Where are the critical minerals flashpoints in 2025?
A sample of rock drilled at a cobalt mining site operated by Jervois Global is seen at a facility, west of Salmon, Idaho, May 16, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
What’s the context?
M23 rebels' advance in mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo puts green minerals rush in the spotlight
- Western nations want to reduce reliance on China
- U.N.'s Guterres warns against "stampede of greed"
- Mineral-rich nations seek environmental, social protections
BRUSSELS - The conflict playing out in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where Rwandan-backed M23 rebels have seized vital mines in a lightning advance, spotlights the global race for access to critical minerals and the risk to local populations.
The race for minerals needed for renewable technologies - including coltan, lithium, cobalt and nickel - is set to ramp up this year as Europe and North America compete to secure access and break China's grip on the supply chain.
With demand for 'net zero' minerals set to almost triple by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency, mining of lithium, cobalt and nickel found in countries like Chile, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Philippines is gathering pace.
But the environmental and social consequences for local populations are growing as resource-rich countries push to secure a share of the global green rush.
The fighting in eastern DRC, where hundreds have been killed and thousands injured in recent weeks, highlights the risk of related conflict: the United Nations says the decades-long war has been fuelled in part by the illicit mineral trade.
Here are some of the key countries and conflicts to keep an eye on in 2025.
Democratic Republic of Congo
The Democratic Republic of Congo has most of the world's reserves of cobalt, a silvery-blue metal used in making rechargeable batteries, according to the World Bank, and the mining sector is largely dominated by Chinese firms.
With mineral wealth estimated at $24 trillion, the central African country is one of the world's richest in terms of natural resources but most of the minerals are in the east, where armed groups, including the M23, have seized control of mines.
At the end of January, M23 rebels seized Goma, east Congo's largest city and the capital of North Kivu province, which is home to lucrative gold, coltan and tin mines.
A U.N. report last December said M23 rebels were making an estimated $800,000 in monthly taxes on coltan production and trade. Rwanda has long denied supporting the M23 rebel group.
The M23 advance is the latest escalation in decades of fighting over land and natural resources in the region. Millions have been killed, mostly from hunger and disease, and millions more displaced since the 1990s.
Manufacturers are increasingly under scrutiny to ensure that metals they use are not sourced from conflict zones in eastern Congo.
Since the M23 advance, the European Union has come under pressure to put a minerals deal with Rwanda on ice. Last December, the DRC filed criminal complaints against Apple subsidiaries in France and Belgium, accusing the tech firm of using conflict minerals in its supply chain.
Apple strongly disputes the claims.
It is now up to judicial authorities in Belgium and France to decide whether to investigate and bring criminal charges that could set a legal precedent in other conflict minerals cases.
Artisanal miners work at a cobalt mine-pit in Tulwizembe, Katanga province, Democratic Republic of Congo, November 25, 2015. REUTERS/Kenny Katombe
Artisanal miners work at a cobalt mine-pit in Tulwizembe, Katanga province, Democratic Republic of Congo, November 25, 2015. REUTERS/Kenny Katombe
Chile
Chile holds the world's largest reserves of lithium, also known as "white gold", and is the second largest copper producer. Both metals are used in energy storage and electric vehicles.
However, 90% of lithium reserves are in the Atacama desert and current lithium mining processes use vast amounts of water, depleting and contaminating the already limited supplies for nearby businesses and Indigenous communities, while also threatening fragile ecosystems.
For example, a proposed new lithium project in the Ascotan salt flat has raised concerns among residents and environmentalists that water extraction will endanger the extreme environment-adapted "karachi" fish .
The Chilean government said in 2023 it planned to take state control of the lithium industry and wanted to develop more sustainable extraction technologies in consultation with affected Indigenous communities.
The government is expected to launch a national minerals strategy in 2025, and plans to invest about $83 billion through 2033, state-run agency Cochilco said in December.
Brazil
With reserves of nickel, lithium, cassiterite and bauxite, Brazil has seen a surge in mining activities as well as conflicts in Amazon areas that are rich in biodiversity and home to Indigenous peoples.
A report released last year by Brazil’s National Committee in Defense of Territories Against Mining detected 348 conflicts pitting small-scale farmers, workers, Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples against mining enterprises between 2020 and 2023. It said the conflicts affected more than 100,000 people.
As the fifth-largest lithium producer in the world, according to Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy, Brazil plans to ramp things up this year with new exploration projects and investments - particularly in the Jequitinhonha Valley in the southeast, focus of the state government's "Lithium Valley" project aimed at attracting investors.
Philippines
In the Philippines - the world's second largest producer of nickel - the rush for transition minerals fuelled by the electric car industry threatens biodiversity, Indigenous communities' land rights and the safety of environmental defenders, according to a December investigation by environmental protection groups Global Witness and Kalikasan.
The government is planning to incentivise domestic companies to process critical minerals needed for the green transition to meet the country's goal of having an electric vehicle fleet share of at least 50% of all vehicles by 2040.
A fifth of the country's land mass of 300,000 square km (115,830 square miles) is covered in mining projects for nickel, cobalt, copper and other critical minerals, the report said.
The report also found that a quarter of the land used for transition mineral mining overlaps with key biodiversity and protected areas, and domestic laws protecting the rights of Indigenous peoples have failed to protect them from losing ancestral land because of mining.
It said that Indigenous Filipinos have lost a fifth of their ancestral territories to mining projects - an area greater than the size of Timor Leste.
This story was corrected on Thursday February 13 to correct the attribution of a report in the section on Brazil.
(Reporting by Joanna Gill; Additional reporting by Mariejo Ramos, Bukola Adebayo, Andre Cabette Fabio. Editing by Jack Graham and Clar Ni Chonghaile.)
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