{
  "abstract": "The growing importance of critical minerals such as lithium and cobalt in the energy transition has intensified scrutiny over environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices in mining supply chains. While Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) are increasingly used to signal responsible sourcing, publicly disclosed engagement with these standards at the mine-site level remains poorly documented. This study systematically maps publicly disclosed engagement with VSS across industrial lithium and cobalt mining operations and examines how these patterns vary geographically and by ownership structure. A global dataset of 117 industrial mining sites was compiled using 2023 production data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, company disclosures, official VSS databases (including IRMA and TSM), publicly available audit documentation, and other mine-site sources. Sites were analysed based on publicly disclosed VSS engagement, mine-site references to sustainability initiatives, and ownership structure using the headquarters country of the largest shareholder as a proxy for the geographical distribution of ownership. The results reveal a structural asymmetry in publicly disclosed VSS engagement: engagement is concentrated among a limited number of high-output sites, while most mine sites report no publicly disclosed VSS engagement. Lithium production is highly concentrated around IRMA, whereas cobalt exhibits a more fragmented governance landscape and substantially lower mine-site VSS engagement when supply-chain and smelter/refiner-level initiatives are excluded. These findings provide new empirical evidence on the uneven coverage of publicly disclosed VSS engagement and highlight the limitations of VSS as comprehensive governance tools in critical mineral supply chains. The results have implications for emerging due diligence regulations and highlight the need for improved transparency tools to support policy implementation.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 7,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Capucine Nouvel Zurcher"
    },
    {
      "name": "Paulina Fernandez Munoz"
    },
    {
      "name": "Sonia Martins da Cunha"
    },
    {
      "name": "Susan van den Brink"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jair Santillan Saldivar"
    },
    {
      "name": "Diae Hennioui"
    },
    {
      "name": "Daniel Monfort"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/adhhhph02fbkb.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1016/j.resourpol.2026.106063",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "adhhhph02fbkb",
  "issns": [
    "0301-4207",
    "1873-7641"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://brgm.hal.science/hal-05766867v1",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "hal",
      "0.sde"
    ],
    [
      "hal",
      "0.shs"
    ],
    [
      "hal",
      "1.shs.scipo"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2215|Mining and Resource Management"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214545502",
  "pdf_url": "https://brgm.hal.science/hal-05766867/document",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-30",
  "publisher": "Elsevier",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/adhhhph02fbkb.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:03Z",
      "native_id": "hal-05766867",
      "source": "hal",
      "url": "https://brgm.hal.science/hal-05766867v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "hal:0.sde",
      "subfield": "environmental-science"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Digging into disclosure: Mapping site-level publicly disclosed VSS engagement in lithium and cobalt mining",
  "title_text": "Digging into disclosure: Mapping site-level publicly disclosed VSS engagement in lithium and cobalt mining",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-01T12:20:45Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/adhhhph02fbkb",
  "venue": "Resources Policy",
  "versions": []
}