Highlights
- According to the International Energy Agency , the average electric car requires more than 200 kilograms of critical minerals, six times that of a conventional combustion vehicle. (View Highlight)
- Minerals like lithium, cobalt, and copper are geographically concentrated in a few countries, and mining for them can be politically divisive and environmentally destructive. (View Highlight)
- Lithium is a key component in the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles, smartphones, and solar panels. And Latin America has a lot of it. (View Highlight)
- Chilean regulators have levied hefty fines against mining companies in the lithium-rich Atacama Desert for over-extracting groundwater. (View Highlight)
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo produces 70% of the world’s cobalt, an extremely rare mineral which keeps lithium-ion batteries from catching fire. (View Highlight)
- But DR Congo is a war-torn country with poor labour laws , and a large percentage of cobalt extraction is done by unregulated artisanal miners called creuseurs .
• As reported by the New Yorker , creuseurs are often killed by mine cave-ins and experience violence and sexual abuse by local militants. (View Highlight)
- And about 60% of rare earth mining and 85% of its processing occurs in China, which gives it enormous leverage over the US and Western allies: (View Highlight)
- Amnesty International’s Canadian office was targeted by Beijing-backed hackers , according to Canadian investigators. (View Highlight)