Blanca Racionero Gómez

Blanca Racionero Gómez has a background in biological and environmental engineering technologies. She is the technical lead managing environmental-related projects, sales and public interest initiatives. As Levin Sources' champion on energy transition and environment, she drafted our environmental policy.

Since joining Levin Sources, Blanca has conducted research on various minerals including those from conflict-affected and high-risk areas, development minerals, critical raw materials and those needed for renewable energies, such as 3TGs, lithium, nickel, iron, bauxite, copper, cobalt, lapis lazuli and talc. She has been working to understand the impacts of mining on forested areas, including developing a forest-smart mining concept and action pathway to safeguard biodiversity and forests. The green economy and metals required for a sustainable future is also a field of great interest to Blanca and one in which she has developed considerable expertise. Blanca is an experienced researcher with strong qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis skills, gained through laboratory and desk-based research projects. She is proficient in scientific research, data management and data analysis, conducting stakeholder interviews and convening local research teams, helping deliver accurate, insightful and prompt results to public and private sector clients.

A portfolio of environment-focused projects

In 2018, Blanca organised a workshop in Astana, Kazakhstan to stimulate new research to remediate mining polluted waterways. In 2019, Blanca led an analysis into good working practices carried out by different organisations and multi-stakeholder platforms to address child labour and poor working conditions in the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining sector (ASM). This desk-based research included more than 20 interviews with managers of multiple projects d addressing child labour around the globe, including those with a strong gender-based approach.

More recently, Blanca has developed specific expertise in conceptualising and managing online knowledge portals. She produced webinars for the European Commission’s Due Diligence Ready! Portal, she lead the development of the EPRM Knowledge Portal, an online portal to help SMEs conduct due diligence and conceptualised a portal with the International Labour Organisation including resources to help companies address child labour in ASM.

Moreover, Blanca has been supporting multinational consumer goods companies, OEMs, and other downstream companies to understand the most salient environmental risks linked to materials sourcing, and advising them on how to mitigate those risks. Blanca is working on the development on a tool, the ESG Materials Score, to help companies, investors and banks identify and assess their ESG risks aligned with the UNGP approach.

Blanca worked pro-bono with the International Women in Mining Association to assess and recommend ways to reduce their environmental impact, and currently involved in the Refresh process of the New York Declaration on Forests, and the assessment of some of the Declaration goals. Blanca has a strong interest in tackling the effects of climate change, particularly because of the unequal threats it poses to different groups in society; climate change intersects with issues of race, gender, disability and nationality. Blanca seeks to understand these relationships with the aim of investigating how such unequal impacts can be reduced.

Blanca co-authored chapter 13 “Mining and SDG 13: Taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts“ in the “Mining and the SDGs” book.

Prior to joining Levin Sources, Blanca completed research projects on metal recovery from wastewater and training on metal uptake by macroalgae and various bio-adsorbents. She holds two degrees at Master level in Environmental Technology and Engineering, and Research in Geology and an undergraduate degree in Biotechnology.

Blanca works fluently in Spanish, Catalan and English, and has an intermediate level of French. She is based in Spain.

Case Studies

The World Bank, funded by PROFOR: Forest-Smart Mining: identifying good and bad practices of artisanal and small-scale mining in forest landscapes

We undertook a series of case studies to identify and analyse good and bad practices of ASM in forest landscapes for The Program on Forests (PROFOR), hosted by the World Bank Group.

Workshop: 'Remediating Water Bodies Contaminated by Mining and Metals in Asia'

Levin Sources organised and coordinated a workshop in Astana, Kazakhstan, on absorbent technologies to treat waters polluted by toxic metals.

Selected Publications

White Paper: Responsible Sourcing of Sand: Looking Ahead

In this white paper, we look at the negative consequences for the environment of the increased demand for sand and explore ways to adopt responsible sourcing of it.

White paper: Lithium mining in the High Puna of the Andes

The extraction of lithium has been expanding due to a growing demand in electric vehicles. This white paper looks into the potentially severe environmental and social impacts associated with the development of this sector in Latin America.

Green Economy Series: Solar Photovoltaic and Energy Storage in the Electric Grid

In Part Two of Levin Sources' Green Economy Series, we examine 17 minerals used in solar panels and lithium-ion batteries. By applying risk and governance lenses to our data, we give you an in-depth look at the changing supply chains powering green technology.