There are few places on the planet where mining companies can develop and operate mines with low environmental, social and governance risk, according to research by Verisk Maplecroft.

Verisk Maplecroft undertakes a quantitative assessment of risk that takes into consideration all three ESG components.

Apart from Canada, Australia is one of the few mining nations that enjoys low risk status.

A number of recent actions by the New South Wales government are endangering the state's and nation's status as a safe place to develop major mining projects.

The NSW government's decision to cave into the farmer lobby and buy out Shenhua's Watermark coal mining licence in the Liverpool Plains for $100 million and the ongoing reluctance by the state government to compensate NuCoal Resources shareholders for revoking its exploration licence at Doyles Creek in 2014 are blights on the NSW copy book.  

Politicians are tripping over themselves trying to get photographed in front of solar panels or wind farms and trying to erase the contribution of coal to the economy - and ultimately to the environment - by retrospectively changing the rules.

Wood Mackenzie vice-chair of metals and mining Julian Kettle argued in a recent blog that government support to de-risk investments in certain countries was a necessary catalyst to enable mining in as ESG-compliant a way as possible.

"What naturally follows is that consumers and society become more comfortable that mining in these jurisdictions is being done ‘the right way'," he said.

"Then, and only then, will the West be able to secure sufficient volumes of the raw materials needed to pursue the energy transition in the timescales envisaged.

"Essentially, the West could take a leaf out of China's book in securing the necessary supply chain, albeit ensuring far higher ESG standards are applied."

Hogsback reckons Australia's mining safety and environmental rules should be obeyed and those mining companies that don't adhere to those rules should have the book thrown at them.

The rules we have are some of the most stringent in the world and we are rightly proud of them because they have enabled the coal mining in industry to continue to operate in a sustainable and responsible way for decades.

That is why mining companies pay bonds to the state governments for rehabilitation that are returned only when operations are completed. This ensures they have skin in the game until the site is fully remediated.  

It is foolish and short-sighted of governments to bow to pressure and keep changing rules in ways that will preclude mining projects in the future.