How the mineral mining boom endangers Indigenous communities worldwide

Minerals extracted from the earth help power many of our devices, from computers to car batteries. But what about the communities whose land is at the center of acquiring these minerals? Ali Rogin reports on the fight between companies seeking minerals from these lands and the Indigenous tribes fighting to preserve them.

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Laura Barrón-López: From computers to car batteries, minerals extracted from the earth helped power many of our devices. But what about communities whose land is at the center of acquiring these minerals?

Just this week, Arizona governor Katie Hobbs halted plans to transport uranium through Navajo Nation after the Tribe raised concerns about how it could affect the reservation. Ali Rogin reports on the fight between companies seeking minerals from these lands, and the indigenous tribes fighting to preserve them.

Ali Rogin: For Wendsler Nosie and fellow members of the San Carlos and other local Apache tribes, the Oak Flat campground outside Phoenix is the site of sacred ceremonies, and the resting place for many ancestors.

Wendsler Nosie Sr. , Member, San Carlos Apaches: This is the home of our DETs where the DET’s live.

Ali Rogin: But it’s also home to billions of pounds of copper, making it valuable to mining companies. Earlier this year, a federal court ruled in favor of developers looking to extract copper from deep underground.

Wendsler Nosie Sr.: They have to think this through because there’s not going to be copper here forever. And once it’s all gone, then the whole stuff is contaminated forever.

Ali Rogin: Mineral mining has become a booming industry across the country and the world. As the demand for electric vehicles and the batteries that power them rises, so does the need to ramp up the supply of the minerals needed to make them.

In recent years demand for nickel, lithium, cobalt and Copper has grown exponentially. Between 2021 and 2023, the price for one ton of lithium and U.S. markets nearly tripled, reaching a high of $46,000 per ton last year.

Rick Tallman , Payne Institute for Public Policy: Everything we see touch and feel in our modern life comes from minerals. And that’s everything from the computers we’re talking on to the chairs we’re sitting in, even everything down to our smartphones comes from minerals.

Ali Rogin: Rick Tallman is a senior adviser to the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines.

Rick Tallman: Critical minerals necessary for the energy transition. The ones that people talk about the most that they’re most focused on, are lithium and graphite and the demand is soaring, primarily because of electric vehicle demand.

Ali Rogin: Tallman says more than 300 new lithium mines worldwide are necessary to keep pace with the demand for electric vehicles. The Biden administration has prioritized a transition to renewable energy setting a goal for half of all new cars to be electric by 2030.

But some advocates say this green future is coming at the expense of indigenous communities whose historic land surrounded many of the reservoirs where these rare minerals are formed.

Galina Angarova , Executive Director, SIRGE Coalition: In many parts of the world, extractive companies are plowing ahead with mining projects without consulting with those communities.

Ali Rogin: Galina Angarova is the Executive Director of the SIRGE Coalition, an organization that advocates for indigenous peoples environmental rights. She says mineral mining can risk endangering these communities.

Galina Angarova: It introduces pollution, surge of various diseases, respiratory issues, cardiovascular problems, cancer, more. It also leaves behind profound social impacts, including drug abuse, alcoholism, missing and murdered indigenous women.

Ali Rogin: In fact, one study found a connection between the 2006 oil boom in the Bakken region of Montana and North Dakota, and attacks against Native Americans there. The rate of violent victimization, which includes rape, assault and robbery increased 23 percent among Native people in the six years after the boom started.

But in the surrounding counties that didn’t produce oil, such violence decreased by 11 percent. Today, U.S. mining is regulated by a 19th century law written when westward expansion encouraged by the federal government was displacing indigenous people.

But in 2011, the U.S. adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which requires consent before starting a project on native lands. But some legal experts say it doesn’t go far enough.

Leonardo Crippa, Senior Attorney, Indian Law Resource Center: There is a need to reassess the shortcomings of existing procedures so that they are sort of updated in light of current international law standards.

Ali Rogin: Leonardo Crippa is a senior attorney at the Indian Law Resource Center.

Leonardo Crippa: We are starting to see regressive legislative measures for the purpose of undermining rights are already protected by federal or provincial law for the purpose of paving the way and promoting the mining activities.

Ali Rogin: It’s a trend Crippa says is happening around the globe. In the so called lithium triangle spanning Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, Indigenous communities sit on around 60 percent of the world’s lithium supply.

Last year, Chilean President Gabriel Boric announced his plan to take control of the lithium supply by partnering with mining companies.

Gabriel Boric , President, Chile (through translator): Our challenges to make sure our country transforms into the number one producer of lithium in the world, increasing wealth, development and distributing it justly.

Ali Rogin: But some Native leaders are skeptical about his approach.

Cristian Espindola , Toconao Community Leader (through translator): What Boric proposes is irresponsible, because he isn’t asking the indigenous people and this tone from the Chilean state to the indigenous people is constant. It’s not happening only now.

Ali Rogin: Crippa who represents tribes in the lithium triangle says mining companies employ tactics to bypass land use laws and access the white gold below. Companies are required to perform tests to determine potential environmental harm. But Crippa says the reports are rarely translated into the tribes’ native languages.

Leonardo Crippa: They are not able to realize what is going on they are not informed there. They have no means to access the information. And as a result, this permit is granted to the company.

Ali Rogin: Some indigenous communities are fighting back.

Last summer, hundreds of tribal members took to the streets in Buenos Aires, Argentina to protest mining and their territories.

Man (through translator): It is looting. It is plundering and irreversible damage to the Mother Earth.

Ali Rogin: While some argue mineral mining will help address the climate crisis by moving away from fossil fuels. Rick Tallman says it also creates an ethical dilemma with major consequences.

Rick Tallman: Across the world Indigenous people are going to be the most impacted by sourcing these critical minerals that all of us need for a successful energy transition. But if we don’t mind those minerals, they’ll also be the most impacted by climate change if we fail.

Ali Rogin: But Tallman believes there are more sustainable alternatives. He says the U.S. could avoid producing new mines by making use of the thousands of abandoned uranium mines across Indian country where he says energy resources already exist. But he says none of that work can be done without buy in from indigenous communities.

Ali Rogin: There is no possible pathway to a successful energy transition without the support and partnership and hopefully leadership from tribal communities and tribal nations.

Ali Rogin: For Galina Angarova that collaboration is not negotiable.

Galina Angarova: Indigenous peoples are not necessarily opposed to the green transition or development in general. Indigenous peoples are opposed to violating rights, destroying their way of life and harming the priceless landscapes that define who we are as peoples.

Ali Rogin: Back in Arizona, Wendsler Nosie Sr. continues to traditions of his ancestors while he’s still able.

Wendsler Nosie Sr.: These kinds of places shouldn’t be lost, because if it’s lost, is lost forever and it will never come back.

Ali Rogin: For future generations of local Apache tribes, that fear could soon become a reality. For PBS News Weekend, I’m Ali Rogin.