by Claire Burgess, with research assistance from Liz Downes and support from Aid/Watch and the University of Tasmania | @claireburgo
‘WHITE GOLD’ AND CLEAN ENERGY
Lithium is a soft and silvery mineral that has been declared a critical mineral in the US, Japan, EU and Australia. Due to its use in batteries, lithium has been dubbed by those eager to invest in low carbon technologies as the ‘white gold’ of future energy markets. Lithium-ion batteries are used in electric vehicles (EVs) and backup storage for renewable energy grids. Depending on the battery composition and size, an EV battery contains between 8–12 kg of lithium. It is projected that by 2030, 74% of lithium demand will come from battery demands for electrification of transport. To meet the initial commitments for a 2 °C scenario by 2050, it is estimated that 53% of global deposits will be depleted.
Mining companies, investors and upstream manufacturers are capitalising on these emerging climate commodity markets — supported by a number of countries as a matter of national security. Countries are altering their policy landscapes to diversify from and compete with China for supplies and onshore manufacturing of battery-grade lithium and other ‘battery metals’. In Australia’s case, new partnerships are being formulated, representing a deliberate shift in trade relations away from China — which, in the case of lithium, means diversifying Australia’s exports of spodumene and refined metals. As a result the lithium market is widely fluctuating. Lithium prices rose by 500% through 2021 and early 2022. Whereas recently the price has dropped with reports of demand speculation and supply dynamics.
The complex array of challenges in securing the large amounts of lithium to reach the electrification goals, and within the context of continued trajectories of material-based consumer growth, are significant. Top energy technology companies have reported that securing lithium supply was an urgent security concern. Understandably, this is raising concerns for human rights and environmental groups, particularly in the regions where lithium reserves are located.
Australian-listed mining companies dominate the lithium extraction market and are scattered across the globe. Lithium is concentrated in the most significant quantities in China, Australia, Argentina, Chile and in smaller quantities elsewhere. Second to China, Australia has one of the world’s largest reserves of lithium. Domestically, just five Australian projects accounted for 55% of global extraction in 2021. This is in addition to the expansion of operations in regions such as the so-called ‘lithium triangle’ of Chile, Bolivia and Argentina, where an estimated 80% of global reserves are contained. The US, Canada, Europe and the African continent are seeing a plethora of new lithium projects from Australian companies.
This race to secure lithium is generating environmental and social impacts across the various hotspots often in sensitive ecosystems and upon vulnerable communities, which can be understood as the creation of green sacrifice zones.
GREEN SACRIFICE ZONES: THE COSTS OF THE LITHIUM RUSH
Mining for lithium involves different types of approaches which each have particular impacts on environments and communities. To date, conventional means of extracting lithium have been either from hard rock mineral (spodumene) from pegmatite deposits, or from brine in salt lakes. According to analyst Fitch Solutions, 65% of global commercial lithium output in 2021 was from spodumene — mainly in Australia — and 35% from brines (Latin America and China). However, battery demand is sparking a host of projects developing new extraction techniques, namely sedimentary (clay) deposits and geothermal brines.
Brine in salt lakes — The ‘Lithium Triangle’ across Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile accounts for 55% of the global deposits of brine salt lithium and is poised to be the largest exporter of lithium well into the future, despite concerns associated with water depletion and Indigenous rights. The process of extraction involves drilling below the ground surface with large rigs, pumping up the brine, and cycling it through a series of evaporation ponds. An energy intensive process, lithium mining of salt lakes currently predominantly relies on fossil fuels. One tonne of lithium carbonate requires over 500,000 gallons (two million litres) of water. In Chile’s Salar de Atacama, where an estimated 30% of the world’s lithium reserves are located, over 1,700 litres of brine are sucked out of the ground every second. Available water has been reduced by 65% due to mining. This has been associated with ecological impacts, including a decline in populations of flamingos — a key species. Collapsing water tables have caused local water supplies to dry out, making livelihoods unsustainable and impacting on Indigenous cultural practices.
Mined areas are reported to be scarred with mountains of discarded salt and contaminated waste ponds. Similar impacts have been noted in Argentina’s salt flat regions, where decades of lithium mining has also caused irreversible air and soil contamination, sparking local lawsuits and protests against companies. As in Chile’s Atacama, Argentina’s salt flats are in the grip of a significant expansion of mining development, aided by supply chain investments by major EV manufacturers such as Tesla and BMW.
Hard rock (spodumene) — Australia accounts for roughly 80% of the global lithium supply from hard rock pegmatite (spodumene) mineral deposits. The process of extraction via these methods is economically costly and highly destructive, involving energy intensive roasting that predominantly relies on fossil fuels, akin to fracking, coal mining or oil drilling. It involves drilling deep into the earth and the use of explosives to break up rock, followed by roasting the rock at high heat, crushing, and sulphuric acid leaching. These methods are energy, carbon and water-intensive, producing enormous amounts of waste — lithium extraction in Australia produces 94% waste rock. Refining is the most environmentally damaging stage of the process, due to the risk of chemical contamination.
Clay — Due to the uneven geographic distribution of lithium resources and associated concerns with securing access, exploitation of clay-based lithium resources have received increasing attention. A flurry of new exploration is arising in lithium-bearing clay deposits on the Oregon-Nevada border and Southwestern China. Calcination and acid leaching processes have been required to extract lithium for clay rocks. Several Australian mining companies are seeking to mine clay deposits across the globe, including the US and Serbia, with significant social and environmental implications. Impacts are due to the deposits often lying in vulnerable arid land ecosystems, farmlands and, in the case of Oregon and Nevada, overlapping with First Nations lands and sacred sites (see case studies below). Lithium extractivism of this type is emerging as requiring huge amounts of groundwater, potentially resulting in long term contamination and large quantities of waste.
Geothermal — Companies are increasingly interested in naturally occurring geothermal liquids which have been identified as a source of lithium that is ‘non-polluting’. Geothermal extraction is being presented as ‘Net Zero Lithium’ and a cleaner alternative to hard rock mining and fossil fuel dependent operations. The process requires drilling 2–3 kilometres into the earth and pumping hot geothermal brine to the surface. At 1–2 metres an hour, this would take 124 twelve-hour days of drilling with no assurance regarding whether the drilling will find geothermal aquifers. While they attempt to address the incredibly mineral and fossil fuel intensive nature of “clean” energy technologies, geothermal technologies present serious risks, including that of causing earthquakes. An Australian-owned company is exploring this method in Germany (see below for more information).
AUSTRALIA’S ENABLING LITHIUM MINING CONTEXT
The Federal Government has enacted major policy changes over the past several years to make Australia a ‘global critical minerals powerhouse’. Lithium is at the forefront of this ambition, due to the burgeoning hype for the mineral related to clean energy. Australia’s domestic market and its listed companies hold a dominant position across the various types of extraction. Lithium exports from mines in Australia increased from 39,700 tonnes to 55,000 in 2020. Australia hosts some of the world’s largest lithium operations in terms of production.
The Federal Department of Industry’s 2022 Critical Minerals Strategy provides policy support to lithium projects deemed to be of strategic importance to the Australian economy and significant for global clean energy supply chains. This has involved budget allocations favouring ‘integrated’ projects that support extraction, processing, and refining elements of the supply chain. For example, in Western Australia — the key mining state — a Future Battery Industry Strategy and research hub seeks to expand exploration and build manufacturing capacities for onshore processing. Several government research grants have also been awarded to key ‘integrated’ supply chain-focused companies like Lithium Australia for capturing new economic opportunities.
Australia’s economic policy context is supporting an expansion of onshore and international lithium projects. This is entwined with a change in the landscape of Australia’s cooperative trade agreements with other countries. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) alliance between Australia, India, Japan and the US, ratified in 2021, is prioritising securing future supply chains of key battery metals, including lithium. In March 2022, Australia signed a Memorandum of Understanding with India’s Ministry of Mines to identify new lithium and cobalt resources and strengthen the supply chain between the two countries in these metals. In addition, battery technology companies are forming alliances with mining companies, including offtake agreements with overseas car manufacturing firms, such as EV Metals Group’s Strategic Lithium Alliance. This is playing a role in the expanding footprint of Australia’s domestic lithium mining context.
AUSTRALIAN DOMESTIC LITHIUM EXTRACTION FOOTPRINT
Australia’s lithium mining footprint is rapidly expanding across the country, beyond the traditional areas of extraction. Based on mapping of the existing projects, a total of 25 companies are currently undertaking a combined 37 active lithium mining operation areas. Of those, 30 pertain to exploration areas which in most cases consist of multiple concession holdings per project. Ten lithium projects are included on Austrade’s 2020 Critical Minerals Projects List. Of these, four are operating, three are in construction, and three are at exploration or feasibility stages. One project has been granted Major Project Status (MPS) by the Federal Government: Core Lithium’s much-hyped Finniss mine in the Northern Territory (see case study). A lithium refinery in WA has also been given MPS status. An MPS designation allows companies to accelerate approval processes and avoid particular laws and regulations.
Significant social, cultural, and environmental impacts are occurring across 7 project areas that have publicly available information. The common concerns across the projects pertained to livelihoods (farming, tourism, local economic activities), water access and water contamination, natural environment impacts including native vegetation clearing and contamination. Regarding Indigenous rights, impacts related to cultural heritage, inadequate consultation, failure to respect the right to say no to projects on Indigenous lands, failure to respect Indigenous local economies was another key concern. In three projects concerns regarding vulnerable species habitats and one project had significant concerns associated with contamination and environmental impacts from waste disposal. The details of this are described below.
Most major project expansions are happening in Western Australia, in areas already impacted by decades of grand-scale metals mining, such as the Western Pilbara and the Kalgoorlie-Goldfields region. Liontown Resources proposed an open pit that was set to impact on a culturally significant water body and the company agreed to an underwater alternative after negotiations with local TO’s. Cultural heritage and water rights are key concerns in this region. The Pilbara region’s history is fraught with violations against Indigenous communities, ranging from dispossession and exclusion to cultural heritage destruction (for example Juukan Gorge, where Rio Tinto infamously destroyed a sacred site in 2020). Without careful consideration, a mining boom in this region is likely to reproduce past conditions of inequality and ecological damage.
Greenbushes, near Perth, is the world’s largest hard rock lithium deposit and project. The operation is run by Tailson Resources, a joint venture comprising Chinese-based Tianqui Lithium Corporation and US-based Albermarle Corporation.
In 2019, a grassroots collective, the Dardanup Environmental Action Group, launched a community opposition in relation to expansions and increased needs for waste disposal near the town of Dardanup. Concerns from the community regarded the removal of native vegetation, groundwater contamination, and threats to livelihoods associated with prime farmland and tourism in and around the Ferguson Valley. A community member was quoted in the media as saying: “We don’t benefit from the lithium boom, we just end up with this toxic scar on the landscape”.
This area also contains a sacred site of the First Nations Noongar people — the Blackwood River and its tributaries. In anticipation of expansions of ore extraction around Greenbushes, a new refinery at the industrial port of Kwinana, near Perth, was opened in 2021.
Another grand-scale lithium project intending to expand further is Pilbara Minerals’ Pilgangoora. Pilbara Minerals, which ships ore from Port Hedland, sold spodumene to China for record prices in 2021. In 2017, three billion litres of diesel fuel were imported into the Pilbara each year, primarily for powering the transportation operations of the mining industry. Woodside’s new Scarborough gas project seeks to contribute to reducing the mining industry’s emissions, yet the project is equivalent to building 15 new coal power stations.
Just northwest of Perth, community members in the small township of Toodyay are concerned about the impact of a proposed nickel, copper, rare earths and lithium mine on a nature reserve. The 26km mineral deposit has been branded as a ‘world class green metals’ project, and Chalice Minerals’s 2600-hectare concession covers both farmland and the Julimar State Forest, a nature reserve well known for recreation and tourism. A grassroots community network, the Avon Hills and Mining Awareness Group, are concerned about the project on grounds of its impacts to the environment and wildlife, local businesses, agricultural production, and Indigenous cultural heritage sites. Community concerns, including appeals and a petition, have delayed the project’s drilling permit application.
Outside of Western Australia, problematic projects are in the pipeline for a flood plain in the Northern Territory and a biodiverse area in Cape York, Queensland (see case study). In Victoria, Kangaroo island has been flagged as a potential lithium pegmatite resource, and is being explored by Lithium Australia; mining here will impact on the island’s rich wildlife and tourism industry. Lithium exploration is also occurring in northeast Victoria and northeast Tasmania. Drilling activities in Tasmania have attracted concerns from local environmental and tourism groups.
Across Australia, the identified socio-environmental issues of lithium expansion include: further intensification of resource industries in areas already vulnerable to over-use of water by existing mines (for example, in the Goldfields and Pilbara regions of Western Australia); water contamination risks with hard-rock lithium mining; threats to biodiversity, lack of right to say no, and aggressive tactics in regard to consultation and Native Title claims with traditional owners.
Below are two case studies which exemplify a number of these risks and impacts.
DOMESTIC CASE STUDIES
1. Cape York, Indigenous land rights and the lithium rush
An increase in lithium mining exploration permits from an increasingly dominant player in the global lithium market, Lithium Australia, are concerning Traditional land holder groups of the Cape York Peninsula, Northern Queensland. Communities who are located in around 4 million hectares of lands that have been ‘handed back’ to First Nations for management. But around half of this land is classified ‘freehold’, meaning that Traditional Owners have no decision-making rights in the issuance of mining permits. In recent years, seventy-one mining exploration permits have been granted in the region. There are concerns that the race to secure lithium in Cape York will continue to expand, with government departments and industries exploiting loopholes in the law to force Traditional Owners to come into ‘voluntary arrangements’ for concession of their land for mining.
The Olkola Aboriginal Corporation, who own and manage around 1 million hectares on the Cape, have plans for alternative futures to the use of their lands for lithium ‘green’ extractivism. These include the protection of core habitat for the endangered golden-shouldered parrot, or Alwal, which is an Olkola totem animal — as well as many other endangered species and vulnerable wetlands in the Aboriginal-managed Olkola National Park. Traditional groups are mobilising to demand an overhaul of the Native Title Act 1993, and legal battles are underway.
2. Core Lithium’s Finniss Project, Northern Territory
Core Lithium’s Finniss Project is an open pit spodumene mine and concentrator plant being developed on Cox Peninsula, south of Darwin Port — an area covered in lithium exploration tenements owned by various companies. Project development began in October 2021. The mine will have an initial life of only 4–7 years, though the company is exploring surrounding deposits to extend this. Despite its short-term nature, Finnis has gained attention from government and investors: it was granted Major Project Status in 2021, giving it access to federal government funding and streamlining, while in March 2022, an offtake agreement was signed with Tesla.
The project necessitates the installation of significant infrastructure — including a water supply dam, sediment ponds, waste rock landforms, a storage and maintenance area, internal access roads and drainage infrastructure. The NT Environment Centre (NTEC) has raised concerns, including impacts on groundwater in an area prone to cyclones, acid mine drainage, and a lack of company transparency about the mine’s closure and management plan. The NTEC, while stating the need for decarbonisation, acknowledges the risks associated with rushing projects without an adequate study of potential environmental impacts.
A May 2022 ABC report interviewed pastoralists concerned about lithium expansion by another company close to the Finniss site. Run-off has allegedly been observed around the Core Lithium site; local farmers also raised concerns about groundwater contamination in a high-rainfall region. There are also questions about regulation of water extraction, as the mining industry in the Northern Territory is exempt from requirements of the Water Act.
Core Lithium claims their negotiations with Traditional Owners of the Larrakia Nation where the six mining tenements are located are transparent and have followed due process. But there has been a recent dispute — in 2021, Kenbi Traditional Owners filed a lawsuit against the regional Native Title representative body over alleged mishandling of royalty agreements with the company. This was withdrawn in February 2022, a month before major works to develop the mine began.
AUSTRALIAN LITHIUM COMPANIES OVERSEAS — EXTRACTION FOOTPRINT
Australian companies are aggressively competing for lithium assets across the globe, with significant implications in South and North America, Europe and Africa. This section will detail the emerging context in each continent and delve into a number of case studies to illustrate emerging issues across each region. The remaining Asia-Pacific context will be presented before delving into the other regional continents.
ASIA-PACIFIC REGION (not including Australia)
Significant deposits and a well-established lithium mining industry exists in China. However, Australian companies are present and expanding in Thailand. Two companies are exploring in Thailand the main concerns for these projects relate to impacts on livelihoods (farming and tourism) as well as the impacts associated with clearing tropical forest areas particularly in Northern Thailand — which would particularly pertain to biodiversity. Contamination of waterways that are relied upon by local smallholders and village communities is another potential concern although limited information is available.
Thailand — Southeast Asia has supportive EV and battery policy, with a number of Australian domestic extraction companies seeking offtake agreements in various countries. At the extraction end of the supply chain, two ASX-listed companies are seeking operations in Thailand including Pan Asia Metals and Matsa Resources. Pan Asia Metals has three projects in the Mueang Mae Hong Son region, a mountainous province in northern Thailand which contains geothermal hot springs. Initially targeting projects in Myanmar, the company claims that the policy and licensing roadblocks in that country led to them seeking to capture lithium deposits in Thailand. They are pursuing three projects, one for geothermal and the other two for hard rock exploitation. Also in the same region, Matsa Resources has bought up 65 exploration concessions.
While there is little available information from community concerns regarding impacts, this area is known for its dominant mountain peaks that give birth to numerous streams, small rivers and forests. Numerous villages are located in this area with communities dependent on smallholder farming and tourism for their livelihoods.
SOUTH AMERICA
In South America, eight major Australian companies are exploring for lithium or expanding projects. All of these are operating in the so-called ‘lithium triangle’ which spans parts of Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. Latin Resources Ltd are in the lithium triangle as well as Brazil. Across these companies, there are 15 active projects as of early 2022, four of these being hard rock (in Brazil and central Argentina) and the remainder brine. Australian companies are operating and impacting on all three provinces across the lithium region that contain the great salt lakes where the brine is present. The key impacts in this region have been raised by Indigenous led groups who have led significant opposition since 2014. These include water depletion and contamination, disruption of ecosystems and key species, disrespect of Indigenous cultural practices, negative impacts on farming livelihoods in relation to soil and the failure to respect the right to say no.
Australia’s trade relationships with the key countries are significant to how land is accessed and project facilitation. Australia has two bilateral trade agreements with South American countries. These are with Chile and Peru — both focused heavily on mineral resources and the enabling of mining expansion. Chile is, to date, the world’s second largest lithium extracting country; however as the country undergoes a process of rewriting its constitution and potentially reorienting policies towards nationalising mining resources, Australian lithium investors are setting their sights on Argentina.
Argentina — Argentinian mining investment law and policy is more friendly to Australian investment than that of Chile and Bolivia, with allowance for duty-free equipment imports and fiscal adjustments including tax breaks and very low royalties. It also does not establish mechanisms for community consultation. Hence, all eight Australian lithium-focused companies in South America (including giants Rio Tinto and Allkem) are competing for resources here. They are crowded mainly in the three northern Argentinian provinces of Olaroz, Salta and Cajamarca, which hold 9% of the world’s total lithium reserves.
In December 2021, Rio Tinto agreed to acquire the Rincon brine extraction project in Salta Province for $US825 million. Meanwhile Allkem — created from a merger of Australian companies Orocobre and Galaxy Resources in 2021 — owns three large-scale projects: Olaroz and Cauchari in Jujuy Province, and Sal de Vida at Salar de Hombre Muerto in Catamarca Province.
Ten indigenous Atacameño communities are situated around the Salar de Olaroz, some directly within Allkem’s mining leases. The Olaroz project, which is being expanded to become what the company hopes to be one of the world’s largest evaporative lithium extraction operations, has been the epicentre of turmoil since extraction began in 2014. The company has applied socialisation tactics, offering jobs and dividing some community members against others who protest the impacts of mining activities on the water supply. Concerns have also been raised that in consultation stages the company did not pursue due process with regard to international conventions regarding free, prior and informed consent.
At Salar de Hombre Muerto en Catamarca, decades of lithium extraction have contaminated waterways, degraded ecosystems and impacted local livelihoods. Atacameño communities are engaged in non-violent resistance and campaign to educate the global community about the dangers posed by lithium mining to water, ecosystems, ancestral sites and culture.
Case Study: Chile — Maricunga (Blanco) Project and Indigenous resistance
“For many years now, we’ve tried to make the Chilean state understand that the salt flat is dying, and that concerns the whole of humanity. But men don’t understand that. They only see energy.”
– Collá woman speaking in video made by The Guardian, 2021, in Riofrancos (2021)
While Argentina undergoes significant expansion of lithium mining, extractive projects continue to wreak havoc on ecosystems and livelihoods in the salt lagoons of Atacama, Northern Chile — in the name of providing raw materials for green energy. This is sparking a nationwide environmental struggle toward constitutional change with implications for Australian mining companies.
Salar de Maricunga incorporates lands of the Collá Indigenous people, who depend on the lake and surrounds for farming and artisanal industries. The area contains a National Park (Tres Cruces) and Ramsar-listed wetlands; the ecosystem comprises a fragile balance of flora and fauna evolved for one of the earth’s driest climates. The global lithium boom has accelerated industrial expansion since 2019 — the salar is covered with mining concessions, impacting on water tables and ecosystems.
One of two new projects is Salar Blanco, which is 51% owned by Australian company Lithium Power International, in partnership with a Chilean private company and Canada’s Bearing Lithium. The $570 million project received environmental approval for development in 2018 and is projected to produce 20,000 tonnes per annum of lithium carbonate over 20 years, with profits flowing overseas to Australian and multinational investors, and the lithium destined for Japan and China. While neighbouring company SIMCO plans to use direct extraction technology — a purportedly ‘cleaner, greener’ process — Salar Blanco will use conventional, water-intensive evaporation extraction methods. Environmental experts fear that any new mining in the salar may permanently destroy its fragile ecosystems within two decades.
In 2020, Collá communities pursued legal proceedings to revoke the environmental licence of the Salar Blanco and SIMCO projects, alleging the companies excluded them from consultations — violating their rights as Indigenous people. In January 2022, the Regional Government of Atacama filed a case against the Ministry of Mining concerning whether changes in government policies related to lithium exploitation for Chile’s ‘green energy’ transition were made without public participation or assessment of environmental impacts.
Lithium is currently designated a ‘strategic mineral’ under Chile’s mining law, with priority given by the State to its exploitation over any environmental protection laws — and over water, which is owned by the State. Under the law, efforts to mitigate environmental risk and obtain social licence are at the discretion of the company. These concerns have sparked Indigenous land and water defenders to call for local struggles around green extractivism to be taken seriously in Chile’s drafting of a new constitution. Supported within an anti-colonial movement based on water justice, groups have also aligned with wider and international networks, such as OPSAL (Observatorio Plurinacional de Salares Andinas), Yes to Life No to Mining and War on Want, to raise awareness to the links between the local struggles of the Maricunga and wider Atacama region. Appeals have been filed by Indigenous communities against mining contracts. The current President, Gabriel Boric has indicated his intentions to open paths to joint ventures with private companies later in the year.
Alternative cosmovision’s and values toward ecological relationality in response to greening extractivism can be seen in the May 2022 draft text of the new constitution. This contained provisions that mining companies repair environmental harm and allow the government to declare water-vulnerable areas no-go zones. Mining in glaciers and national parks will be banned if these laws are passed. In addition, the constitution includes the rights of nature and climate and environmental emergency articles.
NORTH AMERICA
In North America, the main lithium mining expansion areas are in the US states of Nevada and Arizona, and in northern Québec, Canada. While an Australian company was in Mexico, they are likely to be retreating given the recent nationalisation of lithium mining. Several (8) Australian companies are present most significantly in Nevada and Arizona, with significant impacts on Native lands and fragile ecosystems and endangered species. In Canada there are (6) Australian companies located across Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba, predominantly conducting exploration. Issues arising projects are on or near Indigenous lands with concerns associated with pristine waterways and ecosystems.
Mexico
One of the only Australian companies to make inroads into Mexico for lithium has been Lithium Australia, who began explorations in 2017. In April 2022 an amendment to the Mexican national mining law was passed, declaring lithium a strategic mineral and banning private companies from exploration and extraction.
United States
Eight Australian companies are undergoing lithium exploration in the US. This study identified fifteen projects varying from clay, hard rock, and brine in the states of Nevada, Arizona, Oregon and North Carolina. Like Australia, the US is orienting its national policy towards the mining, processing and manufacturing of critical minerals on home soil — a process which began under the Trump administration in 2017, and has accelerated since under the motive of national security. Australia has comprehensive trade relations with the US, including a Free Trade Agreement and recent policy developments with regard to cooperation around critical minerals supply chains.
In Nevada — the main lithium hotspot — Australian companies are joining a large number of international miners in a swathe of exploitation. Grand-scale operations in the area include Lithium Americas’ Thacker Pass project, which has come under fire for its massive impact risks to ancestral sacred sites and fragile ecosystems.
Australian projects which have recently benefited from the US’s mining-friendly political agenda include Ioneer’s proposed Rhyolite Ridge mine in Nevada (see case study below), and Arizona Lithium’s Big Sandy project. Arizona Lithium is operating on the lands of the Hualapai Tribe, impacting on the sacred Ha’Kamwe medicinal springs and other sites of cultural significance. In 2021 the Hualapai formally declared their opposition in a response to the company’s submission for an Environmental Assessment to undertake drilling, citing deficiencies in the submission and lack of First Nations representation.
Another problematic project in North Carolina, owned by US-based but ASX-listed Piedmont Lithium, has attracted significant community opposition, including a lawsuit against the company for breaches of community consultation and fears about environmental destruction in a key agricultural region.
Canada
In Canada, three lithium-focused Australian companies are operating in Québec, two in Ontario and one in Manitoba, with thirteen projects in total. All are at exploration stages, with intentions to conduct hard rock mining.
In Québec, Sayona Québec Incorporated, a subsidiary of Sayona Mining Limited, has two controversial projects. The Authier project is very close to a pristine, partly underground river system known as the Saint-Mathieu-Berry esker, and community groups have opposed operations on the grounds that Sayona has cut corners with its environmental assessment and community consultation processes. The Tansim open-pit project is on the unceded lands of the Long Point First Nation and threatens cultural heritage sites and vulnerable wetland environments.
Case Study: Big profit versus Tiehm’s buckwheat in Nevada
A hard rock, open pit lithium mining extractive operation, owned by Ioneer, has been proposed on Paiute and Shoshone Native lands. This project, if it proceeds, will destroy up to 90% of habitat for a rare wildflower — Tiehm’s buckwheat — which has been found nowhere else on earth. Arnold Tiehm, a concerned conservationist who helped classify the plant in 1983, said in relation to the destruction proposed — “You could wipe the buckwheat out with a bulldozer in a couple of hours… It’s that simple.”
Ioneer, the Australian company in its early operations, was beset by allegations of underhanded dealings with the regional Bureau of Land Management, who issues mining permits. Scrutiny regarding the permitting process was likely compromised by the Trump administration’s 2017 issuing of an executive order to produce minerals deemed critical to national security, including lithium, which called for the streamlining of projects.
In 2020, while Tiehm’s buckwheat was under assessment by the US Fish and Wildlife Service for listing under the Endangered Species Act, 17,000 plants were maliciously destroyed. In response, in 2021, the Center for Biological Diversity successfully sued the Fish and Wildlife Service for delaying the process of listing the plant as endangered. In February 2022 the Service proposed protecting 910 acres of critical habitat for the flower, including a 500-metre protective buffer zone.
The Rhyolite Ridge project is currently stalled. Ioneer claims to have spent over $1,250,000 on research and protection measures for Tiehm’s buckwheat over the past three years — including unsuccessful transplantation trials. Nevertheless, Ioneer plans to start production, in 2023, of an estimated 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate and hydroxide per annum. The company has signed an offtake agreement with a Chinese company for an annual supply of 105,000 tonnes of boric acid.
While the US government champions the development of lithium and other battery metals on home soil under national security policy — and Tesla progresses plans to build its new gigafactory in Nevada — the stand-off between big profit and a small wildflower remains tense.
EUROPE
Australian-listed mining companies are expanding in Europe, with emerging lithium projects in Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic, and Serbia. A total of six Australian companies operates ten projects across the EU — five of these owned by Jadar Resources Ltd, situated in Serbia and Austria. Nine projects are in the new exploration stage and one (Vulcan Minerals’ geothermal project in Germany) at feasibility stage. The most established project in the region is European Metals Holdings’ Cinovec lithium, tin and tungsten project in north-western Czech Republic. Concerns relating to destruction of farmlands, and threats to some of Europe’s last remaining nature reserves. Geothermal mining is causing concern regarding disruptions to major underground aquifers. In two major projects there are World Heritage sites at risk of damage.
Australian mining of lithium and associated expansions is supported by the EU’s listing of lithium as a ‘critical raw material’ in 2020, with an aspiration to rely on 80 percent local lithium production by 2025. Australia is pursuing closer trade ties with the EU, with a Free Trade Agreement under negotiation, and benefits likely to be directed towards strengthening critical minerals and battery metals supply chains. Australian junior companies have previously explored in Finland, Sweden and Portugal, but sold their investments — in one case, amidst investment disputes and environmental impact concerns.Main regions and impacts are summarised below.
Portugal — Portugal is the EU’s main promised source of lithium for green energy, with dozens of exploration tenements across the country. UK company Savannah are expanding their Mina do Barroso operations under staunch opposition from affected communities. Portugal’s history of strong local resistance to lithium exploitation has previously discouraged Australian companies. Nevertheless Australian mining magnate Twiggy Forrest has set sights on Portugal, with Fortescue Metals applying for tenements covering about 7000 square kilometres of prospective lithium.
Serbia — Large-scale protests against Rio Tinto’s proposed Jadar mine in Serbia led the Government to revoke the project’s licences in January 2022. This project attempted to establish a clay mining extractive operation on farmlands in Serbia. Rio Tinto discovered lithium in the valley of the Jadar river in West Serbia in 2004. The first drill holes commenced, however, in 2019, sparking concerns from the local community in Radjevina over the potential impacts of tailing waste plans. Communities were not adequately consulted, and their lands were rezoned without the land holders’ consent from agricultural to construction status which generated a campaign that snowballed into a widespread movement — culminating in a large road blockade in 2021. Marija Alimpić of Protect Jadar & Rađevinu, a local campaign opposing Rio Tinto’s planned Jadar lithium mine, Serbia, says:
“It is clear, more than ever, that destructive projects like lithium mines masked in the fake green agenda, serve only to satisfy the greed of the rich on the account of Nature and humanity. The local communities on the frontline are usually the Indigenous people whom we should all celebrate for protecting biodiversity for all of us and patiently teaching us real values, such as the necessity of love and respect for Mother Nature and solidarity among humans.”
Rio Tinto continues to communicate the company’s intention to reopen discussions with the Serbian government regarding the future of the project.
Germany — Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart has invested in a company, Vulcan Energy, who has a licence to mine for lithium in brine deposits using geothermal energy. The company is claiming that the mine will be the world’s first ‘zero carbon’ project. In late 2021 Rinehart pulled $10m out of her investment in Vulcan, due to industry sources raising concerns about the economic viability of geothermal mining.
Case Study: Lithium mining threatens ancient city and a nature reserve in Spain
Australian company Infinity Lithium is pursuing lithium extractivism in a nature reserve where black vultures, eagle owls, black storks and imperial eagles have made their home. The San José Project — owned by joint venture Technología Extremeña del Litio — is proposed for just outside the city of Cáceres in southwestern Spain. The project, consisting of an open pit mine and processing plant, is facing an ongoing campaign of resistance from local communities concerned with the impacts of open pit mining on biodiversity and the nearby historic town, which is listed as an UNESCO World Heritage site.
The environmental impact study prepared by Technología Extremeña del Litio in 2018 admitted that 9300 tonnes of dynamite would be used throughout the life of the project, which would destroy habitat, damage air quality, and cause noise pollution, while road-based machinery would exert a toll on animals.
“Europe has called us a ‘sacrifice zone’. Yes, there is such a term. Europe says it urgently needs rare minerals to meet the emerging demand for lithium and other minerals. In fact, it seeks to avoid dependence on China to be able to manufacture batteries for electric cars. … With the excuse of the misnamed Ecological Transition they intend to turn our city into a sacrifice zone, a concept well known to those who suffer the threat and reality of these extractive activities.” — Salvemos La Montaña, community action group
In June 2020, Infinity Lithium secured 800,000 euros of financial backing from an EU-backed sustainable investment fund, EIT InnoEnergy, towards development of the processing plant. This has caused controversy, with activists from local organisation Salvemos La Montaña petitioning the EU Parliament to investigate the channelling of public funds towards private companies — an accusation denied by the CEO of Infinity Lithium. The case is ongoing.
AFRICAN CONTINENT
The African continent is only recently emerging as a region attractive to lithium mining companies as the Union of African States steers towards a ‘Green Recovery Action Plan’ featuring electrification and increased state control over battery metals supply chains. Seven ASX-listed companies are pursuing lithium extraction in African countries, in order to corner areas of the supply market amidst a Chinese investment boom. There are six Australian-owned projects out of eight total new projects across the continent. These are at various stages of their operations in Namibia, Mali, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC — see case study).
Research data about impacts of lithium mining in Africa is scant, in part due to lithium mining being a new extractive frontier. We found some key themes associated with Australian mining operations in these countries and the broader context. While mining plays a significant role in the economies of African nations, often the small benefits for communities outweigh the negative social-environmental impacts. These include human rights impacts in relation to worker conditions; radiation exposure; and environmental impacts including loss of wildlife habitats, water depletion, and legacy issues associated with abandoned mines and acid drainage.
Africa has not played a large role in lithium supply chains despite having large reserves. However this is changing, as the African countries are being targeted in what is being termed a commodity super cycle focused on critical and battery minerals. We outline below the mining context more broadly in each region.
Namibia and Zimbabwe –
Zimbabwe is the only country in Africa with a currently operating lithium mine. The economy of Namibia and Zimbabwe are both highly dependent on mining for export. The economic benefits of mining on the community often outweigh the negative socio-environmental impacts. Serious concerns are related to drainage of water sources as the mining tends to be in arid/semi-arid areas. There are extensive legacy and ongoing problems with abandoned mines, where companies take advantage of weak state laws and policies, come in, exploit and either sell off their projects or leave, with ongoing unmonitored impacts on the environment and communities. Rio Tinto has a history of causing negative health impacts in Namibia. Although this was regarding Uranium mining, it does illustrate the lack of regard for health impacts of workers and communities. Due to waste rock dumping and a tailings dam, radioactive contamination was found in the soil and workers were not adequately informed of risks of radiation exposure.
Mali — ASX-listed Mali Lithium (Firefinch) has obtained a licence to draw power and water from the Sélingué Dam, which services the local communities. It plans to build a pipeline to then divert treated water from the mine back into the communities. This precarious plan raises several feasibility concerns.
In South Africa, mining including the expansions of associated infrastructure has had a large impact on the environment in South Africa, particularly as one of the largest threats to natural habitats and wildlife populations The legacies have extended to problems associated with significant acid mine drainage has been acknowledged by the government as it pertains to the flow of water polluted with metals and other substances from old mining areas.
All new Australian projects are situated in geological regions which host, or have hosted, artisanal metals mining. Artisanal mining is often posited as being the cause of socio-economic and environmental issues in Africa in industry literature and media which promote the benefits of foreign-owned company presences and grand-scale mining in these regions. The case study below illustrates some of the potential impacts of large-scale extraction in the context of the DRC — a country notorious for environmental and human rights issues associated with mining and the ongoing legacy impacts of colonialism.
Case Study: Manono — can lithium ever be clean and green in the DRC?
In the DRC, emerging lithium mining is closely linked to the existing exploitation of tantalum — found in pegmatite deposits and often mined as a by-product of hard-rock lithium. This is supported by the Congolese Government declaring lithium a strategic mineral in 2018. The metal derived from tantalum is niobium, essential for many electronic technologies. Tantalum is, along with cobalt, one of the biggest mining industries in the DRC. Largely artisanal mined, the mineral’s extraction is associated with extensive human rights and environmental issues. More importantly, during and since the Congolese civil war, tantalum has been a notorious ‘conflict mineral’ at the epicentre of industry-supported illicit trade, organised crime, government corruption and warlord activity.
Market dynamics around battery metal demand have created an increase in mining and exploration for lithium alongside tantalum in the DRC. Australian companies are therefore hoping to offset the high conflict risk of operating in particular geographical locations with profits from burgeoning prices. Two Australian companies have mining tenements near the town of Manono in southern DRC. Critical Resources Ltd owns the Kitolo-Katumba and Kanukua lithium prospecting zones, while in 2022, AVZ Minerals gained licence to develop a grand scale lithium-tin-tantalum mine. AVZ, who claims discovery of the estimated 400 million tonne Manono lithium reserve — potentially the world’s largest — is capitalising on their project’s clean, green potential, claiming it will have one of the smallest carbon footprints in the world thanks to the energy supply from a nearby hydroelectric plant.
In September 2021, AVZ secured $240 million in funding from Chinese private battery company Suzhou CATH Energy Technologies (CATH). AVZ also counts Chinese lithium companies among its shareholders, and has signed several offtake agreements with China, representing a trend for Chinese-Australian corporate partnerships in Australian lithium projects in Africa — fast-tracking ore to China. In 2021 the Australian Government blocked an additional $14.1m investment of Chinese firm Yibin Tianyi Lithium Industry Corporation in the Manono project, on the grounds that it was ‘contrary to the national interest’.
There is limited data on socio-economic and environmental impacts of lithium mining in the DRC. However, given the close relationship of lithium to tantalum, and the fact that mining of both minerals is concentrated in areas with significant historic and ongoing conflict, companies such as AVZ may have difficulty extricating themselves from the globally-driven geopolitical, governance and economic forces which have created and perpetuated the DRC’s socio-economic problems.
Supply chain risks of this nature were highlighted by a 2021 Global Witness report on the Manono region’s nascent lithium industry. Meanwhile in Zimbabwe, where Australian companies are also proposing projects, governance issues and economic problems driven by global neoliberalism have been highlighted as potential risks for lithium to become a ‘conflict mineral’ in its own right.
DISCUSSION AND KEY POINTS
· Australia’s lithium mining is expanding across the globe with hotspots in the ‘lithium triangle’ of Latin America, the United States, Canada, Southern Africa, Europe, and Thailand.
· This expansion is largely driven by high-consumer market response to climate change and the geopolitical competition between U.S and Chinese industries.
· The expansion threatens sensitive ecosystems across every regional hotspot; some specific examples include tropical rainforest area in Thailand, Flamingo habitats of the salar may be permanently destroyed within decades due to mining in the lithium triangle of Latin America, a rare wildflower called buckwheat in Ontario, tropical rainforests in Thailand, wild bird habitat at a nature reserve in Spain, an endangered golden-shouldered parrot in Northern Qld,
· Concerns regarding water depletion and polluted water ways lithium mining is placing extreme stress on already vulnerable water ways across the global regional hotspots.
· Lithium mining is threatening the integrity of ground water aquifers; for hard rock mining the waste rock and tailings is immensely polluting
· Indigenous lands are being rapidly captured across several regional hotspots; the U.S, Australia, Canada, Latin America where sacred sites, and cultural ways of being are threatened; including the Ha’Kamwe medicinal springs; the
· Communities are actively resisting and opposing these expansions, often calling for post-extractivism goals
As Australian-listed companies are expanding across the globe, they are particularly established in two hotspots of the Atacama region of northern Argentina, western Nevada in the U.S and Australia. In the case of Argentina, favourable conditions for Australian lithium extractivism are created by Argentinian mining law and policy. In the U.S, international trade agreements and critical minerals collaborations with Australia are encouraging a lithium rush, at the expense of socio-environmental due process. In Australia, with bipartisan support from all levels of government, companies are rapidly expanding and undertaking new exploration for lithium across six states, particularly in Western Australia, with new hotspots emerging in Northern Queensland and the Northern Territory. Other key locations identified are Thailand; northern Québec in Canada; Serbia, Spain, and Portugal in Europe; and the DRC, Namibia, and Zimbabwe in Africa.
Australian companies, with the support of several governments, are capitalising on market-based response to climate change in the mining of lithium for battery energy technologies. The material challenges of this market response are significant — including the continued rise in emissions and dependency on fossil fuels along these rapidly expanding supply chains, and the geopolitical challenges of a material and extractive based transition. While companies compete over narratives that suggest one type of mining is ‘greener’ or ‘cleaner’ than the other, so long as a supportive industrial and extractive model prioritises increased production levels, there will be negative trade-offs for communities and the environment.
Industrial lithium mining processes (brine, hard rock, clay and geothermal) have significant socio-environmental impacts. Concerns are are mounting with regard to water depletion and contamination, indigenous rights, disruption to local livelihoods and ecosystem destruction.
Projects associated with Australian-based companies across the regional hotspots are impacting upon sensitive ecosystems and habitats: tropical rainforest area in Thailand; Flamingo habitats of the Salar may be permanently destroyed within decades due to mining in the lithium triangle of Latin America. Other vulnerable species are directly under threat including a rare wildflower called buckwheat in Ontario, tropical rainforests in Thailand, wild bird habitat at a nature reserve in Spain, and an endangered golden-shouldered parrot in Northern Qld.
In the race to capitalise on the electrification of transport and energy storage, and to corner the lithium and battery markets, Australian Federal and State governments are supporting lithium operations through regulation and finance — including the zoning of ‘battery metals’ hubs, with a focus on upstream supply chain processing and refining. This is intensifying the speed at which companies are progressing new exploration and mines. Of particular concern is a trend toward special status for fast-tracked critical lithium mining project approvals, and the rapid mobilisation of financial support based on global significance. This potentially facilitates the avoidance of environmental, social, and cultural due diligence by companies.
Many projects are arising on traditional lands or on areas of significance to Indigenous groups who historically have disproportionately suffered from mining impacts. This is particularly the case in Latin America, U.S, Canada, and Australia. Hard rock (spodumene) mining is an energy-intensive and environmentally destructive process, no matter how green it is packaged in industry and investor marketing. Projects rely on fossil fuel-based energy supplies, use excessive amounts of water, and generate large amounts of waste with little recycling capabilities.
There is a strong trend towards ‘green’ and ‘clean’ marketing, which is favoured by governments and companies over the genuine reporting on, and addressing of, socio-environmental and climate concerns. This presents as a difficulty in finding public information about the impacts of existing domestic lithium exploitation. Clean ‘green’ proponents must recognise their complicity in the on going destruction and hear the voices of existences that are defending life on the frontlines of lithium extractivism.
Active community defence of life is mounting across the regional hotspots; from the Indigenous communities representing the Salt flats in Latin America; to those defending Native sacred lands in Nevada; to the folks in Quebec calling for respect for cultural and ecological integrity; to communities in Spain, Portugal and Serbia dedicating their lives to existence.
In Australia; we have grass roots campaigns demanding action from pollution of mining companies at Greenbushes and the Wheatbelt areas of Western Australia – their livelihoods be respected. Indigenous movements towards alternative futures in Cape York should be heard; and concerns raised by farming communities and First Nations in the Northern Territory must be considered.
Barely any climate policy or debate is geared toward alternative voices to this rapidly unfolding extractive approach to climate change. Yet, we know that these perspectives are integral for a safe future. It’s time to step aside, listen and support those seeking a future of abundance that is made able through the aligning with a reciprocal and respectful relationship with the earth.
Concluding points
· The emergence of green sacrifice zones is contributing to patterns of inequality and threatening vulnerable ecosystems which is perpetuating conditions that have the potential to undermine climate mitigation. Despite this, communities are mobilising in defence of life, land, and water.
· The rapid capture of First Nations land for lithium mining has implications for a justice transition and requires more attention in terms of research and support for alternatives to green extractivism, such as Indigenous-led economic initiatives that are grounded in ecological relationality.
· Lithium mining should raise concerns for those seeking genuine change toward sustainable futures. More support is needed for frontline communities and grassroots environmental groups that are calling for alternatives to green extractivism.
·More research is required to understand the impacts of Australia’s role in emerging green sacrifice zones from lithium mining expansions, particularly in areas where limited information is available. This knowledge could be used to inform communities and policy makers to better understand the costs of expanding lithium mining in the name of climate action.
· Green energy proponents must acknowledge and seriously consider the limits of relying on expanding extraction for consumer-based solutions to climate change. Climate action must also address the driving factors of endless economic growth trajectories and consumption levels. Genuine climate action is largely impossible without significant systemic change toward transforming the culture of luxury consumption toward reciprocity with ecological systems and redressing global and local inequalities.
Originally published at https://medium.com/@clairemelodypm/australias-lithium-extractivism-is-costing-the-earth-586aafe3d877