Keeping an eye on mining.
The Mineral Policy Institute is an international civil society organisation assisting communities affected by mining, seeking reform through policy, law and practice.
MPI assists communities affected by mining to assert their rights, and challenges the political economy of extraction through evidence, policy and law.
News
Academic
Beyond degrees Celsius: Mapping competing justice scenarios in Australia’s energy transition Read ↗ 
Mapping nascent rare earth global production networks in a time of geopolitical contestation Read ↗ 
Extreme derisking of Australian rare earth projects: The geopolitical imperatives reshaping global production networks Read ↗ 
Variegated decoupling: Australian firm strategies in the lithium global production network Read ↗ 
Reports
Beyond Mining: Rehabilitating WA’s uranium legacy. Road to a Nuclear Free Future for WA Read here · PDF 
Closing Ranger – Protecting Kakadu Read here · PDF 
Submission to the Productivity Commission in response to the Draft Report on Resource Sector Regulation Read here · PDF 
Joint ENGO Submission on Nuclear Issues as they Relate to the Environmental Protection & Biodiversity Conservation Act Review 2020 Read here · PDF 
A map of the concepts that matter.
Select a concept to read its definition.
- Thermodynamics
- Economics
- Governance
- Ecology
- Political economy
Affected by mining? Ask our expert panel.
Communities facing a mining project can draw on our network of independent experts. Get in touch if you need expertise in:
Request advice- Flora and fauna surveys
- Social impact assessment
- Hydrology
- Geology
- Legal advice and approvals
Our people
Dr Charles Roche
Charles leads MPI’s work and the MPI–Murdoch University collaboration on just transitions and critical minerals. He works with communities to evaluate and improve outcomes from the extractive sector, and with civil society organisations on the impacts of mining on Indigenous and local peoples, tailings dam failures, deep-sea mining, impact assessment and corporate responsibility.
Dr Lian Sinclair
Lian researches the political economy and geography of mining in Australia, Southeast Asia and globally, especially how corporations, governments, communities and NGOs contest the uneven costs and benefits of extractive industries. Their current work examines critical mineral supply chains. Their book Undermining Resistance (Manchester University Press, 2024) grew out of a prize-winning PhD at Murdoch University on corporate-community conflict in Indonesian mining.
Mia Pepper
Mia is the Nuclear Free Campaigner at the Australian Conservation Foundation. She has more than 15 years of experience on uranium mining and nuclear issues, working with regional communities affected by mining, nuclear threats and the legacies of past mining. She holds a master’s in environmental science focused on mine closure policy.
Richard Maguire
Richard is co-principal of Unfolding Futures, which designs and leads strategic planning and community development programmes. His background spans strategic planning, training, science, information systems, philosophy and community development.
In partnership with Murdoch University
MPI and Murdoch University work together on the Just Transition and Critical Minerals project. We research what the rising demand for lithium, copper, nickel and rare earths means for communities, ecosystems and human rights; test government and industry policy against the Mining Policy Principles; and make the case for alternatives to new mines, such as recycling and re-mining tailings.
More about the project →