A new, literature-informed critical mineral life cycle assessment framework: an essential foundation for the energy transition

In this paper, we demonstrate that life cycle assessment (LCA) is a valuable tool for evaluating the trade-offs between critical mineral acquisition and its resulting environmental impacts, but the applications of LCA to critical mineral mining are inconsistent and limited. These inconsistencies inhibit fair comparison of mines’ effects and decision-making. To illustrate these limitations, we analyzed the four LCA phases for 56 peer-reviewed or grey literature critical mineral mining LCAs. Additionally, we compiled reported environmental impacts of critical mining from the Environmental Justice Atlas (EJAtlas) to guide impact category selection. We elaborate a framework with recommendations for each LCA phase. This framework provides an opportunity to standardize critical mineral mining LCAs and enable better comparison, decision-making, and mining policy.