Holistic, Literature-Informed Critical Mineral Life Cycle Assessment Guidelines: An Essential Foundation for the Energy Transition.

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate that life cycle assessment (LCA) is a valuable tool for evaluating the trade-offs between critical mineral acquisition and its resulting environmental impacts, but the applications of LCA to critical mineral mining are inconsistent and limited. These inconsistencies inhibit effective comparison of mines' effects and decision-making in support of environmentally responsible mineral supply chains. To illustrate these limitations, we analyzed how 74 peer-reviewed and gray literature critical mineral mining LCAs applied the four phases of LCA. To further assess how these LCAs account for environmental impacts, we created a data set of critical mining impacts reported in the EJ Atlas. Based on this thorough assessment, we propose a series of guidelines for each LCA phase for application to critical mineral mining. These recommendations provide an opportunity to standardize critical mineral mining LCAs and enable better comparison to inform decision-making and mining policy development.