It seems as capital continues to tighten across the mining sector, ESG — environmental, social and governance — might be taking a back seat. However, the Head of Metals, Mining & Chemical Sector, Global Corporate & Investment Banking at Sumitomo Mitsui's Asia Pacific arm, Nick Halkas, this week told MNN while miners may currently be a bit quiet on the sustainability theme, "ESG is not going away.
ESG won't impede the next supercycle In any case, Halkas said macroeconomic factors played a far more significant role in influencing commodity and investment cycles than regulatory changes or ESG compliance. At the end of the day, it comes down to bankers and investors actually seeing the impacts of forecast supply deficits.