Abstract:
As the global green and low-carbon transition as well as restructuring of supply chains accelerates, international economic and trade cooperation on green mining and minerals has increasingly become an important issue at the intersection of resource development, industrial security, and global governance. This study examines 10 593 policy texts issued by the United States, Australia, Canada, and the European Union from 2011 to 2026. Using corpus analysis, Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner(VADER), and critical discourse analysis, it conducts a comparative investigation of issue structures, diachronic evolution, sentiment features, and governance logics. The findings show that the policy discourses of the four economies primarily focus on energy transition, resource development, trade and investment, supply-chain security, responsible governance, and rule-making, while gradually expanding from responsible supply chains and the green and low-carbon transition toward supply-chain resilience, institutional regulation, and strategic cooperation. Shaped by differences in resource endowments, industrial positioning, and governance traditions, the four economies exhibit distinct policy emphases and governance orientations: the United States places greater emphasis on strategic competition and regulatory constraints; Australia prioritizes resource supply and industrial development; Canada stresses responsible governance and cooperative development; and the European Union focuses more on institutional regulation and market governance. The coexistence of these different governance orientations reveals continuing divergences in governance objectives, regulatory standards, and multilateral coordination in international economic and trade cooperation on green minerals. China should further promote multilateral cooperation and regulatory alignment, improve a green governance system covering the entire mineral life cycle, strengthen differentiated responses to the policy rules and cooperation risks of different economies, and enhance its capacity to participate in global green mineral governance.