Water Usage

Another harmful factor of mining is its large water requirements. Mining and mineral processing necessitate heavy water use for many different practices, including ‘dust mitigation, removing soluble particles, sieving and separation processes, and in creating tailings dams for waste management’[4]. For many stages the water can be reused and recycled, however other stages such as spraying to remove airborne dust will lead to pollution of the water, essentially wasting it. This water use and water wastage reduces availability/access for local people to drink and use, causing avoidable water stress[4][6].
Impacts of the water usage can be minimised by using saline instead of freshwater, as this is not drinkable and has limited applications in other industries, currently 47% of the water used in this industry is being quality saline water[6].

Geopolitical

Mining has a history of dangerous conditions, health concerns and violence, and unfortunately this is still the case today. Due to the recent demand and surge of electric vehicle production valuable mineral mining is finally being put under scrutiny. Cobalt, as a key mineral in EV batteries, is experiencing a sustained surge in demand. The largest cobalt supplier is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)[5]. The supply coming out of the DRC has two different sources: a biproduct of large-scale mechanised copper mining or hand dug via the efforts of local people (artisanal mining). This artisanal mining accounts for around 25% of the worlds production and suffers from the huge issues mentioned previously[5][6].

Exploitation and Child Labour

This 2023 report exposes how the expansion of mining operations has forced people out of their homes and taken over the landscape. This mining takes over with both artisanal and industrial mines is fuelled by the enslavement of local men, women and children. With regions of the Eastern DRC now guarded by armed militias to control this trapped workforce[8][9].

Child labour is a historic issue in resource extraction within third world countries, shockingly this is still a major concern with the DRC’s cobalt supply chain. To combat this the U.S department of Labour “Combatting Child Labor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Cobalt Industry” (COTECCO)​ project exists to address child labour in the DRC’s cobalt supply chain. “The COTECCO efforts include raising awareness of the challenges and opportunities to combat child labour​;​​​ increasing governmental enforcement of child labour prevention​;​​​ improving the private sector’s monitoring and remediation of child labour violations in the cobalt supply chain​;​​​ and supporting efforts to enhance implementation and enforcement of laws, policies, and action plans that address child labour”[9][11][12].

While some progress and awareness has been made – with 28 companies adopting remediation efforts – the majority of the cobalt mining industry is unregulated. For our ‘green’ vehicle transition to be truly green, it needs to be good for the environment and good for the people involved in all stages, therefore major steps must be taken as we adopt ICEV alternatives[11][12].