Study of the relationship between ESG performance and enterprise value of mining-related listed enterprises

ESG is an investment philosophy and corporate evaluation standard that focuses on corporate environmental, social and governance performance rather than financial performance, and is the embodiment of the concept of high-quality development at the corporate level. As the national and public awareness of environmental protection increases, environmental information increasingly affects corporate value. The mining industry’s development often entails significant environmental challenges, such as land degradation from mineral extraction and water and atmospheric pollution from wastewater and exhaust emissions. These issues hinder China’s ecological civilization construction and contradict the principles of sustainable development. Moreover, China’s mining enterprises lag behind other industries in ESG performance, suggesting that their ESG performance will receive increasing attention. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the relationship between ESG ratings and the value of mining companies. Based on the data of 221 A-share listed mining-related enterprises from 2009 to 2023, this study first explores the changing trends and current status of ESG performance of mining-related listed enterprises in China, and then uses the generalized least squares method （GLS） to explore the relationship between ESG scores and enterprise value. It is found that the ESG scores of China’s mining-related listed enterprises have shown an improving trend in recent years, but there is a significant negative correlation with enterprise value, and mining-related listed enterprises are still facing the problem of high cost and low return in improving their ESG performance. Through this study, on the one hand, it helps to further enrich the cognition of ESG value effect, and on the other hand, it helps to explore effective ways to improve the value effect of ESG performance in the mining industry, and provide driving force for mining enterprises to actively fulfill their ESG responsibilities, so as to provide references for the promotion of high-quality development of mining enterprises.