Port of Cape Town

As the world grapples with urgent challenges – from climate change and biodiversity loss to the imperative of a just energy transition – the demand for critical minerals is surging. Mining's role in supplying these essential resources, powering global development, and enabling a sustainable future is undeniable. Yet, despite this indispensable contribution, a significant gap persists: the lack of comprehensive, reliable, and standardised industry-wide data. This dearth of quality information has, for too long, hindered the ability of policymakers, investors, civil society, and even industry itself, to draw fully informed opinions, craft effective regulations, and truly understand both the impact and contribution of the mining sector. Without robust data, dialogue risks becoming anecdotal, policy formulation can lack precision or lead to unintended outcomes, and the industry’s commitment to responsible practices might not be improved upon where needed or, conversely, not fully appreciated. The Global Mining Dataset was first released in September 2025 and represented the most comprehensive single list of mines, smelters, refineries and processing plants available at the time. Derived from 5 different source inputs, version 1 of the Global Mining Dataset included 15,188 mining and/or processing facilities producing 47 different primary commodities, with 8,508 of them able to be made publicly available. The Global Mining Dataset has been an invaluable foundation for building out our collective understanding of the sector and ICMM has committed to developing it further over time to improve its accuracy, coverage and our confidence in it. Why are the number of facilities in the public Global Mining Dataset different to the numbers referred to in the Global Mining Dataset: Understanding the global distribution of mining and metal facilities report? The Global Mining Dataset contains 15,188 mines and processing facilities, which combines both publicly available data and proprietary information. We have released a public Global Mining Dataset containing information for 8,508 mines and processing facilities. The public Global Mining Dataset excludes 6,680 facilities that exist in the complete Global Mining Dataset but are unable to be shared publicly due to S&P’s licensing restrictions. For access to the proprietary data that is not included in the public Global Mining Dataset, please refer to the S&P Capital IQ Platform . All insights in our first data report (The Global Mining Dataset: Understanding the global distribution of mining and metals facilities) are drawn from the complete Dataset in aggregated form, and this will remain the case in future reports. To close data gaps and improve accuracy, confidence, and coverage – as well as to develop future datasets – we welcome collaboration with regional and global partners from academia, consultancies, governments, and commodity or national associations. Does the Global Mining Dataset include data on capacity or production volumes of mines, smelters, refineries, and processing plants? The Global Mining Dataset does not include data on capacity or production volume but instead focuses on location and primary commodities – factors less likely to change at a facility-level in the short term. We welcome partnership with others who might be interested in exploring the inclusion of other, more dynamic indicators in the future and will be focusing future efforts on collation of industry-wide datasets relating to environmental, social and governance indicators. The Global Mining Dataset seems smaller than some other mining datasets, why is that? The Global Mining Dataset is a foundation for a shared understanding of the current mining and metals landscape and future credible, transparent datasets that can inform policy and discussions about mining and metals’ evolving role in sustainable development. Consistent with this objective, the Global Mining Dataset includes large-scale, act