Controversial Materials - DiVA portal1130590/...constantly emerging as possible alternatives for a wide va-riety of applications. The huge demand for raw materials today has led to

TVE-Q 17 009 juni, TVE-K 17 011 juni

Examensarbete 15 hpJuni 2017

Controversial MaterialsEthical issues in the production of mineral

based raw materials

Emma BuratovicDervis CocalicMatilda DanestigKasper EliassonLinus Everlid

Teknisk- naturvetenskaplig fakultet UTH-enheten Besöksadress: Ångströmlaboratoriet Lägerhyddsvägen 1 Hus 4, Plan 0 Postadress: Box 536 751 21 Uppsala Telefon: 018 – 471 30 03 Telefax: 018 – 471 30 00 Hemsida: http://www.teknat.uu.se/student

Abstract

Controversial Materials

Emma Buratovic, Dervis Cocalic, Matilda Danestig, Kasper Eliasson, LinusEverlid

This report has investigated the ethical issues associated with mining or processing of materials that make them considered as controversial. For each material, the main areas of use and the top producing countries are analysed, followed by social and/or environmental issues as well as potential problems in the future. In total, 13 materials are discussed, of which most are minerals. The overall issues, that are recurring throughout the report and are important to be aware of are: child labor, low safety standards, mining activity resulting in deforestation or harming biodiversity, mining processes that affect communities (e.g. because of large water consumption) and the risks associated with widespread illegal mining. The report also provides research about organisations and initiatives that aim to affect the problems, and gives a brief view over tools that can be used to increase awareness of these issues.

ISSN: 1650-8297, TVE-Q 17 009 juni, TVE-K 17 011 juniExaminator: Enrico BaraldiÄmnesgranskare: Mikael Höök, David SköldHandledare: Linnea Petersson, Carolina Österberg

Acknowledgements

This project was initiated by and performed in cooperation with ABB Corporate Research. We would like to thank them fortheir assistance throughout the project. We would also like to express our gratitude to the people that have contributed tothe implementation of this project: To our technical supervisor Mikael Hook that has provided us with valuable informationregarding the contents of the report, and to our project in general; supervisor David Skold who has assisted us with usefulpointers for the project. A special thanks to Kathleen McCaughey at Amnesty International for providing up to dateknowledge about ongoing human rights abuses and to Chris Bayliss at the International Aluminium Institute for the helpfulinformation received regarding the issues associated with the processing of certain materials. We would also like to thankthe numerous organisation mentioned in this report for their initiatives regarding the issues addressed in the report, withoutthem this project would not be possible.

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Contents

Acknowledgements i

Table of contents ii

Introduction 1

Method 3

1 Aluminium 4

2 Chromium 6

3 Cobalt 9

4 Copper 12

5 Natural Graphite 15

6 Lead 18

7 Lithium 20

8 Manganese 22

9 Nickel 24

10 Platinum-Group Metals 26

11 REEs & Scandium 28

12 Silver 31

13 Zinc 33

Discussion 35

ii

Introduction

With the rise of the technical advancements that have beenongoing in recent times due to e.g. increasing knowledgeand a rising market for electric vehicles, new materials areconstantly emerging as possible alternatives for a wide va-riety of applications. The huge demand for raw materialstoday has led to a vast increase in mining and extractionsites, which are having a huge environmental and socialimpact. Unfortunately, there is an immense ignorance andin some cases sheer mismanagement in the mining and re-fining industry with well documented exploitation of localsand negative environmental effects. Even though there arelaws regulating certain materials (e.g conflict materials), itis often legal for companies to obtain raw materials fromethically questionable sources.

Which raw materials that are used in products and howthey are source are both incredibly important factors af-fecting the impact of a company’s supply chain. Supplymanagers of manufacturing companies are experts in supplychain related issues and are responsible for ethical sourc-ing. However the groundwork for minimizing the negativeimpact of a supply chain is done when selecting materialsduring the development of new products. This report isdirected towards the Corporate Research Function at ABBand is meant to assist them in making those choices. Thereare a multitude of factors that have to be taken into accountin making these decisions that we, authors, are not informedin. Therefore we felt that the best way to help ABB Corpo-rate Research is simply to give an overview of the issuessurrounding a number of materials that could be candidatesfor use in their products. These overviews will serve asa quick way for researchers and engineers to get to knowwhere caution is due and where investigation is needed tomake an informed and ethical decision.

The aim of the project is therefore to inquire informa-tion regarding these controversial materials and the circum-stances of their extraction and harvesting. Furthermore, theproject seeks so generate a list of materials that today arecontributing to negative environmental and social effects.The aim is not to stop the sourcing of materials from theproblematic areas, but rather to address ethical issues asso-ciated with them. In some countries the mining industry iscrucial for the people’s economical income, and therefore itwould be preferable to help the workers and environment,if that is possible.

Over the last ten years, the way that issues around rawmaterials extraction have been discussed has changed andattention has increased immensely. Markets are changing

constantly and several developing countries, primarily inAsia, have just recently started trying to reduce environmen-tal impact from their industries. Due to the constant changeof the mining industry, including relevant mining and refin-ing technology, laws and regulations, as well as demands,knowledge and reserves, this report reliability will decreasewith time.

Definitions & DelimitationsThe final report includes a list of raw-materials that areethically controversial, because of social or environmentalissues associated with their extraction or harvesting. Con-flict minerals are not included.

Raw-materials refer to materials that have not been pro-cessed. The aim is to find materials that can be used byABB in their product development. This means that a lotof materials can be of interest, including metals and miner-als, plastics, oils and possibly chemicals used in industrialprocesses. This report however does only include metalsand mineral raw materials. This is because these have alarge part of their impact closely connected to extractionand also relatively simple supply chains compared to oilbased products and most industrial chemicals, making iteasier to draw meaningful conclusions on the impact oftheir usage. Additionally mining generally has a large localenvironmental impact that is easier to quantify than impactfrom for example farming and energy production, that isoften discussed from a global perspective. The mining in-dustry is also blemished by many cases of human rightsabuse that it is important to raise awareness of.

The social problems are limited to activities interferingwith democracy, preventing prosperity, financing criminalactivity or violating human rights. In human rights, numer-ous circumstances are included, e.g. low salaries, danger-ous/harmful conditions, forced labor or child labor.

The environmental issues are mainly focused on local im-pact, and include acidification, heavy metal waste, toxicemissions or damage on biodiversity.

The focus is on problems during the extraction or har-vesting, and possibly the initial steps of refining. The ideais to give ABB an overview of the materials they purchase.Therefore, potential issues associated with further process-

1

ing, performed by ABB, are not accounted for.

The report does not include conflict minerals, also knownas ‘3TG’ (Tantalum, Tin, Tungsten and Gold) which are cov-ered by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and ConsumerProtection Act.

Every material analysis includes the following:

• A brief description of the material and possible usagefor ABB.

• A description of the geographical situation of thematerial extraction, and the local impact.

• A summary the attention the issues have gained, in-cluding NGO’s campaigns, and/or if there are anyinitiatives whose objective is to improve the problem.

• A analysis of the future for the material, includingtopics as availability, price, problems and recycling.

2

Method

The method used to gather information went primarilythrough gathering information from online sources includ-ing scientific reports, non government organizations, media,companies and industry analysts. Some interviews werealso arranged with organisations that were considered rele-vant for the problem, both in person and through Skype.

Firstly, five close-by organisations were contacted byphone with the aim of organizing a meeting with each or-ganisation. The organisations were as follows: Greenpeace,Amnesty, WWF, Sida and SEI. A meeting was set up withAmnesty, while the rest of the organisations were contactedthrough e-mail instead. Organisations that were out of reachfor setting up a meeting were e-mailed directly.

While waiting for answers by e-mail, online researchtook form to investigate which materials could be candi-dates for the project and if there are any present regulationsregarding e.g. mining safety and child labor. ABB were notinterested in conflict materials with existing laws, leadingus to define the meaning of a conflict material and wherethey exist. Critical materials were a starting point of whichthe group began their first selection of materials.

The gathered information regarding potential controver-sial materials, including a brief summary, potential uses andissues, were e-mail and discussed back and forth with ABBto ensure that the materials were relevant to the ABB cor-porate research group. This procedure was repeated severaltimes during the whole project. The goal was to include atotal of at least 15 materials in the report.

Five of the accepted materials were distributed amongthe group members, where each group member was respon-sible for one material for further investigation. The researchincluded answering all of the questions in section 2.1, fur-ther analyzing environmental and ethical issues. Two of theinvestigated materials were chosen for a half-time reportand presentation.

After the half-time report was due and the presentationwas done, the group received some constructive critiquefrom an opponent group regarding the work so far andissues to consider more. The project was also discussedtogether with ABB again to refine some of the focus ofthe material research as well as adding another questionregarding the future for each material.

Each group member was then given two materials eachto investigate further, in the same method as previously.The work was then organized further, creating templatesand analyzing the work of all the group members.

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1. Aluminium

IntroductionUsageAluminium is one of the most commonly used technicalmaterials. It is the third most abundant element on earth, andthe most abundant metal. Due to its low density, aluminumis versatile in its usage and is used in large volumes inautomotive and aerospace industries, for packaging as wellas electronics and greater constructions [1]. In Figure 1.1,the world usage of aluminium is showed.

Figure 1.1: Areas of use in 2011 [2]

ProductionBauxite, the ore aluminium is extracted from, is firstlymined in a certain area and later often shipped on further,were the aluminium is refined. Bauxite contains 40-60 mass-% of aluminium, where the rest of the mass includes somepercentages of iron oxide, silica and titanium [3]. Australia,Canada, China, Russia and the US are the largest producersof aluminum. Whereas Australia, Brazil, China, Guineaand India are the main producers of Bauxite [4]. The mainextraction sites by country is displayed in figure 1.2, whereas the percentage per country is shown in table 1.1.

Table 1.1: Estimated world production in 2016 [5]China 53% UAE* 4%Russia 6% Australia 3%Canada 6% Norway 2%India 5% Others 21%

*United Arab Emirates

Figure 1.2: Map of world production in 2016 [5]

IssuesForcibly Moving Indigenous PeopleBauxite smelting is an extremely energetic process. Whencreating one ton aluminium, four tons of bauxite are con-sumed. The aluminium extraction is also a quite spaceconsuming process, which historically has caused nativepeople to be displaced. [4].

Red MudThe main waste product from aluminium production is“red mud”. Red mud is a toxic and corrosive product thatconsists of iron-, titanium- and nitrogen oxide. The mudalso contains heavy metals such as arsenic, chrome andmercury[6]. The yearly amount of refined bauxite is approx-imately 110 million tonnes, resulting in 150 million tonnesof red mud annually, and approximately 5-6 million tonnesin Europe[7].

Not only is red mud toxic, but the safety standards forthe storage is questionable. On the 4th october 2010, adam of red mud from an aluminium plant burst in Hungary,killing 10 and injuring over 120 people[8]. A total of around7000 people were thought to have been directly affected bythe catastrophe[9]. Over one million cubic meters of redmud was released into the environment, destroying villagesnearby, forcing some houses to be bulldozed to the ground.The accident was in 2011 named “Hungary’s worst everindustrial catastrophe” [8].

Health Risks in MalaysiaIn Kuantan, Malaysia, the mining area lays close to schooland populated areas and it is said to be much more illegalindividual miners than the legal ones [10]. Due to shut down

4

of Indonesian mines, Malaysian mines were created at afast pace and a lot of non-licensed miners were suspected.Malaysia was the biggest bauxite exporter in the world andwere exporting half of Chinas aluminium production [11].Thus after reports of several misfortunes in the Malaysianmining areas the mining was preliminary banned to mid2017.

Attention & initiativesGreenpeaceGreenpeace have started demonstrations with around 50activists that have blocked the entrance to the Chilean Presi-dential Palace demanding the government to protect the for-est in Patagonia, Chile. The mining company NORANDAwants to expand by creating an aluminium mine, using thou-sands of hectares of the ancient forests [12]. According toGreenpeace, the project called Alumysa that NORANDAwant to execute would cause a flooding of 10,000 ha offorest releasing over 500,000 tonnes of toxic waste a year,as well as polluting the air [12].

Clean MalaysiaThe news site “Clean Malaysia” focuses partly on the envi-ronmental issues in Malaysia, including the mining industry.The World Health Organization (WHO), United States Envi-ronmental Protection Agency, and Malaysian water qualitystandards (INWQS) does have guidelines for what concen-tration of different pollutions are estimated to be acceptable[3].

OutlookDue to aluminiums non-criticality, substitutes for aluminiumis probably not that relevant to discuss. Although, if thereare problems surrounding the extraction, there are still somesubstitutes for different applications. According to the Eu-ropean Commission [13], the substitutes does not have theexact properties as aluminium and can therefore not be con-sidered to simply replace aluminium directly. The demandof aluminium is therefore expected to always be high.

RecyclingAs the global demand is expected to increase by 300% themining part of the aluminium supply is estimated to gofrom 55% 2012 down to 30% by year 2080 [14] due torecycling. When recycling aluminium the energy savingis 90 %. Therefore this is preferable to production frommining.

References[1] Mimi Sheller. Aluminum Dreams. 2014.

https://doi.org/10.3133/70180197.[2] The European Commission. Report on critical raw

materials for the EU - Non-critical raw materials pro-files. 2015.

[3] Nur Azam Badarulzaman. A Short Review on Alu-minium Smelting and Its Future Prospect in MalaysiaMetal Industries. 2015.

[4] Mats Storli Espen Gendron, Robin S. Ingulstad. Alu-minium ore:the political economy of the global bauxiteindustry. 2013.

[5] U.S. Geological Survey. Mineral commodity sum-maries 2017. 2017. https://doi.org/10.3133/70180197.

[6] Greenpeace. Aluminium: Alles zum thema aluminium.http://www.greenpeace.org, January 2013. Accessed:2017-04-22.

[7] Ken Standford. Red mud - addressing the problem.http://aluminiuminsider.com, November 2016. Ac-cessed: 2017-05-28.

[8] Alan Taylor. A flood of red sludge, one year later. TheAtlantic, September 2011.

[9] Marc Tran. Hungary toxic sludge spill an ’ecologicalcatastrophe’ says government. The Guardian, October2010.

[10] Noor Hisham Abdullah. Potential health impacts ofbauxite mining in kuantan. The Malaysian journal ofmedical sciences, 2016.

[11] BBC. Bauxite in malaysia: The environmental cost ofmining. http://www.bbc.com, January 2016. Accessed:2017-05-17.

[12] President lagos, save patagonia’s rainfor-est from destructive aluminium smelter.http://www.greenpeace.org, 2000. Accessed:2017-04-22.

[13] European Commission. Aluminium.https://setis.ec.europa.eu, April 2016. Accessed:2017-05-25.

[14] Business of Mining. Recycling & the future of min-ing. https://thebusinessofmining.com, April 2014. Ac-cessed: 2017-05-18.

5

2. Chromium

IntroductionUsageChromium is one of the most critical and strategic materialsin the world having a wide range of uses predominantly inthe metal and chemical industry. The metallic substance isprobably mostly recognized by its use as chromium plat-ing with its characteristic mirror-like appearance. However,the main application for the material today is as an alloycomponent in stainless steel owing to the exceptional cor-rosion resistance that chromium provides. The metal isalso distinguished by its relative high hardness, high melt-ing temperature and great refractory properties making it apotential material choice in a wide variety of applications[1].


ProductionChromium is extracted primary through the refining ofchromite ore. The top world extractor today is South Africawhich has about 40% of the total world production, othernotable extractors are Kazakhstan, India and Turkey. It isestimated that about 95% of the worlds chromium resourcesare geographically situated in Kazakhstan and southernAfrica and are calculated to last for centuries ahead [3].

Table 2.1: Estimated world production in 2016 [3]South Africa 46% India 11%Kazakhstan 18% Others 13 %Turkey 12%

Figure 2.2: Map of major world producers in 2016 [3]

IssuesEnvironmental EffectsOwing to chromium’s toxic nature it is viewed as a potentialhazard for the environment, the use of the metal createsnumerous environmental issues linked to inevitable wasteproducts from mining and postmanufactoring slag piles.

Unfortunately, the management of waste products in theindustrial world are often problematic and leaks do occur,ultimately leading to soil and groundwater contamination[4]. The negative health effects from especially hexava-lent chromium to humans and other biological creaturesare immense; it is known to be highly toxic, carcinogenicand mutagenic to living organisms. Hexavalent chromium,Cr(VI), is chromium in its +6 oxidation state and can bedischarged into the environment from waste rock, dust andchromium ore processing residue.

The substance enters the body through inhalation, skincontact and ingestion and is dangerous even in low concen-trations, it is therefore of the utmost importance to minimizethe emissions of particularly hexavalent chromium into theenvironment [5].

Mismanagement in the IndustryDue to the vast amount of waste piles that gather up duringthe extracting and refining processes it is hard to avoidenivironmental pollution. However, companies can takeresponsibility for the waste, which minimizes the problem.This is a greater issue in less developed countries in general,and there are many examples of mismanagement around themines and refineries that has led to environmental disasters.To mention a chromium-related example, the erosion ofchromite waste rocks and overburden dumps in Zimbabwe

6

has caused flooding, blocked channels, decreased oxygencontent in the water and reduced the fish breeding groundcapacity leading to a major impact on the local flora andfauna [6].

Problems in IndiaIn 2007, Pure Earth, an international NGO, dedicated tosolve pollution problems where human health is at riskdeclared Odisha in India as one of the most polluted placesin the world. The Odisha valley holds the largest chromitedeposits in the country with a number of operational andabandoned mines. Pure Earth stated that the air and soil ofthe area are so heavily affected by the leaching of hexavalentchromium that intestinal bleeding, asthma and birth defectshave been common in communities surrounding the mines.Other studies has also shown that the death rates in thedistrict are remarkably higher than the rest of India owingto chromium related afflictions [6].

Major Emissions in ChinaIn India’s neighboring country China, which even tough isa small extractor of chromite ore from a global perspective,still generates the largest amount of chromium slag prod-ucts worldwide [5]. In 2014, China was the largest producerof ferrochromium (FeCr) in the world, much of it derivedfrom South African chromite ore [3]. Ferrochromium is thelargest source of chromium in the stainless steel industryand is directly used in the application instead of refining itfurther to pure chromium [1]. It is estimated that the quan-tity of untreated slag products in the country has exceeded400 million tons, these include waste from production ofchromium based raw materials and the use of the metal incertain applications such as electroplating. This is of coursea major risk enhancer and accidents are bound to happen.

In 2011 serious slag contamination was discovered inQujing in the Yuan province where concentrations of hex-avalent chromium in the Zhujian river where about 2000times higher the standards. The reason for the accident wasdue to the illegal dumping of chromium slag products in themountains near the river source. The nearest village to thecontamination root, the Xinrong village, today also knownas ”the dead village”, has had tremendous misfortunes sincethe leak. According to the villagers, some people have diedfrom cancer as a result of the leak and a total of 77 cowsand sheep suddenly died from drinking the polluted water[5].

Human Rights Violations in South AfricaSouth Africa which is by far the largest producer of chromiteore has 40% of the world total production. It is also a placewhere the mining industry still is under development regard-ing its environmental and social policies and is thereforeprone to unethical extraction procedures. Different reportsare suggesting that there are cases where locals are beingexploited in the chromium mining industry, leaving themwith little compensation relative to the performed labour.The Sekhukhune district in the Limpopo province is an areawith a rich chrome belt where violations against mininglaws have occurred.

In late 2016 the Mail & Guardian, a recognized SouthAfrican weekly newspaper, released a series of articles re-garding illegal mining activities in the area. It was unveiledthat certain investors have been mining in the area withoutmining licenses and leaving the people worse off than whenthey came. One of the investors was revealed to be JohanNiemoller, a former operative in the Civil CO-operationBureau, also known as the apartheid death squad. The lo-cals report that Niemoller came with promises of a betterlife and brought in costly machinery for the extraction ofthe chromite ore, but he never applied for a permit nor didhe invest the hundreds of millions of dollars required forlegitimate mining operations. Niemollers enterprise waseventually shut down by the government. However, he stillmanaged to extract ore worth millions of dollars leaving thelocal community poorer than before [7].

InitiativesChina is trying to cope with the emission issues and areimplementing strict laws on chromium waste. The companyin question responsible for the leak in the Zhuijan river wasimmediately banned from further production activities [5].

Different initiatives from western countries have alsobeen set out to help the Chinese government in the reg-ulations of laws regarding the growing threat posed bychromium waste. Recently the U.S. based NGO EDLCwas involved in a project aimed to assist Chinese civil so-ciety and share knowledge from the U.S. experience withchromium waste management. EDLC recruited a team oflawyers with the task to develop a report on the U.S. regu-lations of toxic and hazardous substances, mainly focusingon the treatment of hexavalent chromium. The report con-tained regulations and monitoring of toxics, federal lawsto prevent toxic pollution and other guidelines to preventfurther unnecessary emissions from the chromium basedindustry. The project was considered a success and tripswere organized to meet civil society groups in China to fur-ther explain the U.S. model of toxic regulations. The reportis also hoped to help the Chinese court in cases involvingtoxic waste contaminations [8].

OutlookAs chromium is a relatively common element in the earth’scrust, the supply of the metal is not threatened in the future.The reserves are as mentioned estimated to meet globaldemand for centuries ahead at current production and con-sumption levels. Available reserves of chromite are thoughtto be located up to 95% in South Africa and Kazakhstanand these countries should therefore continue to be the topproducers, however, large quantities are expected to be pro-duced in Turkey and India. Many of the ores containingplatinum group metals (PGMs) have chromium as a co-product, where an increased demand for the PGM-metalsmay result in a increased production of chromite ore. Thelack of a substitute for chromium in stainless steel or incertain superalloys will make chromium a highly demandedraw material even in the future and the metal is for instancelabeled as a “critical raw material” by the European Com-mission [2, 3].

7

References[1] The Balance Terance Bell. Metal profile: Chromium.

https://www.thebalance.com/, November 2016. Ac-cessed: 2017-05-01.

[2] The European Commission. Report on critical rawmaterials for the EU - Critical raw materials profiles.2015.

[3] U.S. Geological Survey. Mineral commodity summaries2016 - Chromium. 2016. https://www.usgs.gov.

[4] James Jacobs and Stephen M. Testa. Overview ofChromium(VI) in the Environment: Background andHistory. 2004.

[5] Yang Gao & Jun Xia. Chromium Contamination Acci-dent in China: Viewing Environment Policy of China.2011.

[6] Dan Bialy & Kate Layfield. Chromite Mining. 2012.[7] Mail & Guardian Athandiwe Saba. Illegal limpopo

chrome mining - digging deep for empty promises.https://mg.co.za, September 2015. Accessed: 2017-05-02.

[8] EDLC. Chromium waste in china.https://www.edlc.org, 2015. Accessed: 2017-05-02.

8

3. Cobalt

IntroductionUsageCobalt is a mineral that’s used in a large scale at an indus-trial level, where the main application is for rechargeablebatteries and superalloys [1]. The demand for cobalt hasrisen the latest years in correlation to the increasing pro-duction of rechargeable batteries in electrical vehicles [2],where China stood for 80% of the total consumption andrefining of cobalt in 2016. Some other areas of use arein cemented carbides, corrosion and wear-resistant alloys,magnets and catalysts [1], see Figure 3.1.


ProductionThe concentration of cobalt in the earth’s crust is approxi-mately 0.002%, and is thus mostly mined as a by-productfrom nickel and copper [3]. Cobalt is produced in, de-creasing order, Democratic Republic of Congo (referred tohereinafter as DRC), China, Canada, Russia, and Australia,where DRC stands for over 50% of the overall production[4], see Table 3.1 and Figure 3.2.

Table 3.1: Estimated world production in 2016 [4]DRC 54 % Zambia 5 %China 6 % Cuba 4 %Canada 6 % Philippines 3 %Russia 5 % New Caledonia 3 %Australia 4 % Others 12 %


IssuesThe fact that cobalt has its main mining sites in DRC comeswith many ethical complications. The Dodd-Frank act spec-ifies four minerals as conflict minerals due to their enroll-ment in personal benefit from sources as weapons tradingand other violent causes in eastern DRC. Cobalt howeveris not defined as a conflict mineral by law since it is notmined in conflict areas, but still has ethical complicationsin correlation to its mining [5].

Cobalt mining in DRC has been discussed on variousnews sites, where large companies such as Apple, Sonyand Samsung have gotten critique from Amnesty for notfollowing through with their due diligence. Amnesty hasinvestigated the mining of cobalt in DRC, and concludedthat there is ongoing child labour as well as dangerousworking conditions during the cobalt mining process [6].

Child LaborAmnesty has approximated that there are 40 000 childrenworking in the mines in the southern DRC. The childrenwhose parents can’t afford school fees work for 12 hoursa day, carrying heavy loads and inhaling dangerous dust,to earn 1-2 US$ a day. Some children who attend school,work in the evenings and on the weekends to support theirfamily. Many children also said that security guards anddifferent mining companies had beaten them, or that theyhad seen other children been beaten, as well as securityguards demanding money from them [7].

Health Risks & working conditionsApart from the child labour and child abuse, all the minersare exposed to harsh working conditions. Cobalt dust is

9

toxic and inhalation can cause a deadly lung disease called“hard metal lung disease”, as well as asthma and decreasedpulmonary function. Amnesty interviewed miners in thesouthern areas of DRC, where many miners said that theysuffered from respiratory problems and pain from the heavylifting. The miners are missing even the most basic equip-ment such as gloves and face masks, partially since thereare no regulations for small scale mining [7].

The mining sites differ in size, but are mostly smallholes in the ground that the miners dig themselves, stretch-ing down to 10 meters underground. Many accidents occurdue to the lack of proper equipment, causing tunnel col-lapses. From september 2014 to december 2015, 80 deathswas reported by Radio Okapi (DRC’s UN radio station), butthe number is believed to be larger since many deaths gounrecorded [7].

Attention & InitiativesThese issues have been brought to light by several non gov-ernment organizations. In January 2016 Amnesty publisheda study regarding the working conditions of cobalt miningin southern DRC, which was brought to attention by newssites such as BBC and Daily Mail. The report traces a com-plete potential supply chain from the artisanal miners to bigcompanies (e.g. Apple, Samsung & Sony) using cobalt intheir products. However, Amnesty doesn’t have a directcampaign combating this issue. Instead, Amnesty’s idea isto research human rights abuses to influence governments,companies and decision-makers [8].

Is has also been announced in November 2016 that theOECD cooperates with the Chinese Chamber of Commercefor Metals, Minerals & Chemicals [CCCMMC] in launch-ing a Responsible Cobalt Initiative. Apple, Samsung andSony, along with many other large companies, are includedin this initiative, together with the Government of DRC.The goal is to create an action plan in the following twelvemonths to address the social and environmental issues incobalt mining, with the main focus on child labour [9].

There are many other organisations that address theproblem of mining in DRC in relation to conflict minerals,but not as many organisations that aim to improve the cobaltmining industry. However, one organisation that looks intothis is the Cobalt Development Institute [CDI]. The CDI hasa complete webpage and initiative to “promote the responsi-ble and sustainable use of cobalt in all forms” by creatinga “sustainability profile”. The CDI are also involved withother organisations such as the Materials Stewardship activi-ties of ICMM, and sustainability activities with Eurometaux.These organisations aren’t specialized in a certain metal,but addresses the whole mining industry internationally andin Europe respectively. The CDI are also currently invest-ing in a study to develop a “Life Cycle Inventory” and a“Life Cycle Assessment” for cobalt to model environmentaleffects of cobalt production [10].

OutlookCobalt prices and supplies are a hot topic at this moment forits involvement in the electric vehicle industry. SIAS pre-dicts that many car-manufacturers and electrical companies

will be strongly dependent on cobalt, due to current expan-sion and developments of electric vehicles made by Tesla,Nissan, Apple and Maserati to name a few [11]. The grow-ing battery market[12] is believed to create an inevitableincrease of the cobalt price due to deficit supplies [13]. Ed-ward Spencer, a senior consultant at CRU, estimated that theelectric vehicle industry stood for 4% of the cobalt demandin 2016, a number that is estimated to rise to 16.9% until2021 [14]. Both CRU and Macquarie estimates a cobaltdeficiency of around 900 tonnes in 2017, and Macquarieforecasts a deficiency of 5340 tonnes in 2020 [15]. Duringthe period December 2016 to March 2017 the cobalt pricehas risen by 64% from 30,000 $/tonne to 49,000 $/tonne,according to Stephanie Hernandez McGavin, a reporter atAutomotive News[16]. Hernandez McGavin however alsosays that the electric vehicle industry isn’t as hot as firstlythought due to low gas prices.

ECobalt, a battery-grade cobalt salt producer, on theother hand says that the cobalt price is estimated to increaseby 68% from 2015 to 2025 [16]. The increasing demandnumbers doesn’t comply with the mining and productionof cobalt. The U.S. Geology Survey shows an increase ofcobalt produced from 110,000 tonnes in 2013 to 123,000tonnes in 2015 [4, 17]; a 12% increase, but not sufficient tokeep up with demand.

Verisk Maplecroft does global risk analyses, and re-leased an article in 2016 stating that the Democratic Repub-lic of Congo is considered the 4th most unreliable countryto perform business with, whilst producing more than 50%of the world’s cobalt [18]. However, some cobalts is alsorecycled. The United States Geology Survey states thatcobalt recycled from scraps reached 28% in 2015 and 30%in 2016 [4, 19].

References[1] U.S. Geological Survey. 2014 Minerals Yearbook -

Cobalt. 2014. Accessed: 2017-04-18.[2] Broken Hill Prospecting. Cobalt research.

http://www.bhpl.biz/projects/cobalt-deposits/cobalt-research/, 2017. Accessed: 2017-04-18.

[3] Cobalt Development Institute. Cobalt Facts - CobaltSupply & Demand. 2011. Accessed: 2017-04-18.

[4] U.S. Geological Survey. Mineral Commodity Sum-maries - Cobalt. 2017. Accessed: 2017-04-18.

[5] Richard Gaines. Conflict minerals.http://enoughproject.org, March 2012. Accessed:2017-04-20.

[6] Amnesty. Exposed: Child labour behind smart phonesand electric car batteries. https://www.amnesty.org,January 2016. Accessed: 2017-04-17.

[7] Amnesty. This is what we die for. 2016. Accessed:2017-04-20.

[8] Amnesty. What we do. https://www.amnesty.org,2017. Accessed: 2017-04-18.

[9] Zhou Yangfan. Responsible Cobalt Initiative. 2016.Accessed: 2017-04-17.

[10] Carol Pettit. Sustainability & life cycle assessment.http://www.thecdi.com, 2017. Accessed: 2017-04-22.

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[11] SIAS. Cobalt – mining the energy future.https://www.sias.org.sg, 2015. Accessed: 2017-05-18.

[12] Edward Spencer. Cobalt: Tightness looms for the new100,000 tonne market. https://www.crugroup.com,2016. Accessed: 2017-05-18.

[13] James West. Is cobalt the ‘choke point’for future lithium battery production?http://business.financialpost.com, 2016. Accessed:2017-05-18.

[14] Edward Spencer. Cobalt’s future in chinese evs.https://www.crugroup.com, 2016. Accessed: 2017-05-18.

[15] Pratima Desai. Electric cars could spike cobaltprices to their highest levels since the financial cri-sis. http://www.businessinsider.com, 2017. Accessed:2017-05-18.

[16] Stephanie Hernandez McGavin. Cobalt prices soaras investors see demand for lithium ion batteries.http://www.autonews.com, 2017. Accessed: 2017-05-18.

[17] U.S. Geological Survey. Mineral Commodity Sum-maries Cobalt. 2015. Accessed: 2017-04-18.

[18] Verisk Maplecroft. Modern slavery rife in 58%of countries – china & india among 25 economiesposing ‘extreme’ supply chain risks – global index.https://maplecroft.com, 2016. Accessed: 2017-05-18.

[19] U.S. Geological Survey. Mineral Commodity Sum-maries Cobalt. 2016. Accessed: 2017-04-18.

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4. Copper

IntroductionUsageCopper is one of the oldest metals mastered by mankindand has been used for millenias. The metal holds a numberof interesting properties such as great thermal and electricalconductivity making it a highly demanded material in theindustrial world. Today it is mostly used in the electricalequipment sector. Other notable areas contain the construc-tion segment such as plumbing, industrial machinery likeheat exchangers and alloys including old well establishedalloys such as bronze and brass [1]


ProductionThe production of copper has been through a major increaseduring last centuries electrical revolution and around 95%of all copper ever produced is dated after 1900. The metal isextracted from different ores often containing iron, carbon,sulfur and oxygen and the refining process is dependent ofthe ore type [3]. Today the metal is produced all over theworld, the biggest extraction and reserves are found in SouthAmerica where Chile being the world’s top producer andPeru the second are contributing to about 29% and 12% ofthe global production respectively. Other notable producersare the U.S, Congo and China (see Table 4.1 ).

Table 4.1: Estimated world production in 2016 [4]Chile 28% Austrailia 5%Peru 12% Zambia 4%China 9% Canada 4%USA 7% Russia 4%Congo 5% Others 22%

Figure 4.2: Map of major world producers in 2016 [4]

IssuesEnvironmental ImpactCopper is a natural occurring element and is widespreadin the environment. Most of it leached from natural phe-nomena such as volcanic eruptions and windblown dusts.However due to the largely elevated production rates in re-cent times, the concentration of copper in the environmentis vastly increasing. Because copper has a large tendency tobind to organic matter found in the soil, most of the copperleaks are found in the near vicinity of the pollution source.If the compound however reaches surface water it can travellarge distances and thus creating more than just local is-sues. Soil that is highly contaminated by copper leads toa number of environmental issues including grounds withlittle biodiversity owing to the low chance of survival formost plants in theses kind of conditions. This environmen-tal consequence can be seen near factories handling copperwaste including mines where the ore extraction takes place.Because of this, copper refining possesses a huge risk forfarmlands [1]

Health RisksSmall quantities of copper are not harmful for humans, it isin fact an essential element for maintaining a good health.If the concentrations of the compound however reacheshigher values, it can have serious health effects. Breathingin high levels of copper can cause irritation in the nasaland oral passages which is mostly a problem for the miners.Ingesting can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea and ifthe amounts of copper reach extreme levels the kidneysand liver are prone to damage, potentially leading to death[5]. Other biological creatures are also affected by elevated

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concentrations of copper, its toxicity has lead to issues inthe marine life resulting in increased mortality and reducedreproduction of fish, plants and other aquatic organisms [3].

South AmericaThe effect of irresponsible copper mining can be seen aroundthe Chuquicama mine in Chile. In late 2014, Chinadialogue;an environmental english-based NGO, released an articleregarding the consequences of mining copper in the area.Pollution from the mine has been so extensive that an en-tire town of 25,000 residence had to abandon the region.The area was considered to be so contaminated that it wasdeemed unsafe for further human habitation. The mine islocated in the Atacama dessert and has had a huge impacton the very scarce water resources in the area, due to thewater intensive refining process.

In its neighboring country Peru, Chinese companies arethe main producers of copper. Chinadialogue states that theyare known for their laxity regarding environmental aspectsin the zone and in 2014 Peruvian authorities sanctioned oneof the larger Chinese companies for pouring toxic waste inthe rivers [6]. It is not the first time that the authorities haveintervened against Chinese companies, in the 1990s anotherenterprise was fined US$14 million for failing to meet itspromises to invest in the local infrastructure. The samecompany was later on in 2005, subjected to heavy protestsby workers claiming that they were treated like slaves withsalaries only US$13 a day for 15 hour shifts [7].

Violations in MyanmarThere are several cases where Chinese companies are in-volved in questionable mining operations in other countries.In February 2017, Amnesty International released a reportregarding the poor working conditions in a giant coppermine co-owned by a Chinese enterprise in Myanmar, alsoknown as Burma. Amnesty stated that the Myanmar author-ities must immediately halt operation in the copper minewhich is being plagued by continuous human rights abuses[8]. Owing to vast political changes in the country in recentyears, the new government is seeking massive increase inforeign investments which has led to unsanctioned exploita-tion of local populations. The people living around themines are under constant threat of forceful evictions, envi-ronmental hazards and unjustified legal oppression. Plans ofincreasing the mines perimeters another two thousand acresare ongoing which will force the resettlement of homes andfarmlands for 141 families living in the area. The residencein the affected zone have little to say in this issue and arebeing prosecuted by national authorities for attending peace-ful protests regarding the environmental and social issuesthe mine entails [9].

The report also indicates that environmental violationshas occurred around the mine in Myanmar. Amnesty doc-umented that the mining company failed to prevent thedischarge of hazardous waste materials in 2015. The leakwas first noted by farmers who reported it to the authori-ties, however the leaching continued polluting the lands forweeks afterwards and eventually lead to the devastation ofcrops from the farms.

This particular mining area is also more prone to envi-ronmental accidents than others owing to its location; theLetpadaung mine is in a zone known for its earthquakesand floods. This can lead to environmental disaster for thelocal communities. The company running the mine hasacknowledged the potential catastrophic impacts such anevent can have on the community but has failed to carry outan adequate environmental assessment. The lack of such anassessment exposes the local population to a great risk [8].This is not the first time that Amnesty highlights the issuesregarding the mining operations in the area, in 2015 therewas a more extensive report named “Open for business?Corporate Crimes and Abuses at Myanmar Copper Mine”.Unfortunately little has been done to solve the issues ad-dressed in the 162 page long report, some of them evendating back decades in time [10].

Further Problems with Chinese Owned MinesAnother report called “You’ll Be Fired if You Refuse” re-leased by the Human Rights Watch in 2011 also highlightsproblems associated with Chinese owned mines in othercountries, this time in a copper mine in Zambia. The reportreveals that workers involved in the mining activities suf-fer from abusive employment conditions that fail to meetinternational as well as the domestic standards. Workersreport of terrible health and safety standards in the mineswhich includes poor ventilation systems as well as bad pro-tective equipment that can lead to serious lung diseases.Employees are treated unjust and can face the consequenceof being fired if they refuse to do labour in unsafe places. In-cidents and health issues caused by the working conditionsare therefore not uncommon in the mine [11].

The Human Rights Watch later did some follow upresearch in late 2012 which indicated that some improve-ment had been made regarding the employee’s rights suchas reduction of working hours and respecting the workersrights for freedom of association. However there was a lotmore progress to be made as workers still were exposed tohealth and safety hazards as well as mistreatment from theirChinese supervisors including racial degradation [12].

InitiativesAmnesty International and the Human Rights Watch hasincluded recommendations in the reports mentioned in thetext of what should be done to solve these issues. Therecommendations include guidelines of what action all thedifferent parties involved in the extraction and trade shouldmake. This includes advice for the governments in questionand suggested precautions foreign companies should makebefore buying raw materials from these sources [10, 11].

ForecastThe major world deposits are found in the Americas, es-pecially in the southern regions which will probably stillbe the main production area in the future. The demand forcopper is constantly increasing and some argue that “peakcopper production” will be reached somewhere betweenthe years 2025-2030. Because copper is a theoretically fi-nite resource the peak yearly production will be reached

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sometime. However, when this will happen is subjected toheavy debate. The main argument against a peak copperproduction in the near future is the constant discoveries ofnew copper reserves as well as more efficient extractionsmethods [3].

In 2017, the production is estimated to exceed the worldcopper demand by 160,000 tons (1%) owing to a increasedproduction growth of 1,7% against a 1% growth in copperconsumption [4].

China’s rapidly growing industrialization and urbaniza-tion will most likely lead to more Chinese actors on themarket and today the country buys about 40% of copperproduced annually. The nations increasing demand for themetal can be seen in China’s copper trade with Chile. In2005 only 22% of Chilean produced copper went to Chi-nese merchants whereas the 2012 figures showed a majorincrease to 80%. [6].

References[1] Lenntech. Chemical properties of copper - health

effects of copper - environmental effects of copper.http://www.lenntech.com/. Accessed: 2017-05-05.

[2] The European Commission. Report on critical rawmaterials for the EU - Non-critical raw materials pro-files. 2015.

[3] Greenspec. Copper production & environmental im-pact. http://www.greenspec.co.uk. Accessed: 2017-05-07.

[4] U.S. Geological Survey. Mineral commodity sum-maries 2017. 2017. https://www.usgs.gov.

[5] U.S. Department of Health and 2004 Human Services.2004.

[6] Chinadialogue Kamilia Lahrichi. Chiles pollutiongrows in scramble to meet chinas copper demand.https://www.chinadialogue.net, August 2014. Ac-cessed: 2017-05-16.

[7] Chinadialogue Gervase Pouldeni. Moro-cocha: the peruvian town the chinese relocated.https://www.chinadialogue.net, April 2013. Accessed:2017-05-08.

[8] Amnesty International. Myanmar: Suspend cop-per mine linked to ongoing human rights abusese.https://www.amnesty.org, February 2017. Accessed:2017-05-16.

[9] Amnesty international. Myanmar: Mountain of Trou-ble. 2017. https://www.amnesty.org.

[10] Amnesty international. Myanmar: Open for Buisness?Corporate Crime and Abuses at Myanmar CopperMine. 2015. https://www.amnesty.org.

[11] Human Rights Watch. You’ll Be Fired if You Refuse.2011. https://www.hrw.org.

[12] Human Rights Watch. Zambia: Saftey gaps threatencopper miners. https://www.hrw.org, February 2013.Accessed: 2017-05-10.

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5. Natural Graphite

IntroductionGraphite is a crystalline allotrope of carbon. Natural graphitemined as a mineral and is divided into three categories basedon its degree of graphitization, that is how similar its struc-ture is to that of ideal graphite. Amorphous graphite is ofthe lowest quality. Flake graphite is of high quality. Lumpor crystalline graphite has the highest quality but is onlyproduced in very small quantities in Sri Lanka [1].

Synthetic graphite can theoretically be manufacturedfrom any organic material. In practice fossil based productsare used as raw materials. High temperature and pressure isused to purify the carbon and transform it into graphite. Syn-thetic graphite can be manufactured to a very high degreeof purity and graphitization. Additionally its isomorphismcan be controlled. Natural graphite can be replaced bysynthetic graphite in all technical applications. Syntheticgraphite generally several times more expensive than naturalgraphite, but the price difference depends greatly on qualityneeds and manufacturing process [1]. In 2011 syntheticgraphite contributed to 56% of the global market [2].

UsageNatural graphites largest area of use is in the steel and metalindustries. It is used in refractory materials, continuouscasting ware, linings for molds and as carbon raisers insteel. Large amounts of both flake and amorphous graphiteare used in this industry. There are many other sectorsthat use natural graphite, where the largest are lubricants,automotive parts, carbon brushes and batteries. For batteries,brushes and other electrical components only high purityflake graphite is used.


Table 5.1: Estimated world production in 2016 [3]China 66 % Turkey 3 % Canada 2 %India 14 % N. Korea 2 % Russia 1 %Brazil 7 % Mexico 2 % Others 3 %


ProductionAsia dominates the world market on both flake and amor-phous graphite. In 2012, flake graphite accounted for 55%of the global graphite production. Asia had 93% of theglobal production of amorphous graphite and 77% for flakegraphite [2].

Following mining flake graphite is crushed and impu-rities are isolated using flotation methods. The productis then milled into a fine powder and separated by meshsize. The powder is purified of sulfur and trace metals. Theflake graphite can then be processed further into sphericalgraphite, expanded graphite or graphene. Spherical graphiteis especially important because it is used in large volumesin lithium-ion batteries, that consist mostly of graphite byweight. The production of spherical graphite uses a wetchemical process with low yield. It takes three tonnes ofhigh grade flake graphite to produce on ton of sphericalgraphite [4].

IssuesGraphite mining and processing can cause serious pollution.It produces a fine graphite dust which spreads with the windand blankets large areas, destroying vegetation and causingrespiratory problems when inhaled. The dust from process-ing plants can be collected, but the necessary systems are

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costly and not used regularly in Asian plants.Purification of the graphite powder can be done via

different processes. The cheapest and most commonly usedprocess in China is to wash the graphite with acids. Thewaste products contain pollutants including hydrofluoricacid, mercury and heavy metals which often leak into theenvironment [5].

Controversies Outside of ChinaIn Bengaluru, India, a graphite plant owned by GraphiteIndia is blamed for causing a huge increase in the levels ofparticulate pollutants in the city’s air. There has been citizenaction since the mid 1997 and in July 2012, state officialsordered the plant to seize operations. The decision wasappealed about a year later. At the time of writing the plantis still operating and contributing to the pollution issues inBangalore [6, 7, 8]. The issue has not gotten any attentionfrom international media.

Coverage of the Chinese IndustryGraphite is one of the materials covered in the WashingtonPost’s article series on the effects of lithium ion batteryproduction. They tell the story of several villagers who livenear graphite plants. They struggle with the pollution fromthe plants that in some cases has destroyed their crops andmade their water undrinkable. The villagers where oftenintimidated to stay silent or their complaints where handledby local officials who are more concerned with staying ongood terms with a large local employer than helping them.The Washington Post also approached battery producersand consumer product manufacturers for comments on whatthey are doing to reduce negative impact from their business[5].

Chinese state media has also reported on the pollutioncaused by the graphite mining industry [9]. The irony inthe fact that the pollution caused by the graphite industry inChina is largely caused by the demand from growing greentechnologies such as electric vehicles, is discussed in manydifferent forums and media outlets.

InitiativesThe Chinese government has recently introduced new legis-lation and started cracking down on illegal and excessivelypolluting graphite mining operations. In 2012 they intro-duced stricter environmental legislation [9] and in 2018 theywill introduce a pollution tax that can be used to control thegraphite industry [10].

OutlookDemandIn the European Commissions report on critical materialsfrom 2012 they anticipate a 3.5% yearly increase in globaldemand for natural graphite [2]. With the announcementof Tesla’s battery gigafactory and the growth in the electricand hybrid vehicle markets, it is likely that the demand forhigh quality flake graphite will increase much more thanthat. Some experts believe that the demand will more thandouble over a 10 year period [4]. There are several emergingtechnologies that could increase graphite demand. These

include graphene, pebble bed nuclear reactors, vanadiumredox batteries and fuel cells.

SupplyDue to China’s increasing measures against pollution itis unlikely that their production of natural graphite willincrease over the next couple of years, especially since thesynthetic graphite production will probably rise because ofpractical reasons. The increasing demand might raise theprice enough to make new mining projects in the primarilyin the Americas possible. There is also the possibility thatnew purification techniques will lead to a small increase inthe supply of high grade natural graphite. It is likely thatthe increasing demand will have to be filled by syntheticgraphite.

AttentionFor as long as graphite demand for consumer products con-tinue to grow and pollution issues from natural graphiteproduction persist, it is likely that the attention around nat-ural graphite production will continue to grow. Apple hasstated that they have switched to synthetic graphite for theircurrent products because of the controversies around naturalgraphite [5]. If attention grows further some other branddependent companies are sure to follow suit. The produc-tion of synthetic graphite is extremely energy intensive andthe case could be made that the switch to synthetic graphitemight even be unfavorable to the environment.

References[1] H.O. Pierson. Handbook of Carbon, Graphite, Di-

amond and Fullerenes - Properties, Processing andApplications. William Andrew, 1993.

[2] The European Commission. Report on critical rawmaterials for the EU - Critical raw materials profiles.2015.


[4] Jessica Roberts; Jack Elliott; Siobhan Lismore-Scott.Graphite juniors should not ignore traditional markets– panel. http://www.indmin.com, December 2011. Ac-cessed: 2017-05-22.

[5] Peter Whoriskey. Your phone, in theirair. The Washington Post, October 2 2016.https://www.washingtonpost.com; Accessed: 2017-05-22.

[6] Graphite india’s bangalore unit closed.The Hindu Business Line, July 9 2012.http://www.thehindubusinessline.com; Accessed:2017-05-22.

[7] Jayanta Mallick. Graphite india to resume operationat bangalore unit. The Hindu Business Line, August5 2013. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com; Ac-cessed: 2017-05-22.

[8] Malavika Balasubramanian. Once the garden city,bengaluru now competes with delhi for air pollu-tion capital status. The News Minute, April 27 2016.http://www.thenewsminute.com/; Accessed: 2017-05-22.

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[9] Graphite pollution: Lead in jixi’s water 700 timesover national limit. http://english.cntv.cn, April 2014.Accessed: 2017-05-22.

[10] Ben Blanchard. China to levy new taxes in bid tostrengthen pollution fight. Reuters, December 2 2016.http://www.reuters.com; Accessed: 2017-05-22.

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6. Lead

IntroductionLead is a heavy metal who is considered to be very con-troversial due to its toxicity. It is on Greenpeace’s list ofmaterials most hazardous to the environment [1]. As theworld moves towards energy sources free from fossil fuels,lead might become more important because of its use inenergy storage.

UsageLead’s largest area of use is in lead-acid batteries, makingup 80% of the total usage. Lead batteries are commonbecause they are cheap and stable [2]. In Figure 6.1 theusage of lead is presented. In Figure 6.1 the sizes of leadusing sectors are presented.


ProductionThe main ore that lead is extruded from is called galena.Galena consists of sulfide and theoretically 86.6% lead [4].The largest producer of lead in the world is China whichhas over 40% of the world’s lead mines [5].

Table 6.1: Estimated world production in 2016 [6]China 50 % Mexico 5 %Australia 10 % Russia 5 %USA 7 % India 3 %Peru 6 % Others 12 %


IssuesChinaIn august 2016, 26 mines were shut down in Hunan, China.The mines are expected to increase their workers safetyas well as deal with environmental issues. Heavy metalconcentrations in the soil of central Hunan was found [7]and the levels were more than 1,500 over the accepted value.The health risks with using lead is potential damage on thenervous system, which at worst leads to death.

PeruAccording to National Geographic, Cerro de Pasco in Peruis the most lead-polluted place in the world [8]. The mineis surrounded by abandoned houses and 90% of the localchildren have very high blood levels of heavy metals includ-ing lead. The news articles on claim that the mine is aboutto ”swallow” the whole city [9].

Attention & InitiativesThe mine in Mont Isa, Australia, has had a very high heavymetal pollution, due to its lead mine. The mining companyGlencore has since 2003, improved environmental risks forworkers and close by citizens by requesting regular healthexaminations of the children and stricter measurements[10, 11].

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OutlookAccording to the International Lead Association, lead is theworlds most recycled metal and their batteries are the mostrecycled consumer product [12]. Lead from galena is oftena by-product from zinc-mining (see page 37) [4]. Due tolimitations of zinc mines in Canada, Peru and Australia, leadis expected to increase by 18% in price the upcoming year[13]. Due to the controversy around the mining in Cerro dePasco, it is important to take caution when importing fromthis area. Overall, due to its toxicity, lead should be usedwith caution and can sometimes be replaced. According tothe USGS [6], lead can be replaced by plastics when usedas cable covers or cans. Also, there is a trend in the weaponindustry to phase out lead in ammunition [14]. The worldis moving towards lead-free electronics and substitutes tolead-batteries are welcomed.

References[1] Greenpeace. Eleven hazardous chemicals which

should be eliminated. http://www.greenpeace.org. Ac-cessed: 2017-05-11.

[2] Carsdirect. Pros and cons of a lead acid car battery.http://www.carsdirect.com, January 2012. Accessed:2017-05-10.

[3] International Lead Association. Lead uses - statistics.http://www.ila-lead.orgs. Accessed: 2017-05-22.

[4] Alistair Davidson. Ullmann’s Encyclopedia of Indus-trial Chemistry. 2014.

[5] Frik Els. Lead price boost as deficits set to widen.http://www.mining.com, April 2017. Accessed: 2017-05-11.


[7] Angela Meng. Heavy metal pollution in hu-nan soil exceeds china’s limits by 1,500 times.South China Morning Post, December 2014.http://www.scmp.com/s.

[8] Tony Dajer. High in the andes, a mine eats a 400-year-old city. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/,December 2015. Accessed: 2017-05-19.

[9] Kate Schneider. The peruvian city being swallowedby a giant hole. http://nypost.com/, December 2015.Accessed: 2017-05-19.

[10] Donna Field. Mount isa mine a source of’potentially significant’ lead pollution, glencore-commissioned report finds. ABC News, February 2017.http://www.abc.net.au/.

[11] Kate Stephens and Emma Cillekens. Qld governmentto push for more mount isa kids to get lead level tests.ABC News, June 2013. http://www.abc.net.au/.

[12] International Lead Association. Lead recycling.http://www.ila-lead.orgs. Accessed: 2017-05-25.

[13] Frik Els. Copper, lead, zinc prices to stay on theboil. http://www.mining.com//, April 2017. Accessed:2017-05-11.

[14] Perry Chiaramonte. End of the line for the lead bul-let? regulations, bans force switch to ’green’ ammo.

http://www.foxnews.com, December 2013. Accessed:2017-05-30.

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7. Lithium

IntroductionUsageLithium has a lot of technical applications. The largest andmost commonly known application is lithium-ion batteries,covering 39% of the global use. The demand for lithium ion-batteries is rising rapidly, mainly because of the increasingneed for lithium-ion batteries for electric tools and vehicles,and for grid storage applications [1]. The areas of use arepresented in Figure 7.1.


ProductionLithium can be extracted mainly in two ways. Either, itcan be mined from various hard rock minerals, where Aus-tralia is by far the world’s largest producer, followed byChina, Zimbabwe, Portugal and Brazil. Lithium can alsobe extracted from brines containing lithium carbonate. Thisextraction is concentrated to Chile and Argentina, or morespecifically what is called the lithium triangle, also includ-ing Bolivia [1]. These three countries together hold a hugepart of the world’s reserves of lithium, but thus far mininghas been far less extensive in Bolivia, much due to a lesssecure environment for investors [2].

In the Atacama desert, inside the lithium triangle, thebrine with the highest-grade lithium has been found [3].The Atacama desert covers the border between Chile andArgentina, and on the Chilean side, lithium has been minedsince the 1980s. Over the last years, the mining has in-creased on the Argentinean side as well, a lot thanks topresident Mauricio Mauri’s moves towards a easier climatefor investors [2]. This is discussed further in the sectionabout silver.

The top producers are presented in table 7.1 and theoverall world production is illustrated in figure 7.2.

Table 7.1: Estimated world production in 2016 [1]Australia 40 % China 6 %Chile 34 % Zimbabwe 2 %Argentina 16 % Others 2 %


IssuesAn article in The Washington Post [4], tells the story oftwo men who visited six indigenous communities in theArgentinean part of the Atacama desert, and describes theethical complications associated with lithium mining in thearea.

Water UsageThe extraction and the refining of lithium is a process thatrequires huge amounts of water, 1 800 tonnes of water isneeded to refine one ton of lithium. In the Atacama desert,the amount of freshwater is limited. The annual rainfall isless than 4 inches and the area has suffered from drought.In the article it says that one of the communities, PastosChicos, needed to have fresh water trucked in at the timeof the visit. Carlos Guzman, living in Pastos Chicos, saysthat “They are taking everything away from us. [...] Welive by this. By the fields. By our cattle. This way of life isin danger.” Carlos Quispe also lives in Pastos Chicos. Hemade a deal with one of the mining companies, giving thempermission to extract lithium in the area. Quispe means thatat the time of the agreement, it was not clarified just howmuch lithium was going to be extracted, and he feels thathe would now want a larger compensation.

Aside from facing drought, the communities struggle tofinance sewage systems and heating for schools, a difficult

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problem in the cold climate at nearly 13 000 feet abovesea level. The economical compensation to the indigenouscommunities is small. One mining company, who madea deal with all six communities, pay the communities be-tween 9 000 and 60 000 dollars a year for the rights toextract lithium from their land, and to use their fresh waterduring the refining process. Their expected annual profit isapproximately 250 million dollars.

One factor contributing to the massive difference inprofit is that in Argentina, the provincial governments ownsthe right to the minerals, but the mining companies stillneed permission from the landowner in order to start dig-ging. The international standard for making deals withindigenous people says that “the people concerned shallwherever possible participate in the benefits of such activi-ties, and shall receive fair compensation for any damageswhich they may sustain as a result of such activities”. Thisstandard was adopted by Argentina in 2000, but since thereis no well defined process for this negotiation, the economi-cal compensation is still not what many would describe asfair [4].

Sacred LandAnother issue related to mining in this region is somethingthat can not be valued by money. To the indigenous peopleliving here, the land is sacred. Nelda Lamas lives in thearea, and she says that “Our grandparents taught us that thisis a sacred place. It’s part of the Pachamama, [...] that’s whywe don’t want to see this place destroyed”. The Pachamamais the Incan goddess of earth [4].

Attention & InitiativesThe primary resistance against the mining comes from thepeople, but they have received some help from NGO:s.Already in 2011, the International Commission of Jurists(hereinafter referred to as ICJ) helped them to draw attentionfrom the United Nations, where both the UN Committee onEconomic, Social and Cultural Rights and the UN SpecialRapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples have givenrecommendations to the State of Argentina to respect therights of the communities in the area [5].

OutlookArgentinaIt is unclear what effect ICJ’s actions have had on the in-digenous peoples’ influence. This can be related to the factthat the guidelines in the standard for making deals withindigenous people are diffuse. The two parties may havedifferent opinions about the definition of a fair compensa-tion. Furthermore, exacerbating the existing water shortagein the area is hard to compensate financially, not to men-tion the difficulty of a fair economic compensation for thedestruction of their sacred land. This is a perfect exampleof when regulations are followed legally, but controversiesremain, and is of course reason to be very cautious. Asthese issues become more well known, it is possible thatstricter guidelines will be implemented.

Another difficulty is that the lithium mining creates jobopportunities and financial profit for some, but cause fear

for others, something that has lead to demonstrations. TheWashington Post article [4] mentions one case where thewoman who made the deal allowing mining companies tobegin the mining, made it with personal interest, and thatmany in the community is now angry about her decision.Since this is an argument inside the community, this is diffi-cult to avoid and to control from the outside. Again, thereare no legal disputes around the negotiation, but nonetheless,the deal has resulted in discomfort inside the community.This points to the importance of being aware of the generalrelation to mining activity in the area.

BoliviaBolivia’s Salar de Unuyi contains the world’s largest singledeposit of lithium. Of course, this has led to interest aroundextracting lithium here, but not much has happened andthere are several reasons to why. First, the infrastructurenear the saltflats are suboptimal, and a large investmentwould be required for large-scale mining to be made possi-ble. On top of that, foreign mining companies face heavytaxes, meaning they would lose a large part of the profit.However, the situation may change in the 2019 election [2].If Argentina’s recent moves towards a larger mining sectorproves profitable, Bolivia might want to follow.

Predicted DemandThe demand for lithium is expected to rise in the close future,a lot thanks to the advance of the electric vehicle industry.According to Albemarle, one of the world’s largest produc-ers, the demand is expected to rise with 30 000 tonnes a year,reaching a global consumption of more than 300 000 tonnesby 2021 [6]. Lithium resources are above 25 million tonnesonly in the lithium triangle, and with Australia, China andUSA sitting on deposits of millions of tonnes as well, theavailability is secure in the close future [1]. Some predictthat the electrical vehicle industry will grow immensely, andthis may lead to problems with availability further ahead[7].

References[1] U.S. Geological Survey. Mineral commodity summaries

2017. 2017. https://doi.org/10.3133/70180197.[2] Jennifer Bates. An evaluation of the lithium mining

environment in south america. http://www.mining.com,2016. (2017-05-20).

[3] Paul Tullis. The great nevada lithium rush to fuel thenew economy. Bloomberg, 2017.

[4] Todd C. Frankel; Peter Whoriskey. Indigenous peopleare left poor as tech world takes lithium from undertheir feet. Washington Post, 2016.

[5] International Commission of Jurists. Lithium exploita-tion in northern argentina violates indigenous people’srights. https://www.icj.org, 2011. (2017-04-22).

[6] Henry Sanderson. Albemarle boosts lithium de-mand forecast on faster electric vehicle uptake.https://www.ft.com, 2017. (2017-05-24).

[7] Simon; Hook Mikael Vikstrom, Hanna; Davidsson.Lithium availability and future production outlooks.Applied Energy, 110:p. 252–266, 2012.

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8. Manganese

IntroductionUsageManganese is a strong and brittle metal. Due to its brittle-ness, manganese doesn’t have any applications in its pureform. Because of its strength and deoxidising characteris-tics, it is mostly used in the alloy and steel-industry. Regularsteel contains approximately 1% of manganese to enhancewear resistance and workability. There is also a manganesesteel, which contains around 13% of manganese, and hasapplications such as railway tracks and safes. Manganesedioxide is also an important substance since it works as acatalyst, fertilizer and is used in ceramics [1].

Figure 8.1: Areas of use in 2014[2]

Production

Table 8.1: Estimated world production in 2016 [3]South Africa 29 % Ghana 3 %China 19 % Ukraine 2 %Australia 16 % Mexico 1 %Gabon 13 % Malaysia 1 %Brazil 7 % Kazakhstan 1 %India 6 % Others 4 %

In 2016, South Africa was the leading manganese-oreproducer, producing 2.5 million tonnes, followed by China,Australia, Gabon and India[3]. Se Table 8.1 and Figure 8.

IssuesHealth RisksThe major issue for manganese doesn’t seem to be arearestricted. Regarding health issues, studies have been made


in several countries connecting high manganese exposureto nerve damages in the all stages of handling.

Studies of workers in manganese mines shows that in-halation of high levels of manganese causes damage to thenervous system. The symptoms of high exposure to man-ganese include anxiety, ataxia, dementia as well as man-ganism; a parkinson’s like disease, which is also known asmanganese poisoning [4]. A series of reports from Gothen-burg called ”Arbete och Halsa” (Work and Health) haspointed out that manganism is a noted problem in Indianmines. Deficiency in hearing is another problem connectedto manganese mining in mainly South Africa, but also inIndia, Sweden, United states etc. due to a loud working en-vironment [5]. However, the hearing loss isn’t restricted foronly manganese mining, but occurs for many other miningsites as well.

Researchers has found that the nerve damages dependson how high the manganese dose is, stating that the minework-ers are at the greatest risk of getting symptoms of high man-ganese exposure. Inhabitants in the vicinity of mines areshown to also be affected. A study in Ukraine examined683 children living close to active manganese mining sites.The result showed that there was a 120% increase in bonedeformities such as bowed legs and abnormal spinal cur-vature (from 15% in the reference area to 33% in affectedarea), and that 46% of the children’s mothers had chronicdiseases in connection to their pregnancy and/or delivery [6].Similar bone-abnormalities in connected to high manganeseconcentration in the environment has also been documentedfor animals [7].

22

PollutionIn Mexico, studies in two habitated areas close to man-ganese mines were made. The air concentration of man-ganese were two to three times larger than normal in thearea. The risk of cognitive dysfunction in these areas was12 times higher than normal and could be connected to man-ganese exposure. However, the test group was also exposedto lead, which is known to have effects on the neurologicalsystem as well [8].

The former mentioned Ukrainian study also researchedthe environmental effects in the surroundings of the miningsites. It could not be concluded that there were higheramounts of manganese in the surrounding environment [7].Similar studies has been done in Mexico, which concludedthat the plants in the nearby environment of the mine didnot accumulate manganese to a toxic level [9].

Attention & InitiativesThere are not any NGOs that are addressing this problemat the moment. The Environmental Protection Agency inthe United States had some suggestions for guidelines andfurther research regarding levels of manganese. This ishowever solely a proposed presentation [10].

The Ukrainian study proceeded with a rehabilitationtreatment directly, which gave positive results for the periodthe study was made [6]. Generally, the will to improveworking conditions and surroundings of the mining sites arelow. Most of the focus of negative effects of manganese liesin handling in the welding industry.

OutlookThe future demand and price forecast for manganese variesbetween analysts. The Global Industry Analysts [GIA]anticipates a growing demand for manganese until 2022.In 2016, the total manganese production was 16 milliontonnes [3], and according to GIA the market demand wouldreach approximately 28.2 million tonnes by 2022. Thiscould possibly result in a supply and demand gap in thefuture. The increased demand emerges because of a trendshowing a steady growth for steel, automobile productionand electrolytic manganese for green energy [11]. Similarlyto GIA, The Indian Bureau of Mines forecasts a possibledemand gap before 2020. Calculations on the steel industryshows a increasing demand which could end in problem dueto lack of reserves and production [12]. The Indian Bureaualso states that the production issue partially lies in the factthat manganese can not be recycled, but is always dependenton new mining. The U.S. Geological Survey accordinglystated that in 2016 “Manganese was recycled incidentallyas a constituent of ferrous and nonferrous scrap; however,scrap recovery specifically for manganese was negligible.Manganese is recovered along with iron from steel slag”[3].

The Merchant Research & Consulting Ltd does not fore-see a significant gap nor increasing demand for manganesein the future. They state that the increasing economy andsteel industry growth slowly decreases, and that market willmostly be dependent on the steel industry [13].

References[1] Royal Society of Chemicals. Periodic table - man-

ganese. http://www.rsc.org, 2017. Accessed: 2017-05-06.

[2] European Commission. Report on Critical Materi-als for the EU. Non-Crititcal Raw Materials Profiles.2014.

[3] U.S. Geological Survey. Mineral Commodity Sum-maries - Manganese. 2017. Accessed: 2017-05-06.

[4] United States Enviromental Protection Agency. HealtEffects Support Document for Manganese. 2003. Ac-cessed: 2017-05-08.

[5] Eva. Elgstrand, Kaj; Vingard. Occupational Safetyand Health in Mining. 2013. Accessed: 2017-05-08.

[6] Ykateryna D. Duka; Svetlana I. Ilchenko; et al. Impactof open manganese mines in the health of childrendwelling in the surrounding area. Emerging HealthThreats., 2011.

[7] Reinholt FP Hjerpe A Svensson O, Engfeldt B. Man-ganese rickets. a biochemical and stereologic studywith special reference to the effect of phosphate. ClinOrthop Relat Res, 1987.

[8] Carlos; et al. Santos-Burgoa. Exposure to manganese:Health effects on the general population, a pilot studyin central mexico. Environmental Section A, pages90–104, 2001.

[9] Juarez-Vazquez L.V. Hernandez-Cervantes S.C. et al.Rivera-Becerril, F. Impacts of manganese mining ac-tivity on the environment: interactions among soil,plants, and arbuscular mycorrhiza. Archives of Envi-ronmental Contamination and Toxicology, 2013.

[10] Royal Society of Chemicals. Environmental man-ganese: Guidline exposure levels, evidence of healtheffects and research needs. https://cfpub.epa.gov, 2005.Accessed: 2017-05-08.

[11] Inc Global Industry Analysts. Manganese markettrends. http://www.strategyr.com, 2016. Accessed:2017-05-19.

[12] Investing News. India forecasts manganese de-mand/supply gap by 2020. http://investingnews.com,2014. Accessed: 2017-05-19.

[13] Merchant Research & Consulting Ltd. Man-ganese: 2017 world market review and forecast.https://mcgroup.co.uk, 2017. Accessed: 2017-05-19.

23

9. Nickel

IntroductionUsageNickel is a metal used primarily in alloys, especially stain-less steel but also in batteries and electroplating. Due to itsability to resist corrosion, good thermal stability as well asits magnetic and conductive properties, nickel has a widerage of use as seen in Figure 9.1. Nickel allergies are quitecommon, but nickel does not cause any serious health is-sues in humans. However there are several issues associatedwith the production of nickel that will be discussed in thischapter.

Figure 9.1: Areas of use in 2012[1]

ProductionNickel is the fifth most common mineral in the earths crust[2]. The biggest producer of nickel is the Philippines, hav-ing over 24% of the global annual production, as seen inTable 9.1 and Figure 9.2.

Table 9.1: Estimated world production in 2016 [3]Philippines 24 % New Caledonia 8 %Russia 12 % Brazil 7 %Canada 10 % China 4 %Indonesia 6 % South Africa 2 %Australia 10 % Others 17 %

IssuesEnvironmental IssuesThe Philippines had the highest production of Nickel glob-ally in 2016. In early 2017, 28 mines were closed due to


pollution issues leading to halved production of nickel fromthe Philippines [4, 5].

Dependence on PGMThe Nickel production in South Africa is often a productof PGM mining [6]. Meaning that if the production ofplatinum group metals (see page 30) shuts down, nickel willstop being mined there.

Harming BiodiversityAccording to the WWF, New Caledonia, located east ofAustralia, have nickel mines that could be harming the bio-diversity of the island [7]. The island has a high percentageof endemic species and its mines are thought to harm theenvironment. The mining in New Caledonia is according tothe WWF, one of the biggest threats to the biodiversity onthe island [7].

Attention & InitiativesLarco is a Nickel mining company which according toGreenpeace provides 6-7% of the European market. Thecompany has been known in 2002, to dump ferronickelwaste in Greece, damaging the marine life. Consequently,Greenpeace activists has been protesting this by for exam-ple demanding the Greek government to implement laws toprohibit the dumping [8].

OutlookThe nickel demand is expected to increase steadily becauseof nickels great importance in several growing sectors, asthe technology is improving and the new nickel deposits are

24

discovered [9]. The supply however, is not expected to keepup because of the recent mine closures in the Philippines[10], which is likely to create a supply gap raising the nickelprice.

Indonesia and the PhilippinesIn 2014, Indonesia instituted a ban on nickel exports to limitenvironmental impact of the mining.The country was thenthe world second leading supplier of nickel ore, close to thePhilippines, as seen i Figure 9.3.

Figure 9.3: Diagram over the Philippines and Indonesia’syearly production in million tons [3]

The recent years have been very weak for the nickelindustry. Due to the recent problems in Indonesia and nowthe Philippines, the future is looking unstable. In January2017 the ban in Indonesia was revoked and in May theexports resumed. This might help to offset the decrease inproduction from the Philippines [11, 12].

References[1] The European Commission. Report on critical raw

materials for the EU - Non-critical raw materials pro-files. 2015.

[2] Nickel Institute. Nickel metal - the facts.https://www.nickelinstitute.org. Accessed: 2017-05-22.


[4] Priscila Barrera. Nickel outlook 2017: Supply crunchahead. http://investingnews.com/, January 2017. Ac-cessed: 2017-05-08.

[5] Aurora Almendral. Philippines moves to shut minesaccused of polluting. https://www.nytimes.com/, April2017. Accessed: 2017-05-22.

[6] Nickel Institute. Where & why nickel is used.https://www.nickelinstitute.org. Accessed: 2017-05-04.

[7] World Wildlife Fund. Island of new caledonia, north-east of australia. http://www.reuters.com. Accessed:2017-05-04.

[8] Greenpeace. Cash to toxic trash does your euro con-tribute to sea dumping? http://www.greenpeace.org,November 2002. Accessed: 2017-05-05.

[9] Yoga Rusmana. Top indonesia nickelminer seeks to export 6 mln tons of ore.https://www.nickelinstitute.org, March 2017.Accessed: 2017-05-18.

[10] Enrico Dela Cruz and Manolo Serapio Jr. Philippinesto shut half of mines, mostly nickel, in environmentalclampdown. http://www.reuters.com, February 2017.Accessed: 2017-05-08.

[11] CT Report. Indonesian miner antam to resume nickelore exports. http://www.customstoday.com, May 2017.Accessed: 2017-05-13.

[12] Yoga Rusmana. Top indonesia nickel miner seeks toexport 6 mln tons of ore. https://www.bloomberg.com/,March 2017. Accessed: 2017-05-13.

25

10. Platinum-Group Metals

IntroductionPlatinum-group metals (or PGMs) include, apart from plat-inum; iridium, osmium, palladium, rhodium and ruthenium.PGMs are grouped together mainly because they are chem-ically similar and occur together in mineral deposits. Ex-cept from being mined primarily, they are byproducts fromnickel and copper production [1].

The PGMs have excellent catalytic ability. The mainuse for PGMs in general is catalytic converters, mostlyin the automobile industry. Other characteristics that arebeing utilized are stable electronic and high-temperatureproperties. For platinum, good wear resistance is a wantedproperty [2].

UsageIn 2014, catalytic converters was the largest area of usefor Palladium, Platinum and Rhodium, while electronicsand electrical applications was the most common use forRuthenium and Iridium [1]. Figure 10.1 is an illustration ofthe usage of PGMs in general.


ProductionIn 2014, Palladium was the most produced PGM at 193tons, followed by Platinum at 146. Russia was the largestproducer of Palladium, with South Africa not far behind.For platinum, South Africa dominated the production [2].The overall top producers of PGMs in 2014 are presentedin Table 10.1 and in Figure 10.2.

Table 10.1: World production in 2014 [2]South Africa 48 % Zimbabwe 7 %Russia 30 % USA 4 %Canada 7 % Others 3 %

Figure 10.2: Map of world production in 2014

[1]

IssuesSafety & StrikesWhen considering the two major producing countries, mostproblems have arose in South Africa, where the unsafecondition in many of the mines are commonly known. Acouple of terrible stories can be told from the past years,including an explosion taking fourteen lives in 2014 and anaccident in 2009 when falling rocks killed nine miners [3].

In 2014, more than 70 000 South African miners, work-ing on the three main platinum mining companies in thecountry, went on strike. The reason behind the strike wasthat the miners considered the salaries to be disproportionalto the level of risk associated with the mining. The strikelasted for five months - the longest strike in the country’shistory [1]. Two years earlier, strikes in the area aroundRustenburg went completely out of hand. Violent clashesbetween the miners and the police resulted in the death ofat least 40 people [4].

Environment & HealthThe extraction and refining of PGMs is pretty hard on thelocal environment. When the ore is taken above ground,it has to be floated and dried. These processes are highlywater consuming; on average 400 m3 of water is neededper kg PGM. The smelting and the refining is contribut-ing to air pollution, by emitting dust and SO2. SO2 have

26

negative effects on the respiratory functions in the bodyand may worsen existing problems with the cardiovascularsystem [5]. These issues - together with large volumes ofsolid waste - are of course apparent wherever the PGMsare mined, but may be an especially delicate issue in SouthAfrica, a country with limited water resources.

One way of measuring a country’s water supply is toevaluate the amount of renewable water resource per person.Table 10.2 shows the global average and limits for when acountry should be regarded as “water stressed” and “waterscarce”. In South Africa, the renewable water resource is1 048 m3 per person and year, meaning that South Africaqualifies as water stressed, on the border to water scarce[6]. This is a clear indication that water-consuming min-ing processes in the country may bring forth debates, eventhough the vast water consumption has been noticed by thegovernment and there are restrictions for how much water amining company is eligible to use [7].

Table 10.2: Renewable water resource per person and year[6]

Global average 8 210 m3 %Water stressed ≤ 1 700 m3 %Water scarce ≤ 1 100 m3 %

Decreasing ProfitsUnfortunately, the water-use restrictions have been con-tributing to other problems for the mining sector. SouthAfrica holds about 80% of the world’s resources of plat-inum. This is of course a good reason to station platinummining in the country, and the mining plays an importantpart for the land’s economy. The problem is that the lim-ited water availability, together with the fact that the globaldemand for platinum is sinking, have made many minesless profitable. The production has been outweighing thedemand, causing the platinum prices to drop, and the futurefor platinum mining in South Africa is now uncertain [8].There have already been discussions about poor conditionsin some mining communities and some mining companieshave been questioned for not taking responsibility in shar-ing the profits from the mining with the communities fromwhere they extract the ores [4].

Attention & InitiativesMultiple NGOs have criticized the dangerous working con-ditions. In 2016, the National Union of Miners and theBench Marks Foundation (hereinafter referred to as NUMand BMF), among many others, raised attention about theminers’ safety after an underground fire in a mine nearRustenburg that resulted in the death of four people. Accord-ing to the NGOs, the accident could have been preventedhad the safety standards been better. The NGOs pointed outthat the conditions in some mines are a huge risk for theminers safety and health, and urged for improvements [3].

The poor state of mining communities, especially inthe Rustenburg area, has also drawn attention from NGOs.Already in 2012, BMF questioned the mining companies’

willingness to improve the situation. BMF meant that de-spite over 80 years of mining, the communities had seenlittle of the wealth from the mining. Even though their re-port found support from NUM, it was by many companiesdismissed as misleading. The mining companies meantthat the report gave an unfair view of the situation, andthat the responsibility for increasing the poor state of thecommunities should not solely lay on them [4].

ForecastAs a brief summary, the Rustenburg area has a historystained with unrest, and the future seems to be uncertain.A less profitable mining could aggravate the situation inpoor communities, leaving communities impoverished. Theuncertain outlook is of course reason to be cautious, as thereis no telling how different parties will proceed in order toretain profits. The situation could, over time, cause evenmore discontent among miners and at its worst, result in newconflicts that could be fatal for the future of PGM miningin South Africa.

References[1] U.S. Geological Survey. 2014 Minerals

Yearbook - Platinum-group metals. 2017.https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/platinum/myb1-2014-plati.pdf.

[2] U.S. Geological Survey. Mineral commodity summaries2017. 2017. https://doi.org/10.3133/70180197.

[3] Business & Human Rights Resource Center. Southafrica: 4 miners die at impala platinum mine - unions& ngos urge better safety measures by mining firms.https://business-humanrights.org, 2016. (2017-05-14).

[4] SABC News. Ngo accuses platinum miners of neglect-ing communities. http://www.sabc.co.za, 2012. (2017-05-14).

[5] Eugene Cairncross. Health and environmen-tal impact of platinum mining: Report fromsouth africa. http://www.thejournalist.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Environmental-health-impacts-of-platinum-mining1.pdf, 2014. (2017-05-07).

[6] Esmeralda Louise Haggard. Water foot-print for a south african platinum mine.http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10539/20128/EL2015.(2017-05-07).

[7] Natalie Greve. Mining sector further stressedby water supply restrictions, mining weekly.http://www.miningweekly.com, 2012. (2017-05-16).

[8] Lindsay Dodgson. Scandals and strikes: an uncertainfuture for platinum in south africa. http://www.mining-technology.com, 2016. (2017-05-16).

27

11. REEs & Scandium

IntroductionRare earth elements is a group of 16 elements with similarchemical properties. The group includes the 15 lanthanidesand Yttrium. Promethium does not occur in nature andis not discussed further in this report. REEs are often di-vided into light REEs: lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium,neodymium; and heavy REEs: samarium, europium, gadolin-ium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, yt-terbium and lutetium. The groups differ greatly in usage,availability and in what kind of deposits they are minedfrom. Scandium is sometimes considered and REE and willbe discussed briefly at the end of this chapter.

UsageREEs have many technical applications. Their use in highperformance magnets is especially important. This sectoruses large amounts of REEs and is growing rapidly becauseof the increasing demand from renewable energy and elec-tric transportation sectors.

Light REEs are used in a variety of applications. Lan-thanum’s and cerium’s largest areas of use are as a catalystas a fluid cracking catalyst and in polishing powders respec-tively. The two of them are also used in large quantities innickel metal hydride batteries, metallurgy (steel-, aluminum-and magnesium-alloys), glass additives, phosphors and cat-alysts. Praseodymium and neodymium are mostly used inNdFeB-magnets but they both have several minor areas ofuse [1].

Figure 11.1: Areas of use for light REEs in 2012[1]

Heavy REEs are used in much smaller quantities than thelight REEs. Samarium, gadolinium, terbium and dyspro-sium are used in magnets. Europium, gadolinium, terbium,erbium and yttrium are used in phosphors. Gadolinium

is also used in metallurgy, erbium in glass additives andyttrium in ceramics. Holmium, thulium, ytterbium andlutetium are all very rare and are not used in large quantities[1].

Figure 11.2: Areas of use for heavy REEs in 2012 [1]

ProductionThe REEs are commonly occurring in nature but they arequite evenly distributed across the earths crust and notori-ously hard to purify and separate. These factors make de-posits that are economically viable to mine very rare. REEores always contain a mix of several REEs. The concentra-tion of individual elements varies greatly across differentores and deposits. REEs are as good as always mined inconjunction with other minerals such as iron or uranium.

Detailed and up to date production statistics on REEsare hard to come by since the market has changed a lot overthe last five years. Global per country statistics for totalREE production from United States Geological Survey areavailable in Table 11. These do however not account for thesubstantial illegal mining in China that is estimated consti-tute an additional 40% to the reported Chinese production[2].

Table 11.1: Estimated world production in 2016 [3]China 84% Russia 2% Brazil 1%Australia 11% India 1% Others 1%

The newest publicly available per element global pro-duction statistics are from 2012. In 2012 circa 10-15% ofeach of the light REEs was produced outside of China, inthe USA, Australia, Russia or India. The global market

28

Figure 11.3: Map of producing countries in 2016 [3]

has changed a lot since 2012. In late 2015, Mountain Pass,the only mine in the USA shut down operations because ofprofitability issues. Australia has scaled up their productionsubstantially and deposits of primarily neodymium has beendiscovered and begun to be mined in Brazil.

In 2012, China had 98% of the global production ofheavy REEs. Since 2012 no new heavy REE mines outsideof China have begun production. There are several projectsin Australia, Canada and Greenland that could start produc-tion in within a few years, but in the current market climateit is unlikely that they would be turning a profit.

IssuesREEs are mined from many different types of ores. Whatthey all have in common is that the REE concentrations arelow and require complicated separation processes. Becauseof this, REE mines have relatively large footprints and REEprocessing generates large amount of waste. Additionallymost of the hard rock minerals that are mined for REEscontain radioactive isotopes of thorium and uranium, thoughthe concentration varies greatly between sites [4].

Ionic adsorption clays are source of highly concentratedREEs that compared to hard rock minerals. Ionic clays areused for extraction in southern China either by conventionalmining or a technique called in-situ leaching. Conventionalmining and processing of ionic clays produce 2000 tons oftoxic tailings and 1000 tons of wastewater per ton of rareearth oxides produced. In-situ leaching is less efficient butdoes not produce tailings. It does however cause severeenvironmental degradation and is believed to cause land-slides. Illegal mining of ionic clays is common in southernChina. This is problematic because their impact cannot becontrolled through environmental regulation [2].

Controversies Outside of ChinaThe REE extraction industry has caused two notable contro-versial incidents outside of China. The first was during the80’s and 90’s in Perak, Malaysia at the location Asia RareEarth’s processing plant and dumps of radioactive waste.Locals claimed that the plant had adverse health effectswhich sparked massive protests and a lawsuit against thecompany. [5]

The second was during the 90’s at Mountain Pass REEmine, USA, where waste water had leaked from the plant.

This lead to a lawsuit and the closure of the mine until itwas later reopened under a new administration [6].

These incidents have undermined the publics trust inthe industry. This was apparent in the protests against theLynas advanced materials plant that opened in Malaysia in2012. Investigation has shown that the plant should pose nohealth risk to locals inhabitants, but has despite that beenmet with massive protests [7].

Coverage of the Chinese IndustryThe environmental and public health issues around theworlds largest rare earth mine, Bayan Obo, has been studiedacademically since the mid 90’s but has not gained atten-tion from international media until quite recently. In 2012,the French newspaper Le Monde and the Guardian bothreported on the environmental destruction and social conse-quences of the mine. Since then, both the Guardian and theBBC has published several articles on the issues.

The social and environmental consequences of rare earthmining in other parts of China, for instance the environmen-tal damage from the extensive illegal mining of ionic clays,have not gotten any particular attention from large interna-tional media outlets.

InitiativesThe Chinese government have introduced several measuresto control the impact of rare earth mining. In 2010, theyintroduced export quotas. They have also introduced stricterenvironmental regulation and are working to reorganizetheir mining industry [8]. This is a step in the right direction,but far from a solution to the industry’s issues. The stricterregulation also caused a large increase in illegal rare earthmining that the government is struggling to control.

There are no initiatives from NGOs that have to do withthe rare earth industry in general, but there is more oftenthan not strong public opposition against the opening ofnew mines and construction of processing plants.

OutlookShortagesData published by Roskill Information Services in 2013predicted a shortage of primarily heavy REEs used in phos-phors including europium, terbium and yttrium [1]. Sincethen there has been a large drop in REE demand in the phos-phors market as a result of a shift toward LED technology.That leaves high performance magnets as the market wherethe most severe under supply is expected [9]. The REEs pri-marily used in high performance magnets are neodymiumand dysprosium.

The mining of ionic clays in China is largely done il-legally and is currently responsible for a large part of theglobal production of yttrium and neodymium. If this pro-duction was to decrease it could lead to a severe shortage ofthese two REEs. The ionic clay deposits are quite limitedmaking up 2.9% of the deposits found in China, but theproduction from them amounts to more than 35% of thecurrent Chinese production. [4] The production from ionicclays is bound to decrease some time, either because of the

29

closure of illegal mines or simply because the deposits willbe exhausted. When this will happen is unclear.

MarketsChina has around 50% of the worlds REE deposits and 90%of the current global production. The poor environmentalperformance means that China produce REEs very cheaply,and that in turn makes it hard for other countries to enterthe market. The export quotas introduced by China in 2010gave rise to a spike in REE prices, allowing other countriesto increase production. The world trade organization ruledthe quotas illegal in 2016 again increasing Chinese exportsand lowering prices [10].

There are many REE mining projects outside of Chinathat are poised to start production, but unless Chinese ex-ports decrease it is unlikely that they will be economicallyviable for the next few years.

AttentionGiven the attention the rare earth industry has gotten frommedia recently there is a possibility that REEs will shortlybe controversial in the eyes of the wider public. This mightresult in pressure on companies to decrease use or sourcemore responsibly, similarly to what has happened to batterymaterials such as cobalt and graphite recently.

However, for as long as China has such a strong grasp onthe market, one can not realistically expect any meaningfulchange to be made by companies or consumers. REEs areirreplaceable in many of their applications and the Chinesegovernment have already shown that regulating its REEindustry is very hard. Sourcing from other countries is notpossible if there is no price competitive production that cankeep up with the demand.

ScandiumScandium is sometimes considered an REE, but in thisarticle it is discussed separately in brief.

It is extracted from waste from other mineral production.Scandium is only used in very small volumes primarily inhigh performance aluminum alloys, but also in hydrogenfuel cells and phosphors. It is possible to produce morescandium from existing waste materials, but since the costto benefit ratio for its use in its major applications is low, sois the demand [11].

References[1] The European Commission. Report on critical raw

materials for the EU - Critical raw materials profiles.2015.

[2] Daniel J. Packey; Dudley Kingsnorth. The impactof unregulated ionic clay rare earth mining in china.Resources Policy, 48:112–116, June 2016.


[4] Tanushree Dutta et al. Global demand for rare earthresources and strategies for green mining. Environ-mental Research, 150:182–190, October 2016.

[5] A. Ichihara, M.; Harding. Human rights, the envi-ronment and radioactive waste: A study of the asianrare earth case in malaysia. Review of European Com-munity & International Environmental Law, 4:1–14,1995.

[6] Saleem H. Ali. Social and environmental impact of therare earth industries. Resources, 3:123–134, February2014.

[7] Aziz S.A.B.A. Khandaker M.U. et al. Kolo, M.T. Eval-uation of radiological risks due to natural radioactivityaround lynas advanced material plant environment,kuantan, pahang, malaysia. Environ Sci Pollut Res,22:1–14, 2015. doi:10.1007/s11356-015-4577-5.

[8] Jost Wubbeke. Rare earth elements in china: Policiesand narratives of reinventing an industry. ResourcesPolicy, 38:384–394, 2013.

[9] Roskill information services. Rare earths: Globalindustry, markets & outlook. https://roskill.com, 2016.Accessed: 2017-05-18.

[10] Roskill information services. Minor metals: 2016,the year in review for rare earths. https://roskill.com,2016. Accessed: 2017-05-18.

[11] The European Commission. Report on critical rawmaterials for the EU - Non-critical raw materials pro-files. 2015.

30

12. Silver

IntroductionUsageSilver is used widely in electronics, much thanks to its goodconductivity. One large industrial application is electricalswitches, but silver is also used in superconductors, photo-voltaic cells and LEDs [1]. Other sought-after propertiesare high ductility and reflectivity [2], the later making sil-ver very desirable for decorative purposes such as jewelry.Figure 12.1 shows the overall usage of silver in 2016.


ProductionSilver is mined all over the world. In 2014, The UnitedStates Geological Survey listed 19 countries with a produc-tion at least 100 metric tons over the last year, and manymore producing smaller volumes, including countries fromall continents [4]. Since 2012, the annual world productionhas been above 25 000 metric tons, reaching an all-timepeak of 27 000 tons in 2016 [5]. Except from being minedas the primary product, silver is a by-product from lead andzinc mining. Table 12.1 shows the largest producers in theworld as of 2015 and Figure 12.2 is a picture of the overallworld production.

Table 12.1: World production in 2015 [3]Mexico 21 % Russia 6 %Peru 15 % Australia 6 %China 12 % Others 40 %

Figure 12.2: Map of world production in 2016[2]

IssuesChild Labor in BoliviaIn the List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or ForcedLabor, the United States Department of Labor lists Boliviaas the only country where child labor is currently occurringassociated with silver production [6].

The Mountain that Eats MenIn Bolivia, near the city of Potosı, lies Cerro Rico, oftencalled ‘The mountain that eats men’ due to the many peoplewho have lost their lives in the mines. According to the localwidows association, 14 women are widowed each monthon average, because of the unsafe conditions in the mines[7]. The main reason why many still decide to work in themines is the potential for economic benefit. If you are lucky,you can make a lot of money in a short time. However, thisis solely a matter of luck, and there are no guarantees as tohow much you will make [8].

Furthermore, the uncontrolled mining has caused partof the summit to collapse. There are concerns that furthermining could destroy more of the mountain, thus ruiningprospects for the growing tourism industry in the regionwhich has the possibility to provide prosperity in the areawhen the mineral resources are exhausted [9]. This is ofcourse yet another reason for it not to be destroyed.

Violence in MexicoThere has been some reports of mining companies usingviolence, murders in some cases, to silence protests againstthe silver mining in the area around Jose del Progreso andin Chihuahua [10, 11].

31

Attention & InitiativesCerro Rico in Bolivia has been a UNESCO World Heritagesite since 1987 and in 2014 they added Cerro Rico to theirlist of World Heritage in Danger [12]. Their advice was formining to stop completely above 4 400 meters. However,there are indications that these guidelines have not beenfollowed [7].

In 2012, multiple NGOs supported a demonstration inMexico City, following the murder of the indigenous leaderBernardo Vasquez Sanchez. The purpose of the demonstra-tion was partly to ensure a full investigation on the murderof Vasquez, but also to increase the influence of indigenouscommunities when negotiations with mining companies,something that Vasquez fought for [13]. Furthermore, threebig mining companies in Mexico have gotten critique forjeopardizing local water supplies [10].

OutlookTaking a glimpse into the future, Argentina is getting readyto develop their mining sector in the coming years. Presi-dent Mauricio Macri is keen to catch up with the neighborsChile & Peru, whose mining has generated significantlymore profit than Argentina’s in recent years. Macri has anambition to double the investment in the mining sector in 8years, and has taken steps towards more attractive standardsfor the mining companies during his early days as a presi-dent. For instance, he has revoked the former tax on mining,and has also removed a prohibition for moving profits madeby foreign mining companies out of the country. In addition,Argentina is about to pass a law with a purpose to provide amore stable climate for investors and to avoid conflicts withlocal communities. However, according to BMI Research,local opposition might arise, and they state that these kindsof conflicts may end up hurting Argentina’s attractivenessfor future mining investments [14].

The Department of Labor lists Mexico, the world’slargest producer of silver, as a country with existing prob-lems regarding child labor [6]. In Mexico, there are nosigns of child labor directly connected to silver mining butregardless of that, this is still something to keep in mindwhen purchasing silver sourced from Mexico.

Otherwise, when looking at the largest producers, Peru,Russia and Australia all seem to have a good history ofsilver mining. However, there are issues around gold miningin Peru that are important to be aware of. An article inthe Guardian suggests that a large part of the gold miningin Peru is controlled by organized crime groups, causingenvironmental damage and human rights abuse. A reportby the Global Initiative Against Transnational OrganizedCrime estimates that 28% of the gold mining in Peru isillegal [15]. The magnitude of this issue is of course reasonto be cautious when sourcing any metal or mineral fromPeru.

References[1] Emily Claire Ferre. The many uses of silver.

http://geology.com, 2017. (2017-05-03).[2] U.S. Geological Survey. Mineral commodity sum-

maries 2017. 2017. https://doi.org/10.3133/70180197.[3] The Silver Institute. World silver survey.

https://www.silverinstitute.org, 2016. (2017-05-09).[4] United States Geological Survey. Minerals Yearbook -

Silver. 2014. https://www.usgs.gov.[5] Statista.com. World silver mine production 2005-2016.

https://www.statista.com, 2016. (2017-05-03).[6] Department of Labor. List of goods produced by child

labor or forced labor.[7] Catherina Moh. ‘the mountain that eats men’ in bolivia

- bbc news. https://www.youtube.com, 2014.[8] Luke Robinson Grant. Potosi’s deadly sil-

ver mines: The mountain that eats men.http://www.awearoundtheearth.com, 2015. (2017-05-01).

[9] Sara Shahriari. Bolivia’s cerro rico, ‘the moun-tain that eats men’, could sink whole city.https://www.theguardian.com, 2014. (2017-05-03).

[10] Mining Markets. How mexico reclaimed its mantleas a top mining nation. http://www.miningmarkets.ca,2013. (2017-05-04).

[11] Environmental Justice Atlas. El barzon vs. magsil-ver (cascabel), chihuahua, mexico. https://ejatlas.org,2017. (2017-05-12).

[12] UNESCO. City of potosı (420). http://whc.unesco.org,2016. (2017-05-04).

[13] Peace Brigades International. Canadian ngos: Mur-der of indigenous opponent to canadian mine sparksprotest at canadian embassy in mexico city, 2012.(2017-05-12).

[14] Cecilia Jamasmie. Argentina to pass new mining lawthis week. http://www.mining.com, 2017. (2017-05-09).

[15] David Hill. Gold-mining in peru: forestsrazed, millions lost, virgins auctioned.https://www.theguardian.com, 2016. (2017-05-12).

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13. Zinc

IntroductionUsageZinc is a silvery metal that is the 24th most abundant el-ement in the earths crust. It is an important element fornormal body function; a healthy human body contains 1.4to 2.3 g of zinc [1]. Apart from being a biological buildingblock, Zinc has many applications in the industry. Zincis mainly used in galvanization, but has applications as anprimary component of structural alloys and for brass, seefigure 13.1.


ProductionZinc is mined from sulfide ores, mainly Zinc blende [3].The extracted sulfides contain other metals as well, suchas lead, cadmium, iron and silver. In 2016, China was themain producer of zinc; having 38% of the total production,followed by Peru, Australia, Unites States and Mexico. Forproduction by country in 2016, see table 13.1 and figure13.2 [4].

Table 13.1: Estimated world production in 2016 [4]China 38 % India 5 %Peru 11 % Bolivia 4 %Australia 7 % Kazakhstan 3 %United States 7 % Canada 3 %Mexico 6 % Others 16 %


IssuesHealth RisksSeveral studies regarding environmental and health risks inconnection to zinc mining in China have been published.These reports discusses lead-zinc mines, not only zincmines. They conclude that zinc, lead and cadmium arereleased into the surrounding environment, polluting soiland crops, thus posing health risks to humans.

Even though zinc is an important element for plantsas well as humans, large amounts of zinc can cause healthproblems. A zinc level exceeding 10-15 times normal cancause nausea, stomach cramps and vomiting. Inhalation ofzinc can also cause “metal fume fever”, giving symptomssimilar to the flu such as headache, chills and fever [5].

PollutionSoil samples taken in proximity of zinc mines was notedto have an impaired microbacterial culture and lower nu-trient levels, making the soil inappropriate for agricultureand affecting plant growth [6, 7]. An article researchingseveral different mining areas in China stated that cropswere polluted by tailings and wastewater. It also concludedthat water close to the mines accumulated cadmium, leadand zinc, and that vegetables grown in the area was notedto contain increased levels lead and cadmium [6]. Anotherresearch group studied communities on different distancesfrom one mine in China, stating that the tap water did notcontain dangerous levels of heavy metals. Vegetables grownin areas close to the mine had increased levels of Zn and Pb.Indoor air samples were also found to contain pollutantsinducing copper, zinc and lead. The distance to the miningarea had an significant impact on the heavy metal pollution.

33

The study also showed that the village closest to the mineexceeded the lead healthy dose limit by 15 times, whilstthe two communities further away exceeded the limit by 2times [7].

Zinc pollution does occur, but in China the main issue isthat zinc is mined together with lead, where lead has a muchmore severe effect on the environment and health comparedto zinc.

Attention & InitiativesThere are no major non government organizations workingwith issues in the zinc mining industry specifically. How-ever, there are limitations and restrictions in relation to zincemissions.

In 2016, the Chinese government ordered that all zincand lead mines in the Hunan province should be shut downdue to environmental and safety concerns. Effective from2016, 26 mines have been shut down, with the ban stretchingto June, 2017 [8]. At this point it is unclear what will happenafter that.

OutlookMost of the forecasts predict that the zinc price will mostlikely increase in the coming years. China, who is thebiggest producer of zinc, closed 26 mines in 2016, greatlyreducing the zinc supply. Since 2015, at least 12 zinc mineshave been closed in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Mexico,USA, Peru, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan. During 2018,additional mines are closing down in Namibia, Thailand,Canada and Poland. Some mines have also decreased theirproduction as a result of low zinc prices [9]. The marketseems to be turning at the moment. Reports state that zincprices has increased by 60% in 2016 [10, 11].

The zinc demand is not expected to increase signifi-cantly, but because of the closing zinc mines, the priceis estimated to rise the coming years [10, 11]. However,there are currently new zinc mining projects underway inAustralia, South Africa and Kazakhstan, and expansion ofmines are planned in Eritrea, Greenland and Australia [9].If and when these projects will start production is dependenton the market, but will take at least a couple of years.

Approximately 30% of the zinc production uses recy-cled raw materials, while 70% comes from mines. Therecycling of zinc is expected to increase as a result of im-proving technologies [12, 13].

References[1] American Galvanizers Association. Facts about zinc.

https://www.galvanizeit.org, 2017. Accessed: 2017-05-10.

[2] International Lead & Zinc Study group. End uses ofzinc. http://www.ilzsg.org/, 2014. Accessed: 2017-05-19.

[3] The Essential Chemical Industry. Zinc.http://www.essentialchemicalindustry.org, 2013.Accessed: 2017-05-19.

[4] United States Geology Survey. Mineral CommoditySurvey - Zinc. 2017. Accessed: 2017-05-10.

[5] Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry.Toxic Substances Portal - Zinc. 2014. Accessed: 2017-05-13.

[6] Xiuwu Zhang et al. Impacts of lead/zinc mining andsmelting on the environment and human health inchina. Environ Monit Assess, May 2011.

[7] Yang J Liu Y Bi J Huang L Qu C-S, Ma Z-W. Hu-man exposure pathways of heavy metals in a lead-zincmining area, jiangsu province, china. PLoS ONE,November 2012.

[8] Frik Els. Chinese ban may breathe new life into zincprice rally. http://www.mining.com, 2016. Accessed:2017-05-13.

[9] Matthew Keane. Argonaut metals & mining - thinkzinc. http://marindi.com.au, 2016. Accessed: 2017-05-13.

[10] Frik Els. Copper, lead, zinc prices to stay on the boil.http://www.mining.com, 2017. Accessed: 2017-05-16.

[11] The Kootenay Zinc Corporation. The world needs zinc.http://www.kootenayzinc.com/zinc, 2016. Accessed:2017-05-16.

[12] American Galvanizers Association. Zinc recycling.https://www.galvanizeit.org, 2017. Accessed: 2017-05-16.

[13] Greenspec. Zinc procudtion & environmental impact.https://www.galvanizeit.org, 2017. Accessed: 2017-05-16.

34

Discussion

When gathering information about controversial materials,the versatile nature of many issues is rapidly observed. Thesocial controversies include working conditions and salariesbut also how native communities are treated and to what de-gree they are allowed to share the profits of the extractionstaking place on ’their’ ground. When considering environ-mental problems, pollution and deforestation give rise tomany debates. Some issues are difficult to categorize as ei-ther social or environmental, for instance water consumingprocesses carried out in dry areas. The controversies aroundmaterial extraction is a hot topic, and these issues are high-lighted frequently both by news sites and by organizationstargeting specific problems.

General IssuesSome of the controversies that are brought up in the reportare apparent in association with more than one material, andcan therefore be regarded as general issues. This can eitherbe related to the fact that one material is a by-product of another, or that they are mined in an especially problematicarea. One example is nickel, which is partly extracted as aby-product from PGM mining. Thus, all issues associatedwith PGMs could be regarded as issues for nickel as well.The same thing applies for zinc and lead, they are minedtogether and the problems surrounding them are the same.

Working ConditionsFor a couple of materials, dangerous working conditions forthe miners have received a lot of attention. This is especiallycontroversial since the safety standards are often low andthe equipment is inadequate. The working environment isoften a threat both to the miners safety and health. Manymines are hand dug, and in some areas accidents occur fre-quently. On top of that, many workers inhale dust from themining that can in some cases cause deadly lung diseases.Something that is especially disturbing is that in many cases,child labor is mentioned along with dangerous conditions.This is the case both for cobalt mining in DRC and silvermining in Bolivia.

Environmental DamageDifferent kinds of environmental damage are brought upin the report. The focus has been on consequences on thelocal environment, so pollutions having a global impact isnot included.

As mentioned before, zinc and lead mining are oftencorrelated. Lead is known to be toxic and exposure could

lead to severe damage on the nervous system, but largevolumes of zinc are pollutive as well. Many zinc and leadmines all over the world have been shut down and in otherareas there are restrictions about the operation.

Malaysia has a history of environmental issues asso-ciated with their mining. Different kind of mines havebeen shut down due to environmental damage. In the samearea lie Indonesia, whose nickel-production recently openedagain after being closed for three years due to environmen-tal impact. Around the same time, the Philippines closedtheir nickel mines, also because of environmental issues.

Both nickel and chromium mining has been discussed aspotentially harmful for biodiversity. A chromium incidentin Zimbabwe resulted in polluted seas and there have beenconcerns about producing nickel in New Caledonia, becauseof the fact that the country is the home of various endemicspecies.

Impact on CommunitiesIn India, several issues have surfaced in areas close tolarge mining sites, where chromium and manganese miningare two examples. Leaks have been causing birth defectsand diseases, like manganism (a disease causing dementia).Manganism has been an issue in other countries as well.

In South America, a couple of issues have surfacedwhere communities nearby mining sites have been exposedto toxic chemicals. In Chile, for instance, a whole town hadto be relocated due to contamination of copper. Anotherproblem is that mining can lead to the destruction of cropsand pollution of drinking water. This has been highlightedfor graphite mining in China.

Something else, that does not have to do with pollutionor emissions, is the fact that the rights of native people arenot always being followed. This is an issue associated withmultiple materials and countries. In some cases, indige-nous people have had to leave their home to give place formining, and in many places native communities are left im-poverished after the ores are extracted and the communitiesare left without a fair compensation. To add to that, manymining processes are highly water consuming, a really vitalissue for example in the dry areas of South America.

In some cases, violence has been mentioned as the wayto deal with people who are against the mining, causingeven more fear and discontent among the opposition.

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Illegal ActivityChina is the main producer of many materials; zinc, leadand REEs are some examples. Apart from the inevitablelarge waste piles from the mining, and huge amounts ofwastewater, there are several reports of wide-spread illegalmining, associated with REEs to name one. When miningis carried out illegally, regulations are often neglected. Oneexample of this is incorrect dumping of toxic waste whichis resulting in polluted rivers.

There have also been reports about violations of humanrights connected to multiple Chinese mining companies op-erating abroad, an issue that has been addressed by HumanRights Watch.

China has implemented strict regulations regarding bothREEs and chromium and are expected to deal with bothsocial and environmental issues. However, due to the mag-nitude of illegal activity, some issues are going to be veryhard to overcome. China is far from the only country in thisreport where illegal mining is mentioned, but because oftheir huge role in the world’s production, they receive mostattention.

OrganisationsFor each material, some initiatives or campaigns for the spe-cific material are discussed. One organization mentioned inseveral places in the report is the US Environmental Protec-tion Agency, who have suggested guidelines about levelsof aluminium, manganese and zinc, and demanded manda-tory reports for when emissions of CO2 exceed limitations.There are organisations who work with social and environ-mental issues at a global perspective, of which some arebrought up below.

AmnestyAmnesty is mentioned in the report as they highlighted theissue with child labor and dangerous working conditionsin DRC and demanded the operation of a copper mine inMyanmar to stop because of numerous problems regardingviolation of human rights. In their International Report,Amnesty brings up the state of human rights in 159 countriesand territories. They include different kind of ill-treatmentand torture from armed groups, issues regarding sexualrights and government surveillance to mention some. Thereport gives a good look over the situation in many countries,and is a good way to become aware of different issues. Theinternational report of 2016/17 is available online [1].

GreenpeaceGreenpeace has numerous ongoing campaigns addressingissues regarding climate change, deforestation and pollutionof oceans to mention some. They have compiled a listof hazardous materials, which is mentioned in this report(more can be read under lead). Greenpeace work towardlarge companies - they have for example influenced Nestleand McDonalds - but also governments, and they try to findpolitical solutions to many issues.

Greenpeace are campaigning for a global mechanismknown as REDD (reducing emissions from degradation anddeforestation). The mass destruction of rainforest around

the world does not only effect the biodiversity and contributeto climate change, but also interfere with the rights of forestcommunities. Greenpeace work to stop oil- and nuclearbased energy and encourage the stride for a world with100% renewable energy.

On their website they list threats and solutions surround-ing many issues [2].

OECDDuring a meeting with Chris Bayliss, deputy secretary gen-eral for the Aluminium Institute, he stated that OECD iscurrently working on a project similar to this one, includingmore materials. Their report is preliminary planned to bepublished later this year (2017).

OutlookDuring research for the investigated materials some trendscould be distinguished. There is an increasing awarenessaround the issues that are brought up in this report, andthere is a lot of activity going on right now. Due to thecomplexity of the issues surrounding the materials, thisreport serves mostly as a pointer as to what issues to beaware of. However, some suggestions to minimize the risksassociated with controversial materials are mentioned.

Due DiligenceThe Organization for Economic Co-operation and Devel-opment (OECD) has a guidance for how a thorough duediligence can be done [3]. This process is recommended byboth Amnesty [4] and the United Nations [5], as a way forcompanies to adhere to good ethical standards.

Increasing AwarenessGenerally, the attention for issues regarding material min-ing and harvesting is increasing, and regulations in connec-tion to this are being developed or have been developedrecently. Apart from the organisations discussed earliersuch as Amnesty and Greenpeace who work with improv-ing the environment and human rights, these topics occuroften on various news sites as well. During the research,several articles was published just a few days earlier, whichshows that this is a topic that people are interested in rightnow.

When it comes to improvement and initiatives, thereare relatively new trends towards both stricter regulation ofthe mining industry and increasing accountability in rawmaterial sourcing. Recently, the members of the Europeanparliament approved new legislation regarding obligationsfor due diligence, but is solely restricted to conflict minerals.Also, France imposed a law in march 2017, demanding alllarge companies located in France to perform due diligenceon their supply chain for all materials in order to raiseawareness and encourage better choices regarding humanrights, health and safety, and environmental aspects. Thefinal step is for the law to be accepted by the constitutionalcourt to make the law valid [6].

RecommendationsThere is no easy answer for how to tackle these negativeeffects of the mining industry. Especially since it is rarely

36

Table 13.2: Overview of the most important issues for each material.Worker Health Local Health Biodivesity & Environment Child labor Social Conflicts

Aluminium 3 3 3

Chromium 3 3 3

Cobalt 3 3 3

Copper 3 3 3 3

Lead 3 3 3

Lithium 3 3 3

Manganese 3 3 3

Natural Graphite 3 3

Nickel 3 3

PGMs 3 3 3

REEs 3 3 3

Silver 3 3 3

Zinc 3 3

the case that the end product manufacturer has direct con-tact with the mining company or workers; the material oftengoes through several intermediaries before reaching the pro-ducer. This complicates the due diligence process since a lotof information gets lost on the way, and it thus becomes eas-ier to fake records. Apart from the producer doing the duediligence process, which is rather complicated, some othersuggestions are possible to minimize the risk of sourcingcontroversial materials.

A possible course of action could be to demand a moredetailed account of raw material origin from sub-suppliers.However, the delivery company probably has many inter-mediaries itself, putting them in the same position as theproducer. But, by demanding some sort of security regard-ing the material, this opens up the issue one step furtherdown the chain. Showing that awareness of controversialmaterials is of interest for the consumer, could possibly starta chain reaction where the deliverer starts demanding infor-mation further down the chain since it is of importance forthe customer, and thus in the end possibly affect the condi-tions further down the chain if there are problems associatedwith the material.

Another action could be to hire a consultant firm that forexample could perform the due diligence, create a templatefor how to avoid bad ethical decisions or to raise aware-ness regarding material choices. There are many researchinstitutes performing exactly these sorts of investigations inrelation to working conditions as well as environmental im-pact. For example, the National Research Center Inc helpscompanies to measure their effectiveness and has specialitysurveys researching about environmental issues and commu-nity health. Also, Oakdene Hollins is a consultant researchfirm specialized on sustainability and circular economy.

One option is to design a security template for peopleworking with the materials, both current and possibly new.An example of this has been made at Blekinge Instituteof Technology, where a group of people has developed amethod for how to cope with critical materials in relationto both the environmental and social aspect. The devel-oped method compares the criticality of different alloysdepending on which metals that are used in the alloy. The

suggested process is the following for critical materials:

• Firstly, identify the critical materials in the alloy• Secondly, rank the level of criticality for the alloys• Lastly, compare the sustainability ranking of alterna-

tive alloys

Implementing a custom version of this in the whole com-pany would help to raise awareness and influence materialchoices.

Awareness of the problems and risks associated withconsuming the material is key as well. This report itself hasbrought this question to the surface, but there are still manyaspects that are not brought up. However, there are manyonline sites and companies that investigates and raises theseconcerns, as well as works preventative by making estima-tions of the future. Some examples of this are ChemSecwho works with toxic use reduction, and has a so called“SIN-list”, which is a database of hazardous chemicals thatare likely to be banned in the future. The European Com-mission has several reports about materials and their uses,supply and demand as well as issues. They have publishedtwo raw material reports, one with critical materials and an-other with non-critical materials. The Joint Research Centerof the European Commission also has one report discussingseveral critical materials.

These are all possible approaches for how a companycan minimize and avoid bad ethical decision. The researchand development department can influence material choicesand possible actions for how the company should handle theissue, but the final decision lies withing the investment andbuyers department since these are the departments handlingthe procurement of materials.

SummaryTo summarize, there is a lot of work going on, trying toovercome different issues. Even though the situation isvery complex in many cases, a simplified summation of theproblems for each investigated material can be seen in table13.2, as well as some things can be mentioned regardingwhat to be cautious about in general.

37

• Child labor and low safety standards; this is importantto be aware of, for example if Bolivia are going toexpand their mining sector.

• The development in the area around Malaysia; if thereare more issues regarding environmental impact, themining situation in this area might change.

• Mining activity that results in deforestation or harmon biodiversity in general; for example in Chile, whereexpansion of mining sites has been up for discussion.

• Mining processes consuming large amounts of wa-ter; this is of course most relevant in dry areas, forinstance in South America.

• Illegal activity, especially in China; it is difficult topredict whether the illegal mining will increase ordecrease, and what consequences it might have.

The future will probably hold a lot of discussion surround-ing controversial materials. It will be exciting to see thedevelopment in France after their newly inducted law re-lated to due diligence. It is likely that similar regulationswill be introduced in other countries, as a result of the ris-ing awareness around production-related issues. Hopefully,this report will contribute to increased awareness aroundthe controversies of material extraction and facilitate theprocess of future material choices.

References[1] Amnesty. Amnesty international report

2016/17: The state of the world’s human rights.https://www.amnesty.org. (2017-05-22).

[2] Greenpeace. What we do. http://www.greenpeace.org.(2017-05-22).

[3] OECD. OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsi-ble Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affectedand High-Risk Areas: Second Edition. 2013. Accessed:2017-04-22.

[4] Amnesty. This is what we die for. 2016. Accessed:2017-04-20.

[5] United Nations. Due diligence guidelines.https://www.un.org, 2014. Accessed: 2017-04-22.

[6] Thomas Baudersson. New french law impos-ing due diligence requirements in relation to hu-man rights, health and safety, and the environment.https://www.cliffordchance.com, March 2017. Ac-cessed: 2017-04-22.

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Controversial Materials - DiVA portal1130590/...constantly emerging as possible alternatives for a wide va-riety of applications. The huge demand for raw materials today has led to