What are the social and environmental costs of the race for critical minerals? Minerals like cobalt, lithium, and nickel are crucial for the development of new technology, including clean energy. But mining and refining them can be hugely polluting and water intensive – with a risk of deforestation, water contamination, and health problems for local communities. Studies suggest that about half of mining projects around the world are on or near indigenous lands.
Julie Klinger, Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Edson Krenak, Brazil program manager at Cultural Survival, believe that local communities need to play a bigger role in new and existing mining projects.
"What we see is a production of electric cars, digital technologies being served to the global markets, while the communities where their territories are serving these minerals are completely left behind without clean water, safe environment, without legal security," warns Krenak. "They are really facing a lot of problems for the profit, for the good or the privilege of the global north."
Klinger says local populations should also have a say in what the raw materials are being used for. "For example, lithium of course is important for renewable energy technologies. Lithium is also used in a range of advanced weapons applications such as drones, smart bombs, assault rifles and tanks as well. And so if communities are going to be asked to host a mining or heavy industrial operation, that community should also know what the ultimate end use of the material is."
Klinger argues that growing demand doesn't require new mining projects. "Most of the material, including designated critical minerals and elements that have been dug out of the ground for the past few centuries, still exist somewhere on the surface of the earth (...) And where these materials still exist, they actually are another kind of longstanding environmental health problem that needs to be cleaned up."
"This race of more and more extraction is not building a healthy environment for our planet," agrees Krenak. "What are the new futures we are building with this new transition? We are not dreaming of a healthy future, a healthy planet for us, for our [future] generations."
