Investors look for green ways to cash in on battery metals boom – by Kenza Bryan and Harry Dempsey (Financial Post/Financial Times – January 9, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

Tainted by decades of environmental disasters, shattered communities and ravenous water consumption, mining companies — including those that dig up battery metals — are not traditional darlings of the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) crowd.

Veteran mining executive Sir Mick Davis — who led the resources company Xstrata PLC until its merger with Glencore PLC in 2013 — knows this all too well. Now running Vision Blue Resources Ltd., a fund focused on clean-energy-related mineral and metal companies, he’s looking to ride a new wave in the sector as it seeks to up its game on sustainability while meeting huge demand for battery metals.

For decades, Davis said miners had sought a “social licence to operate” by cultivating relationships with communities and governments. Now, he said, they need to address customer and investor concerns about responsible practices in order to obtain a “social licence to market.”

Davis’s words reflect a wider shift in the resources sector, as investors seek to profit from demand for commodities used in the clean-tech sector, while minimizing exposure to environmental or human rights problems.

For the rest of this article: https://financialpost.com/investing/investors-look-green-ways-cash-battery-metals-boom