit of a dip in 2023, mining companies appear to be again taking their profits from last year and investing it in ESG.