Communities impacted by British mining company operations in Indonesia, Chile, South Africa and Peru have condemned the UK Government’s new Critical Minerals Strategy, warning it will “fuel social and environmental injustices across global supply chains”.
The strategy aims to ‘secure’ supplies of ‘critical minerals’ to meet British needs, anticipating that by 2035 “demand for copper will almost double, while demand for lithium will increase by 1,100%”. In response, communities have warned that meeting this demand is unachievable without catastrophic and irreversible damage to their environments and livelihoods.
The strategy contains a range of policy measures, with targets for at least 10% of UK demand for critical minerals to be met through domestic production and no more than 60% supplied by any one country by 2035. The strategy lists 23 ‘growth minerals’, including lithium, nickel and copper, aiming to fuel an expansion of mining both in the UK and globally for minerals “significant for the future of UK-based manufacturing across the relevant growth sectors”.
However, communities living on the frontlines of mining operations have warned that the extraction and processing of these minerals has its own destructive environmental and human impacts at local and global levels, from water scarcity and ecosystem collapse to forced labour and violent attacks on Indigenous communities. The UK’s new strategy “deepens a model of unlimited growth which is unsustainable and devastating for us”, commented Rosanna Caldana, a representative of mining affected communities in Chile.
London Mining Network, a British NGO working with mining affected communities across the world, warned the plans have “nothing to do with meeting the needs of Britain’s energy transition and everything to do with bolstering the profits of arms, technology and automotive giants”. A recent report found over half of minerals designated as “critical” by the UK play “no major role” in the green transition, while campaigners argue much of the demand comes from the arms and consumer tech industries rather than green energy.
The strategy aims to bolster partnerships with mineral-rich countries globally, including several which have documented human rights abuses in their mining industries. The UK has already signed critical minerals partnerships and agreements with 9 countries including Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, and South Africa.
In November 2024 the UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Critical Minerals with Indonesia. Indonesia accounts for more than 50 per cent of global nickel production, a metal used in the production of electric vehicle batteries. Action for Ecology and People Emancipation, an organisation working with communities impacted by mining in Indonesia, have warned “the UK Government’s Critical Minerals Strategy threatens to fuel land dispossession, seizure of indigenous territory, and labor exploitation by increasing demand for nickel”.
London Mining Network condemned the Government’s commitment to growth in heavily polluting industries like the military, and called instead for a “focus on reducing demand and implementing circular economy solutions”, while upholding communities’ right to say no to mining developments in their local areas.
Jake Simms, Just Transition Coordinator at London Mining Network, said: “The Critical Minerals Strategy will fuel a global scramble for minerals that is driving the displacement of Indigenous communities, ecological devastation and creation of sacrifice zones globally. Instead of financing mining giants, the UK should focus on reducing demand and scaling up ambition around circular economy solutions. This strategy has nothing to do with meeting the needs of Britain’s energy transition and everything to do with bolstering the profits of arms, technology and automotive giants.”
Rosanna Caldana, Movimiento No Más Anglo and Corporación Camino a Farellones Chile, said: “We strongly reject this strategy as it perpetuates environmental and social damage and subordinates the well-being of our communities to corporate and state interests in the Global North. The strategy deepens a model of unlimited growth that is unsustainable and devastating for territories such as Chile.”
Pius Ginting, Coordinator of Action for Ecology and People Emancipation, Indonesia, said: “Nickel mining in Indonesia involves human rights violations and environmental damage. The UK Government’s Critical Minerals Strategy threatens to fuel land dispossession, seizure of indigenous territory, and labor exploitation by increasing demand for nickel.”
Eric Mokuoa from Bench Marks Foundation, South Africa, said: “The UK Critical Minerals Strategy is geared to increase demand for minerals and, consequently, renewed mining on the African continent. It will fuel social and environmental injustices across global supply chains. Africa, by and large, has not made any substantial development in the last mineral booms; the culture of extraction has mainly benefited the industrialised countries in the North.”