World Gold Council report flags ecological and biodiversity risks at select gold mines

The World Gold Council (WGC) in its new report Gold, Nature and Biodiversity: An Introduction, has indicated that while the majority of gold mine sites were found to exhibit relatively low ecosystem impact, a subset of mines—including those overlapping with protected or ecologically significant areas—were flagged as being of higher impact or significance.

Closer examination of the local implications of these findings underscores the importance of targeted risk management and the need to understand nature’s contribution not only to biodiversity but also to local communities, the report said.

WGC adds that in the new report the Nature Risk Profile methodology—developed by S&P Global Sustainable, WGC's partner. and UNEP-WCMC—it has taken a sample of 122 gold mines across multiple continents and biomes. This framework, aligned with TNFD’s LEAP approach, enables standardised comparisons of ecological impacts and dependencies across diverse sites and geographies.


Importantly, complementing high-level analysis with site-level insights and an examination of company disclosures, reveals a range of practical responses and adaptive strategies that may not be evident from top-down metrics. These localised perspectives help illuminate what ‘good practice’ looks like in real-world contexts and offer a firm foundation for a more coherent understanding of the gold industry’s nature-related impacts.

"We regard this work as a further step toward a more cohesive and integrated sustainability research agenda and hope it will further encourage meaningful industry initiatives to enhance the health and resilience of the ecosystems surrounding gold mining operations," the report adds.