This is happening at Kvanefjeld – said by GMEL to be "one of the world's most exciting emerging mineral projects" and believed to hold the world's sixth-largest uranium deposit.
The stakes, say those involved, are far greater than the bank's direct financing of oil and mineral projects; the bank has enormous power to set standards for the financial industry as a whole.
Under the new program, "when the smelters source from the region, they will need to have documents showing the sources of the minerals," said Jay Celorie, H.P.'s program manager for the conflict minerals project.
These estimates are "based principally on old data, which was gathered mainly by the Soviets during their occupation of Afghanistan from 1979 1989" and "Stephen Peters, the head of the USGS's Afghanistan Minerals Project, said that he was unaware of USGS involvement in any new surveying for minerals in Afghanistan in the past two years.
This paper outlines the recent developments on the SUSOP sustainability opportunities and risks framework, which utilises the Five Capitals sustainability model, to provide a holistic approach for delivering enhanced environmental, social and community outcomes into mining and minerals projects.
"The idea absolutely has legs," says Anna Littleboy, the research director of CSIRO's mineral futures project, which has studied how to improve metal recovery from e-waste.
In 1998 the BGS, in collaboration with Tarmac, initiated an industrial mineral waste project known as REFILL which was funded by the EU BriteEuRam programme.
The "mega-mine" – which includes a 150km railway line and two new ports – is believed to be the largest mineral extraction project in the Arctic and highlights the huge commercial potential of the far north as global warming makes industrial development in the region easier.
It also holds interests in several other mineral resource projects in Asia, including a 50% interest in the Kyzyl Shear Project, located in Kazakhstan, through a shareholding in Altynalmas Gold Ltd. (Altynalmas Gold).
It has been the target of several mineral exploration projects.
