Aside from the COVID-19, which continued to ravage the world, there were several other key themes that emerged in mining this year.
Sexual assault allegations
In January, the Minerals Council of Australia launched a new policy after the Australian Human Rights Commission's Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Inquiry (2020) found that 40% of the minerals industry workforce had experienced some form of workplace sexual harassment in the past five years.
In the months that followed, a number of disturbing reports emerged about sexual assaults on Western Australian mine sites and a culture of cover-ups.
In June, the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of WA held a press conference with some of its largest members, vowing to stamp out the issue.
The WA government launched an inquiry, which saw major miners front up, though the results aren't due to be handed down until April 2022.
"We are a better industry than some of the behaviour that's unfolded over the last 12 months, so I encourage you all - work harder on the culture in and around our workforce, in and around our work sites, in and around our camps … and if you have a dinosaur who hasn't got with the program, don't just immediately send him down the road, because somebody else is going to pick up that same problem," Pilbara Minerals boss Ken Brinsden said in August.
"Let's have a crack at rehabilitating individuals, turning them around, making them better people."
Read more here.
Net zero
There was no double that green was the colour of 2021, with almost all major miners now laying out net zero targets, most for 2050.
A recent RFC Ambrian report analysed BHP, Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Vale and found that while Rio has the highest scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and the highest energy usage, it is investing the most in decarbonisation with planned expenditure of US$7.5 billion between now and 2030.
While Rio also has the most aggressive 2030 target for a 50% reduction in absolute emissions, Anglo is the most aggressive overall, targeting net zero by 2040.
The report didn't look at Fortescue Metals Group, which has the industry's most aggressive target of carbon neutrality by 2030.
New developers Bellevue Gold and Liontown Resources are targeting carbon neutrality in their first few years of operation at the Bellevue gold mine and Kathleen Valley lithium mine, respectively.
Read more here.
Commodity highs
Iron ore, thermal coal, hard coking coal, copper, tin, bauxite and lithium all reached new record highs in 2021.
"History will show 2021 to have been a stand-out year for commodity prices, with a number of new all-time highs, in nominal terms at least," BMO Capital Markets analyst Colin Hamilton said last month.
"The rate of change in demand growth for industrial metals was the strongest on record, stretching supply chains to breaking point in many different areas, and leading to deficits across the vast majority of commodities, augmented by financial markets in many cases.
"As such, perhaps the most apt description would be not having enough, of anything, where it was needed. Moreover, for once China did not lead the way in terms of demand, with the ex-China recovery the source of upside surprise."
Read more here.
WA labour shortage
Record high commodity prices and Western Australia's strict border controls have led to the tightest of labour markets.
Many gold miners have missed guidance targets due to the issues, and several projects have been delayed.
Pilbara Minerals was the most recent victim, being forced to downgrade full-year lithium guidance just before Christmas.
Mineral Resources boss Chris Ellison said it was the worst labour shortage of his 30-year-plus career.
"I think even when the borders open, it's going to be different than the last iron ore boom," he said in November.
"There's a lot of work on the East Coast, a lot of infrastructure work going on over there and a lot of spending - it's going to be tough to attract people.
"I think the shortage in the mining industry, we're going to be stuck with it for probably a lot of next year. We're probably a year away from getting some reasonable relief."
Read more here.
Mammoth maiden resources
There was a risk 2020's two major discoveries, Chalice Mining's Julimar and De Grey Mining's Hemi, would not live up to expectations when push came to shove.
In June, De Grey reported a 6.8 million ounce maiden resource for Hemi, one of the largest initial resources in Australian history.
It took the company's entire Pilbara resource inventory to 9Moz.
The resource earned the company the AMEC Prospector Award in December.
In November, Chalice followed with the maiden resource for its Julimar discovery.
The maiden indicated and inferred pit-constrained resource for the Gonneville deposit is 330 million tonnes at 0.94 grams per tonne palladium, platinum and gold (3E), 0.16% nickel, 0.1% copper and 0.016% cobalt, or 0.58% nickel equivalent or 1.6gpt palladium equivalent.
The deposit contains 10 million ounces of 3E, 530,000 tonnes of nickel, 330,000t of copper and 53,000t of cobalt, or 1.9Mt of nickel equivalent or 17Moz of palladium equivalent.
Chalice shares surged by as much as 32% on the day - an impressive feat for an ASX 200 company.
Read more here.
M&A and Consolidation
Last year saw a bit more action in the deal space across multiple commodities.
The year kicked off with the completion of the merger of Northern Star Resources and Saracen Mineral Holdings, with another large gold merger of equals, between Agnico Eagle Mines and Kirkland Lake Gold, following towards the end of 2021.
Evolution Mining completed four deals (the acquisition of Battle North Gold, the sale of Mt Carlton, the purchase of the Kundana assets and the acquisition of 70% of Ernest Henry), making it a busy year for the mid-tier miner.
The gold majors got in on the action in Nevada, with AngloGold Ashanti agreeing to buy Corvus Gold and Newmont Corporation acquiring GT Gold.
Regis Resources purchased IGO's 30% stake in Tropicana, while in the days before Christmas, St Barbara agreed to buy Bardoc Gold.
Westgold Resources made a hostile bid for smaller producer Gascoyne Resources, but Gascoyne's agreed deal with explorer Firefly Resources prevented the deal from going through.
Apollo Consolidated agreed to a takeover by Ramelius Resources, which was nearly thwarted by a hostile bid by rival ASX 200 producer Gold Road Resources.
The year also saw a couple of large copper deals in a space where assets are scarce.
Sandfire Resources announced the US$1.8 billion acquisition of the MATSA complex in Spain, while South32 picked up Sumitomo's stake in Sierra Gorda in Chile.
The electric vehicle revolution also saw a scramble for battery metals assets.
In April, lithium producers Orocobre and Galaxy Resources announced a A$4 billion merger of equals to create a top five global chemicals company called Allkem.
In June, Ganfeng acquired a 50% stake in Firefinch's large undeveloped Goulamina lithium project in Mali for US$130 million with new JV company Leo Lithium to list on the ASX this year.
Piedmont Lithium made an investment in Sayona Mining at the start of the year, which allowed Sayona Quebec, a 75:25 joint venture between Sayona and Piedmont, to acquire North American Lithium for C$200 million.
Sayona also paid US$86.5 million for a 65% stake in the Moblan lithium project in Quebec.
Developers ioneer and AVZ attracted project development partners in the form of Sibanye-Stillwater and Suzhou CATH Energy Technologies respectively.
And in the days before Christmas, Rio Tinto paid $825 million for the Rincon project in Argentina and Prospect Resources sold its Arcadia project in Zimbabwe to Zheijiang Huayou Cobalt Co for $377.8 million.
In nickel, the Santa Rita mine in Brazil, once owned by failed ASX miner Mirabela Nickel, sold to Sibanye-Stillwater in a $1 billion deal that also included the Serrote copper operation.
The second half of the year saw Andrew Forrest's Wyloo Metals and giant BHP in a bidding war for Toronto's Noront Nickel, a battle that was eventually won by Wyloo in December.
December also saw IGO agree to a A$1.1 billion buy-out of Western Areas.
Read more here.
