article · The Extractive Industries and Society
The mining industry shows varied progress when aligning its operations with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria. Evidence indicates strong performance in environmental areas such as renewable energy adoption and water resource management. On social and governance measures, advancements appear in employment, inclusion, and policy execution, though progress remains moderate in gender equality, local community investment, and broader community engagement. To prevent fragmented outcomes, future efforts up to and beyond 2030 must focus on three core areas: purposefully embedding SDG frameworks directly into routine operations, expanding transparent ESG data reporting to all stakeholders, especially neighbouring communities, and ensuring the firm preservation of culturally and ecologically sensitive environments.
Mining activities carry significant social and environmental impacts. Mapping how the sector implements global sustainability goals allows policymakers and communities to hold operators accountable. Identifying areas that lag behind, such as local community engagement and ecosystem protection, helps guide regulatory reforms and industrial standards to ensure resource extraction delivers genuine, balanced development rather than fragmented compliance.
The findings can inform policymakers, sustainability officers, and corporate strategy teams in developing robust ESG tracking frameworks and community disclosure tools. Because the work is an analytical review of literature and operational trends rather than a technology development, it provides guidance for policy and corporate governance reform rather than a direct commercial product.
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• Limited literature on examining the relationship between mining and SDGs. • The SDG framework is linked to ESG indicators for the mining sector. • Different levels of progress have been made in some ESG indicators. • We discuss mining's future contribution to SDGs beyond 2030. The intersection of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations in the mining sector is underexplored. This review aims to inform policymakers about the mining sector's experience and challenges in implementing SDGs and to encourage further discussions on the evolution of SDGs beyond 2030. It investigates how the mining sector adopts and integrates the SDGs framework into its current practices and matches the findings with an ESG lens. Firstly, we examine the mining sector's progress in achieving these goals based on refined literature. Secondly, we identify areas for improvement guided by the SDGs. Our results show that environmental progress has been made, particularly in renewable energy utilization and efficient water resources management. From a social and governance lens, higher progress has been observed in employment, inclusion, and policy implementation compared to moderate progress in other areas, such as gender equality, community engagement, and investment in local communities. Our study identifies three critical areas that must be prioritized by 2030: the intentional alignment of SDGs into mining operations, greater transparent disclosure of ESG data to all stakeholders, particularly mining communities, and protection of ecologically and culturally sensitive zones. Without them, ESG initiatives will remain fragmented and insufficient.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.exis.2025.101637
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