Resource accessibility for humans in the future is a complex concept and therefore needs to be adequately understood and reflected. The general equations for characterisation Life Cycle Impact Assessment models developed by the SUPRIM project represent a new state-of-art and are the most reliable of their kind thanks to the unique mix of expertise existing within the project consortium.

The proposed SUPRIM method responds to the European Commission’s call to develop a life-cycle based impact assessment method for resource use based on dissipation concepts for use in its Product Environment Footprint and Organisation Environment Footprint methodologies.

Euromines welcomes a European Green Deal to put Europe on the right track to a sustainable future and is prepared to take the necessary measures to make it the world's first climate neutral continent. At the same time, we believe that policy efforts should be aligned with the fundamental principle of sustainable development, ensure the essential current needs and safeguard the needs of future generations while contributing to economic, social and environmental development. Primary production of metals and minerals, which remain abundant, will play an important role in production processes to 2050 and increased sustainable supply from European sources will be needed in order to make a sustainable transition. The mining sector is well regulated and unavoidably diverse because each operation is developing a unique natural phenomenon. Inclusion of extractive industries in the IED is unlikely to bring additional protection of human health and the environment because the least impacting techniques and technologies are already required by mining and quarrying authorities in the EU Member States.

Originally, Life Cycle Assessment used estimates of total crustal content to calculate how many years’ worth of natural resource existed. Later, practitioners began limiting existing stocks to those identified by the United States Geological Survey in its annual Commodity Summaries. (See, for example the EU's Product Environmental Footprint resources). Because of the nature of the equations used, LCA results are highly sensitive to these differences in assumed total stock of abiotic resources. There is increasing international consensus that this aspect of Life Cycle Impact Assessment is truly broken and in need of an entire re-think.

More recently, several researchers have suggested that metal production has peaked, that resources will be depleted within decades and that declining ore grades can be used to forecast a time when mining will no longer be viable. This has underlined a lack of cross-disciplinary understanding of Mineral Economics.

In a new peer-reviewed publication, "Mineral resources in life cycle impact assessment—defining the path forward", we have come forward with probably the first globally coordinated mining industry contribution to the last twenty years of research into resource assessment in Life Cycle Thinking.

In the paper (which is freely available for download), exploration, geology, and economic experts from the global mining industry provide recommendations to ensure that future research into mineral resource assessment has a sound basis and that practitioners can utilize more appropriate tools for their work.

The paper's findings were recently debated at an International Workshop co-hosted by the Natural History Museum London (follow link for access to all presentations).