Strategic priorities of corporate policy in lithium mining: do mission statements mark a road to sustainability?

Lithium mining is a rising sector of the world’s mining industry, and it is strongly tied to various sustainability issues. The mission statements of selected lithium mining corporations are analyzed qualitatively, quantitatively, and semiquantitatively to reveal their top strategic priorities, which determine corporate policy in this sector. It is established that these statements focus most commonly on philosophy, product, and technology. Two thirds of the considered corporations pay attention to sustainability. Although nine-related themes are identified, the most common from them is general sustainability, which makes sustainability-related notions sounding too vague. Attributing these themes to major categories permits to realize that social sustainability is significantly more important to the considered corporations than environmental sustainability, and various important issues (e.g., recycling) are not addressed. Relatively to the other top strategic priorities, sustainability is often considered marginally, and the only two corporations boast sustainability-focused mission statements. Generally, the corporate policy in lithium mining demonstrates attention to sustainability issues, but it needs various improvements in this aspect. It is established that this policy concerns more than a half of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The present study contributes to answering a major research question about the readiness of modern corporations to put some higher purposes on their strategic agenda.