Critical minerals are ‘oil of 21st century’ as demand fuels poverty and pollution in poorer countries | Critical minerals

Essential minerals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel are becoming the “oil of the 21st century”, as the rush for precious metals deepens poverty and creates public health crises in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities, according to a report by the UN water think tank.

The investigation by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) concluded that growing demand for lithium, cobalt and nickel used in batteries and microchips is draining water supplies, eroding agriculture and exposing communities to toxic heavy metals.

According to the researchers, around 456 billion liters of water were used to extract 240,000 tonnes of lithium in 2024, without the financial benefits or technological advances of the green energy transition or the AI ​​boom reaching the affected communities.

“Critical minerals are quickly becoming the oil of the 21st century,” said Kaveh Madani, director of UNU-INWEH and winner of the Stockholm 2026 Water Prize.

“What we sell as a solution to sustainability is actively harming people elsewhere in the world. How then can we call the transition green or clean?”

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), demand for key energy minerals has seen strong growth in recent years, with demand for lithium increasing by almost 30% in 2024. Production of rare earths almost tripled between 2010 and 2023, as demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and powerful computer chips has soared.

The report finds that while electric vehicles can reduce emissions for consumers in North America and Europe, the environmental and health costs are borne by remote communities in mining regions of Africa and Latin America.

Around 700 million tonnes of waste, enough to fill 59 million garbage trucks, were generated by global rare earth production in 2024. Africa – home to around 30% of the planet’s critical mineral reserves – is hit hard by the environmental fallout.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the world’s largest cobalt producers, the authors say mining has caused widespread contamination of rivers used for drinking, fishing and irrigation in the southeastern mining belt of Lualaba province.

According to the report, approximately 64% of the country’s population lacked basic access to water in 2024, while 72% of people living near mining sites reported skin diseases and 56% of women and girls reported gynecological problems.

“Some communities continue to struggle, walking more than a kilometer to collect water, while others are forced to abandon their homes for urban areas, plunging them further into poverty,” said Abraham Nunbogu, a researcher at UNU-INWEH and lead author of the report.

Lithium mining often requires pumping and evaporating large quantities of water from underground salt pans, while chemical processing of other critical minerals can contaminate rivers and underground reservoirs.

Latin America’s lithium triangle – the high-altitude salt flats stretching across Argentina, Bolivia and Chile – hold some of the world’s largest reserves of the metal. They are also among the driest ecosystems in the world.

In Bolivia’s Uyuni region, some communities can no longer reliably grow quinoa, while in Chile’s Atacama salt flats – where lithium and other mining account for up to 65% of regional water consumption – lagoons are drying up.

“These salt flats are the traditional territory of several indigenous peoples. Their agricultural and pastoral economies have been devastated by intensive brine extraction and worsening water scarcity in what was already one of the driest ecosystems on the planet,” said José Aylwin, coordinator of the lithium and human rights project in ABC, a cross-border research project that tracks the social and environmental impacts of lithium mining in Argentina, Bolivia and the Chile.

“As the report highlights, there is an urgent need to move from voluntary compliance mechanisms to mandatory standards of due diligence at international and national levels. »

UN researchers warn the damage is set to worsen as lithium production must increase nine-fold by 2040 – the IEA estimates an eight-fold increase – while cobalt and nickel mining must double to meet climate targets.

The authors argue that legally binding global standards on mineral supplies, stricter controls on toxic waste and water pollution, and independent monitoring of water use and heavy metal contamination are needed to regulate industries.

Without major reform, the green transition risks repeating patterns of fossil fuel extraction – enriching richer countries while leaving poorer communities to bear the cost.

“We thought the industrial revolutions were progress and now we understand the damage they caused, so we are launching another revolution to fix it. But once again the burden falls on the poorest. We are only moving it from the Middle East to Africa and Latin America,” Madani said.

While the report paints a bleak picture of the environmental costs of the rare earth mining boom, some communities and governments oppose it, said Thea Riofrancos, a political scientist at Providence College in Rhode Island who studies extraction and the energy transition.

Protests in Argentina and Chile have challenged lithium saltworks projects, while Indonesia has banned exports of raw materials including nickel ore.

“We have seen anti-mining protests become more frequent and more militant across the world over the past two decades,” she said. “Communities are forcing governments to pay greater attention to extraction costs. »