In this article, Global Souths Hub Editor and Website Curator Mira Mookerjee examines the sourcing process of minerals used in lithium-ion batteries – a technology that is allegedly moving us towards a greener future. By talking to activists and academics, including Nathan Andrews (Associate Professor, Political Science at McMaster University), Paulina Personius (Making Clean Energy Clean International Lead Campaigner at Earthworks), Lesley Muñoz Rivera (activist and member of the Colla Indigenous Community of Copiapó in Chile) and Krista Shennum (Researcher at Climate Rights International), this article invites readers to consider whether new green technologies are truly being created in sustainable ways.
Photo by Mario La Pergola on Unsplash
Powering electric cars, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, wireless headphones, electric bikes and more – lithium-ion batteries are everywhere. It is likely that the device you are reading this article on is powered by a lithium-ion battery.
As we swap fossil fuel power for lower emission options, rechargeable batteries have become vital to facilitating the energy transition. Lithium-ion batteries’ ability to replace fossil fuels like oil and gas in many applications has made them a staple for a greener, more sustainable future, and they are vital for energy storage and grid stability – but what materials are actually in lithium-ion batteries? And do they truly deserve the reputation as a new green technology?
What’s in a lithium-ion battery?
Lithium-ion batteries saw a surge in the 1990s. With their lightweight, high-energy density and long shelf life, lithium-ion batteries’ have become the more efficient and practical choice for powering modern devices. Unlike nickel-cadmium batteries, which will be banned in portable devices from August of 2025 (due to their use of cadmium content, a toxic and carcinogenic heavy metal), lithium-ion batteries do not pose the same user health risks.
Necessary raw materials used to make lithium-ion batteries include lithium, graphite, cobalt, nickel and manganese.
Currently, the majority of lithium is mined in Australia and Chile, which accounted for almost 77% in 2022. Indonesia leads in nickel production, accounting for approximately 50% of the global supply, followed by the Philippines producing 10% of the world’s nickel. South Africa is the world’s largest producer of manganese, supplying a third of the global supply, with Gabon contributing around 11% of global exports.
When it comes to graphite, China produced over 77% of the world’s supply in 2023. Meanwhile, most of the world’s cobalt is sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with 170,000 metric tons of production in 2023, accounting for roughly 73% of global production.
Given that most of these raw materials are mined from countries in the Global South, one would assume the global move towards lithium-ion batteries would boost economic growth and offer more opportunities in these countries – but the reality is not so simple.
Cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo
In this Vice News video report, correspondent Alzo Slade reports that “back in 2014, a man was just digging in his backyard in the neighbourhood of Kasulo [in the Democratic Republic of Congo] and discovered there was cobalt there. It triggered a mad rush and then it became the main source of income for that community. Nine years later, things are a bit different.”
In 2007, former DRC President Joseph Kabila made a $6 billion-dollar mining agreement with Chinese investors in exchange for monopoly over the copper and cobalt mines. China agreed to invest in $3 billion-worth of infrastructure in the Congo, including schools, roads and hospitals. However, many of these promises have not been delivered.
Since the mines were sold to foreign investors, mining companies have cracked down on the trade and distribution of raw materials, leaving miners with only a fraction to take home compared to what they made previously. Chinese companies dominate the industry, owning 15 of the DRC’s 19 most valuable cobalt and copper sites. These corporations buy cobalt from miners at a hugely reduced rate and make a profit at sale. Estimates suggest that Chinese companies earned nearly 10 billion dollars in profits, whereas the DRC received only 822 million dollars for infrastructure in return.
This profit is at the expense of miners who are exploited and forced into modern slavery. Workers are exposed to extremely dangerous conditions, many use simple hand tools such as pickaxes, shovels, stretches of rebar. Miners, who work on a freelance basis, are given the title of ‘artisanal’ miners.
One worker, who spoke to The Guardian in 2023 under the name of Pierre stated that “his basic wage is the equivalent of £2.60 ($3.50) a day […] and if he takes a day off, he says money is deducted from his wages. If he is sick and misses more than two days in a month, more money is cut.” Another miner, Mutamba, says “the way they are treating our people, you can’t believe it. We are just expecting them to have respect for human life, instead of using people like slaves.”
Cobalt is found 70 to 150 metres below surface level. Because of the lack of safety precautions, these mines regularly collapse, trapping and killing many workers underground.
The DRC is full of natural resources that power technologies across the world, yet the country sees little benefit from the raw material wealth beneath its soil. In 2024, an estimated 73.5% of the population lived on less than $2.15 a day, meaning one out of six people in extreme poverty in the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa lived in the DRC.
This exploitative system means that children are forced into work. In 2020, of the 255,000 Congolese mining for cobalt, around 40,000 were children.
Graphite mines in China
Pollution caused by graphite mines is widespread across China. Villagers situated near mines fear the long-term health risks from breathing in and ingesting graphite, as well as the toxic chemicals that are used to extract the raw material. Without proper environmental controls, both mining and refining graphite contaminates both the atmosphere and water sources.
In a farming village in China’s far northeast, journalists from The Washington Post spoke to residents Zhang and Yu who live near a graphite factory. They described how the lithium waste produced by the mines “stunts the crops it blankets, begrimes laundry hung outside to dry and leaves grit on food. The village’s well water has become undrinkable, too.”
More than 97% of graphite production takes place in countries rated high or extreme risk in the latest edition of our Forced Labour Index (FLI).This raises serious concerns about labour exploitation throughout the graphite supply chain.
Lithium mining in Chile
Australia is the largest producer of lithium while Chile has the largest reserves. In 2023 Australia produced 86,000 metric tons of lithium and Chile produced 44,000, but unlike Australia, Chile extracts their lithium from brine.
In 2022, Australia’s lithium production was on an upward trajectory, but in September of 2024 Australia’s lithium mining boom was hit by falling prices. This has led to the shutdown of mines and the loss of jobs. This rapid decrease in value has been put down to the oversupply of lithium, and extracting lithium ore in Australia requires three times more energy than in other big producing nations such as Chile and Argentina, as lithium in Australia is mined and removed from solid rock.
Lithium mines in Chile are primarily located in the Salar de Atacama, the world’s largest salt flat in the Atacama Desert.
Extracting lithium from brine in Chile’s salt flats is a hugely water-intensive process. To extract one ton of lithium requires about 500,000 litres of water. The process not only depletes water but also poisons reservoirs, causing serious health problems for local communities.
Chile has been experiencing a megadrought since 2010. However, mining companies continue to use vital reserves, putting water access for indigenous local communities at risk. In 2008 Chile agreed that mining companies must involve indigenous communities in any decision that will directly affect them, yet neither of the two major lithium mining companies in Chile consulted with locals before starting operations.
Jorge, a member of the Atacameño community, told Business Insider that there is no real transparency on the environmental impacts that lithium mining is having on the surrounding land. These communities, who should have ownership over the mines per an agreement made in 1990s, still see little to no profit from the extraction of lithium, and their access to clean drinkable water is being affected by the mines.
I spoke to activist Lesley Muñoz Rivera, a member of the Colla Indigenous Community of Copiapó in Chile, and Paulina Personius from Earthworks who works as the Making Clean Energy Clean International Lead Campaigner.
With Paulina translating for me, Lesley explains about the new lithium extraction project that is being developed in the Maricunga Salar salt flat. In 2024, the Chilean state mining company, Codelco, bought the Salar Blanco project. The Colla Indigenous Community of the Comuna of Copiapó have looked after this territory for over a century. However, she explains that the “Salar Blanco project has not held any consultation with my community. This was in part because they said the environment would not be affected by the project – but this has not been the case.”
Lesley describes that “Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) [at Salar de Maricunga] would use potable water (which is water that is safe to drink and ingest). This poses a big problem in places like Copiapó as it is an arid, water scarce region that has already experienced drought.”
The Maricunga Salar is home to unique biodiversity, which is also disrupted by lithium extraction. The process reduces water levels and increases salinity, killing fish populations and making the area an unsafe habitat for native flamingo species. Two flamingo species that breed only in these mountains have already lost 10 to 12 percent of their populations in just 11 years.
Lesley explains how Chile has “a long mining history, in the 1900s there was potassium nitrate extraction, and even before that there was mining for gold, silver, iron, zinc, lead, and coal. Just last year (in January 2024) a new law was passed which increased the royalties that mining companies must give to the Chilean government.”
However, Lesley points out that “the affected areas and communities have never seen the benefit of these royalties,” and that the companies behind the Maricunga Salar project, again, failed to obtain “free, prior, and informed consent,” as established by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (adopted by 144 countries, including Chile, in 2007), to operate on their ancestral land, thereby violating the rights of the Colla Indigenous community.
Nickel production in Indonesia
Indonesia’s nickel industry officially began in 1901, but the country has experienced quick, significant growth in recent years. Since 2020, the Indonesian government imposed a ban on nickel ore exports. This has expanded Indonesia’s nickel smelting industry, The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects Indonesia to meet two thirds of the world’s needs for nickel, but as with the situation in China, mining nickel in Indonesia has wider environmental impacts.
According to locals, water sources have become undrinkable, and using it for irrigation of crops devastates farmlands. The surrounding seawater has turned brown and murky, suffocating coral reefs and hindering the livelihood of local fishermen. The air has also become more polluted, and the mining plots have caused large scale deforestation.
Nickel is a key component in the cathode material of lithium-ion batteries. With the electric vehicle boom the demand for nickel is expected to increase by 247% by 2030.
According to the Climate Rights International’s (CRI) report, Nickel Unearthed: The Human and Climate Costs of Indonesia’s Nickel Industry “to meet the growing demand for EV batteries and other renewable energy technologies and in a scenario aligned with the Paris Agreement goals, global nickel demand is expected to increase roughly 61 percent by 2040. The auto industry is – and will continue to be – responsible for a significant portion of that increased demand for nickel, as an average electric vehicle requires 39.9 kilograms of nickel.”
When I spoke with the report’s author, Krista Shennum she explained that “many indigenous communities have traditional cultural land. However, because this land is not legally recognised by the Indonesian government, it is often granted to mining companies.”
In fact, local community members “reported that the process of land acquisition has been marred by land grabbing, little or no compensation, and unfair land sales.”
Krista highlighted that when conducting her research “one thing that repeatedly came up was the impact of mining on water. Under Indonesian law, companies are required to monitor water quality and report their findings to the government. However, that information is not publicly accessible, which means these communities are often exposing themselves to what is likely to be unsafe drinking water.” Krista emphasises that “this information should be made public.”
In East Halmahera, North Maluku Province, residents were not consulted when Indonesian mining company PT Mega Haltim Mineral (MHM) started acquiring land. Krista reports that “the company offered between IDR2,500 to IDR5,000 (US$0.16 to US$0.32) per square meter, which is roughly the price of a package of instant noodles. This was only a fifth to two fifths of what communities in Central Halmahera have been offered by other mining companies, which was already inadequate compensation.”
Novenia Ambuea, an Indigenous rights activist in Minamin, East Halmahera, told Climate Rights International:
“The land comes from our parents. If we sold it, then we also sold our history and memories. Life in Minamin is about fishing and farming, since a very long time ago. We are fisherfolk, hunters, and farmers. Our life now is still the same but soon that will change.”
Novenia Ambuea
Manganese mining in South Africa
Manganese is an essential, non substitutable mineral for lithium-ion batteries making it a critical resource in the current global energy transition. South Africa’s mining sector is a significant contributor to the country’s economy, contributing around 8% of GDP and employing roughly half a million people.
Manganese mining in South Africa serves as a pivotal driver of economic growth, contributing to the country’s financial stability. South Africa has seen the production of manganese increase by more than one-third since 2017, and in 2022, the industry generated over 7 billion rand in tax revenue and 47 billion rand in export earnings. This boost plays a fundamental role in enhancing South Africa’s competitiveness and sustainability in the global market.
However, it has been at the expense of the health of the miners. Journalists from the Washington Post interviewed current and retired manganese miners working in the remote Kalahari Desert said their memories have declined after years of working in the mines. EV batteries require high-purity manganese so there is even a greater threat to workers in refineries. One recent study found that 26 percent of manganese miners studied in Hotazel, the Northern Cape mining town, exhibited symptoms similar to those of Parkinson’s disease.
The top lithium-ion battery producing countries in the world
The global rechargeable battery market was valued at $113.48 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $277.9 billion by 2032.
China’s lithium-ion battery market generated a revenue of 114.4 million dollars in 2023 and is expected to reach 644.5 million dollars by 2030. With China’s graphite reserves and their clear control over mines across the globe, their monopoly over the lithium-ion battery market is expected. However, the US is expected to capture 60% of the economic value consumed by domestic demand for lithium batteries by 2030, generating $33 billion in revenues and creating 100,000 jobs.
With the electric vehicle (EV) boom, demand for lithium-ion batteries has rapidly increased. The top 5 countries with the highest share of EV sales are Norway (all-electric vehicles made up 80% of passenger vehicle sales in 2022), Iceland (41%), Sweden (32%), the Netherlands (24%) and China (22%), according to analysis conducted by the World Resources Institute.
CRI reports that “electric vehicle companies, such as Tesla, Ford, and Volkswagen” all “have contracts to source nickel from Indonesia.”
Extractivism
Extractivism is a model of development based on the large-scale extraction of natural resources. In this case, we see the extraction of raw materials in the Global South to benefit countries in the Global North, a process which is systematically linked to colonialism and climate change.
Historically, raw materials from colonies across the British Empire fuelled the Industrial Revolution. These materials included wool and gold from Australia; cotton, sugar and tobacco from the Americas; gold and diamonds from Africa; and spices, fabric and tea from India.
The CRI’s Nickel Unearthed report highlights that “Halmahera Island in North Maluku province in Indonesia is one of the “Spice Islands,” home to nutmeg, mace, cloves, and other products that drove European colonial interest in the area starting in the 16th century. The Maluku Islands are home to a diverse population, with approximately 28 ethnic groups and languages, including Sawai and Tobelo.” Krista explains that, “as in the colonial era, outside interests are again staking their claim on Halmahera’s natural resources.”
The production of lithium-ion batteries sees the extraction of raw materials from Africa, Asia and Latin America in ways that destroy the surrounding environment and put communities and workers at risk. In the world’s race for greener technologies, we are seeing repeats of colonial patterns, where new technologies that benefit the Global North are being created at the expense of communities and environments within the Global South.
The system where minerals sourced in the Global South only benefit countries in the Global North, Lesley states, “is a mode and a pattern that is very colonial.” Krista adds that “over half of the world’s energy transition mining projects are built on indigenous land.”
“Over half of the world’s energy transition mining projects are built on indigenous land.”
Krista Shennum
Could green mining ever be a reality?
I spoke to Nathan Andrews, Associate Professor of Political Science at McMaster University and co-editor of a 2023 book, Extractive Bargains: Natural Resources and the State-Society Nexus. He said “states have a justification for why we need mining to sustain green initiatives,” as the move away from fossil fuels is imperative for a greener future. Krista agreed with Nathan’s sentiment, saying, “it’s a more complicated question than just saying no to EVs, because there needs to be transportation that does not burn fossil fuels – but it needs to be put into practise in a fairer, more sustainable way. It cannot continue at the expense of local communities, and those who benefit from the products are not the ones paying the costs.”
“The energy transition must be fair for everyone,” Krista continues, “especially those who are on the frontline.”
Nathan questions the very concept of ‘green mining’. “The activity of mining itself is not green. You are destroying a green space,” and “Global South countries are removed from the process of who benefits from the products, and from what happens on a global scale. There is a clear contradiction – even though companies will use environmentally sustainable rhetoric in order to advance mining activities, the impact on the people living in these areas is not at all ethical.”
Lesley echoes this idea, “people talk about this energy transition that should switch us to a cleaner model, but in Chile you are not seeing that change. The Chilean government has laid out a strong decarbonisation plan, but a lot of the resources to make this happen do not remain in Chile.”
“The bigger issue,” Lesley continues, “is [that even with the energy transition] you are not addressing the root causes of the climate crisis, which is overconsumption. Moreover, you are asking countries within the Global South to solve problems that they did not create. Plans for green transitions continue to ignore the underlying issue of overconsumption, particularly in certain regions of the world. Without addressing this, we cannot move towards a greener, more sustainable world.”
Krista emphasises the importance of developing battery recycling infrastructure. “What is happening to lithium-ion batteries after use?” she asks, “are they just going to landfill?”. While materials like lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, graphite are all recyclable, currently only around 5% of lithium-ion batteries are being recycled. “Recycling,” Krista continues, “would alleviate the pressure on continual mining.” She also asks, “are these minerals needed for this purpose? Or could there be policy choices that promote public transportation, cycling and walking etc. rather than having every vehicle replaced with an EV?”
Krista states, it is important to recognise that “people who buy EVs are usually climate conscious individuals, but what is happening in reality is completely separate from what consumers are expecting when they purchase an EV.”
How could the production and sale of lithium-ion batteries be fairer?
Nathan reflects on the high cost of products that use lithium-ion batteries. “How can we make things more equal?” he asks. “Could there be reduced tariffs on these products for the countries that supply the essential minerals to make them?” He also considers whether more state control might be part of the solution, but also notes this must be explored with caution, given the issues that arose within the 1960s and 1970s with “resource nationalism”, which has historically exacerbated the instability of the supply of critical minerals.
However, Lesley argues that in Chile, “more state control just means changing one company for another. The human rights and environmental impacts will remain, regardless of whether the company is private or government owned. What is truly needed is respect for the prior and informed consent protocol, which will allow communities to have adequate information about the projects and their potential impact. There must be a right for local communities to say no.”
Currently in Chile, Lesley explains, “each community or group is fighting back against mining companies on their own territory independently, so most struggles are localised.”
She adds that while there are NGOs and organisations providing support and documenting conflict such as the Sirge Coalition and Earthworks there is currently no coordinated coalition in Chile.”
Krista echoes this concern, noting that in Indonesia there is often “on the ground conflict between indigenous communities and mining companies,” as communities fight to protect their ancestral land. She explains that Climate Rights International is part of the Lead the Charge campaign which is “a global civil society initiative urging electrical vehicle companies to have fossil fuel free supply chains, to fully respect human rights, minimise environmental harm and respect the land rights of indigenous peoples.”
Building on Krista’s point about the need for stronger protections for Indigenous land rights, Nathan stresses the importance of a collective action among resource rich counties. “In the scramble for critical minerals there needs to be more collaboration and coordination among countries that have these resources in order to stand against the colonialist tendencies of the Global North.” He clarified that the solution isn’t “stopping trade or export/import arrangements, it is instead about renegotiating power and agency.” “More direct forms of agreement,” he suggests, “could enable governments to hold mining companies accountable and take legal action in courts.”
Nathan adds, “I’m Ghanaian, and one common proverb is that if you have only one broomstick it is easy to snap, but if you bring many together, they are much harder to break. My ideas on collaboration embody this concept.”
More than the energy transition
One important aspect Paulina highlights is that “we talk about these minerals being for the energy transition – but it’s necessary to question that a bit more. It is becoming clearer with Trump talking about extracting these critical minerals not for renewable energy, but for military purposes.”
“The mining boom,” she continues, “is taking place under the name of creating a greener world economy, but these minerals are also going towards military technology – there is a reason why the Department of Defence in the US is so interested in these critical minerals.”
Lithium-ion batteries, for example, are widely used in modern military equipment, meaning the secure sourcing of these minerals is critical to the defence industrial base, which uses them to produce virtually every Defence Department system – from unmanned aerial systems and fighter jets to submarines.
Global Witness’ article on Critical minerals were once for renewables. Now they’re for war, states that “Trump’s obsession with rare earth minerals makes sense when you understand their role in modern military technology.” “The narrative has always had an element of greenwashing,” the article continues, “but now, things are changing. Trump is saying the quiet part out loud.”
Conclusion
When used in electric cars and vehicles, lithium-ion batteries can reduce air pollution and carbon emissions. They are easier to recycle than lead-acid batteries, and they can store large amounts of energy from renewable sources like wind and solar. However, the energy intensive and environmentally destructive production of these batteries means that they are not the all-green alternative they made out to be. Not only this, but the levels of poorly paid and forced labour that goes into their production, the health risks and the lack of regulations makes their current creation highly unethical.
The transition away from fossil fuels must continue, but the current process towards greener alternatives sees a repeat of colonial patterns where countries in the Global South are being negatively impacted to benefit the Global North. Climate change puts countries and communities in the Global South most at risk, and for the current plans to cause more negative environmental impacts completely undermines what greener energy sources are trying to achieve. Moreover, as Lesley highlights, the transition to lower greenhouse gas emissions through new technologies does not tackle the root of the problem – which is overconsumption. For real change to take place, the current capitalist system that we live in, which relies on overconsumption to fuel growth and profit, needs to be challenged and changed.
Moreover, the destruction of green spaces to create mines in the name of the green transition needs to be questioned. Not only this, but we must critically assess where these minerals are going, who profits, and what technologies they are really creating – because the reality is not so green.
Useful resources and spaces to connect:
Scroll to XI. Recommendations in Krista Shennum’s Nickel Unearthed
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Climate Rights International, Nathan Andrews, Paulina Personius, Lesley Muñoz Rivera and Krista Shennum for your support.
