In collaboration with its constituents in the mining and metals sector, the World Economic Forum launched the Mining & Metals Scenarios to 2030 project in January 2009. This report is the outcome of a year-long process which brought together over 200 leaders from the private sector, government, academia and international and non-governmental organizations in a strategic dialogue structured by scenario planning methodology to consider the following central question: “How will the environment for the global mining and metals sector look in 2030?”

The project aims to: • stimulate dialogue between the public and private sectors and civil society regarding the future of the mining and metals sector • deepen insight into the complex context in which the sector operates by bringing together multidisciplinary and multistakeholder perspectives • strengthen the mining and metals community by providing a non-threatening context in which diverse stakeholders with conflicting worldviews are encouraged to share their perspectives and develop mutual understanding, and • provide useful tools to improve strategic decision-making, and identify strategies for collaborative action.

The scenarios presented in this report have been developed and selected by the participants of the project through numerous discussions and face-to-face and virtual workshops. They represent for those involved stories about their future context that are relevant, plausible, challenging and divergent. Moving forward in a multistakeholder setting, we propose to use these scenarios as a basis for collaborative work that will develop strategic options to contribute to the sustainability of the global mining and metals sector in economic, social and environmental terms.