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Cited by 181Environmental Impact and SustainabilityWater Resources and SustainabilityWater-Energy-Food Nexus Studies

The Impact of Metal Mining on Global Water Stress and Regional Carrying Capacities—A GIS-Based Water Impact Assessment

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Meißner, Simon·2021·Resources
DOI 10.3390/resources10120120
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Abstract

The consumption of freshwater in mining accounts for only a small proportion of the total water use at global and even national scales. However, at regional and local scales, mining may result in significant impacts on freshwater resources, particularly when water consumption surpasses the carrying capacities defined by the amount of available water and also considering environmental water requirements. By applying a geographic information system (GIS), a comprehensive water footprint accounting and water scarcity assessment of bauxite, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, uranium and zinc as well as gold, palladium, platinum and silver was conducted to quantify the influence of mining and refining of metal production on regional water availability and water stress. The observation includes the water consumption and impacts on water stress of almost 2800 mining operations at different production stages, e.g., preprocessed ore, concentrate and refined metal. Based on a brief study of mining activities in 147 major river basins, it can be indicated that mining’s contribution to regional water stress varies significantly in each basin. While in most regions mining predominantly results in very low water stress, not surpassing 0.1% of the basins’ available water, there are also exceptional cases where the natural water availability is completely exceeded by the freshwater consumption of the mining sector during the entire year. Thus, this GIS-based approach provides precise information to deepen the understanding of the global mining industry’s influence on regional carrying capacities and water stress.

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  • Freshwater consumption of mining activities is already a concern at local scales, particularly for lithium extraction from brines.

    “which would further exacerbate freshwater consumption of mining activities, already a concern at local scales, 112 particularly for lithium extraction from brines. 113”

    From Decarbonizing lithium-ion battery primary raw materials supply chain (2024) · cites this paper as [112]

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Authors
Meißner, S.
Affiliations
University of Augsburg (DE)
Corresponding author
Meißner, Simon
Venue
Resources
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2021-11-26
Volume
10
Issue
12
Pages
120
ISSN
2079-9276 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/resources10120120
OpenAlex
W3215030826
Cited by
181
References
67
Citations by year
2026: 15 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 116 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 6
FWCI
11.32
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Resources (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • OPUS (Augsburg University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Water Resources and Sustainability
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Water-Energy-Food Nexus Studies
Keywords
metal mining, water stress, water footprint, carrying capacity, water scarcity, freshwater use, mining operations, river basins, mineral processing, metal refining, environmental water requirements

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