.jpg "London transport users engage with their devices – and indium, terbium, lithium, cobalt, copper and numerous other critical minerals.")
You may not know them by name, but by the time you get up, turn on a device or have your first cup of tea, you will have engaged with multiple critical minerals.
As it springs into action, a dozen will come into play inside your mobile phone – materials with exotic names like indium, terbium, gallium and praseodymium, as well as the more prosaic nickel.
Each volt of electricity you use will be brought to you along gleaming wires of copper – a cornerstone critical mineral. Get some of your power from renewable solar or wind? Then, as you take your shower, thank tellurium and various rare earth elements that keep those solar cells reacting and those turbines whirling. Out on the street, recharged scooters may be weaving between electric cars, powered by batteries that rely on critical minerals.
The pattern and pace of decarbonization is patchy and unequal, with four-fifths of the world still powered by fossil fuels. But according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) clean energy is entering the global system ‘at an unprecedented rate’, with current capacity set to double by 2030.1 Together with nuclear power, the agency says in its upbeat 2024 report, ‘low-emissions’ sources will be generating more than half of the world’s electricity before 2030.
And it can’t come too soon. We’ve already hit the 1.5 °C limit for global warming, set by the Paris Agreement for the end of the century, and are now on track for a ‘catastrophic’ 2.6-3.1°C rise. Greenhouse gas emissions are still rising even as renewables are booming.2,3
Time to swing by the annual London EV show, an electric vehicle tech-fest characterized by excitement and frustration – both emotions embodied in the young man near the entrance at the wheel of a display model Tesla 3, looking almost orgasmic as he pretends to drive it.
The conference speakers too are excited by the technical possibilities and frustrated by the obstacles to faster uptake of EVs. ‘Range anxiety’ due to slow roll-out of charging infrastructure and lack of financial incentives are recurring themes.
But there’s something missing. Something quite fundamental that isn’t being addressed.
I ask one of the vehicle exhibitors about the minerals used in his company’s batteries. He hands me a brochure that contains impressive-looking technical specs. But neither it nor he can tell me anything about which mines or even countries the minerals come from.
I move on to a representative of a company that makes components, chiefly from copper. Does he know the source? No, he says, adding that it’s likely to be ‘commercially sensitive’ anyway.
Even a designer, keenly promoting graphite as an alternative to lithium, is unaware of the provenance of most of his favoured material (China, actually). His passion for graphite is technical and to do with engine safety. Nothing to do with mining.
Finally, a speaker in one of the sessions gives a reply that at least recognizes the issue. Of course, she says, no-one wants to source cobalt from, say, mines using child labour in Congo. That’s not acceptable.
Mining is a dirty business. Out of sight, out of mind. The sleek finished product we enjoy as consumers is far-removed from mining operations, both geographically and intellectually
This lack of information is not surprising. Mineral supply lines are complex and opaque, and both companies and buyers can hide behind this. Mining is a dirty business. Out of sight, out of mind. The sleek finished product we enjoy as consumers is far-removed from mining operations, both geographically and intellectually. Mining tends to happen in remote regions. The people who might know its impacts are neighbouring local communities, who are often Indigenous, poor or otherwise marginalized, with little power or voice. Transnational mining companies have long taken advantage of any lax regulation, political corruption or low levels of environmental compliance they can find in countries deemed to be ‘developing’ or ‘poor’ but ‘resource-rich’.
The heat is on – and so is the rush for raw minerals in a world wracked by geo-political insecurity and post-pandemic anxiety about securing supply chains. In 2024 the European Union hurriedly passed its Critical Raw Materials Act. The language was imprecise and did not reflect even existing international standards, civil society activists noted with alarm. the UK Government is busy updating its own critical minerals strategy.
China has inserted itself as the largest player in Africa’s critical minerals sector. It already dominates global supply chains. In a concerted bid to challenge China’s power in the market, 14 mainly high-consuming countries, led by the US and including Canada, Australia, Britain, Japan and India, have joined with the EU to establish the Minerals Security Partnership Network.
And of course, there’s Donald Trump’s brutish effort to wrest a critical minerals ‘deal’ from invasion-ravaged Ukraine, under the pretext of ‘making peace’, while making casual territorial claims on Greenland and Canada too. All of which is set to accelerate the critical minerals frenzy, adding an arms race and energy-hungry AI to the demands for these materials.
But what about the people living in areas facing plunder? What about their rights to life and a survivable environment? And is a massive increase in mining really the way to planetary survival? That is what this Big Story seeks to examine, going to Peru to see the ramping up of copper production there, the impacts of a lithium-boosting drive in Chile, and the villages devastated by cobalt extraction in DR Congo.
- IEA, Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2024, a.nin.tl/ieaoutlook
- Copernicus Climate Service, ‘Global Climate Highlights 2024’, 10 January 2025, a.nin.tl/highlights
- Ajit Niranjan, ‘Minimal progress made this year on curbing global heating…’, The Guardian, 14 November 2024, a.nin.tl/minimal
