Minerals Stewardship Consortium (MSC) at MIT

The newly launched Minerals Stewardship Consortium (MSC) at MIT aims to inform mining companies as they navigate this complex landscape and effectively address the increasing need for more responsible mining practices while maintaining economic stability. By convening industry with academia, the MSC fosters cross-sector collaborations that help equip mining companies with the information needed to develop responsible, scalable strategies for the production, use, and stewardship of critical minerals. Together, through their work in the MSC, these groups will aim to advance systems-level innovation that links technology, policy, and community to secure the critical materials the world needs — in ways that prioritize positive impact and lay essential groundwork for global energy resilience. 

The MSC’s inaugural members are Vale, BHP, and Rio Tinto.

Research and workstreams focused on technological deployment and impact. The consortium is guided by four research pillars that were co-created with the member companies through a series of workshops, site visits, and ongoing dialogue.

(1) Digital mining and decision-support innovation focuses on developing new considerations within data stitching, simulation, AI, and optimization tools to support mine design and operations under uncertainty.
(2) Social, ecological, and economic integration creates frameworks to incorporate community knowledge, social equity, and environmental impact into mining decisions and project development.
(3) Environmental monitoring and remote sensing uses AI-driven remote sensing and low-cost monitoring to track ecological impacts and environmental risks around mining sites.
(4) Market and policy innovation develops economic models of supply, demand, and substitution that integrate social, geopolitical, and environmental risks into market analyses.

The MSC is led by nine MIT faculty members across four of MIT’s five schools and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. The interdisciplinary nature of the consortium strengthens its approach to tackling challenges and amplifies its impact.