Transition Minerals Tracker: 2024 Global Analysis
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"The increasing demand for transition minerals will deeply affect the global workforce and the very fabric of our societies – and risks further entrenching global inequalities. This year Tracker’s records of gross negligence in occupational health and safety procedures at mining sites – and an unacceptable number of workers’ deaths, should make the sector pause and prompt immediate action. Respect for the collective rights of workers and their unions to raise their voices and good faith collaboration between states, the private sector, affected communities, workers and their representatives are critical in meeting the climate change challenge. The transition also represents an enormous opportunity to build shared prosperity with workers and their communities: there will not be any energy transition without them. "Glen Mpufane – Director of Mining and Diamond, Gems, Ornaments and Jewelry Production and Occupational Health and Safety Focal Point at IndustriALL and Mining 2030 Commissioner
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The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre’s Transition Minerals Tracker is updated annually to monitor risks of human rights abuses across all geographies associated with significant and large-scale mining operations of key minerals for renewable energy technologies, electrification and batteries that are, or have recently been in production. In this year’s update, bauxite joins the list of minerals under examination, along with cobalt, copper, lithium, manganese, nickel, and zinc.
This global update analyses allegations of abuse from 2010 to 2023 and provides a snapshot of allegations recorded in 2023.
Allegations in the Tracker
630
allegations
2010 - 2023
143
HRD attacks
2010 - 2023
91
allegations
2023
14
HRD attacks
2023
- Mining has consistently been the most dangerous sector for HRDs since the Resource Centre began documenting attacks in 2015 – and transition mineral mining operations are not an exception.
- Water resources are most at risk with 125 allegations associated with either/or impacts on access to water and pollution.
- New analysis on the gendered impacts of mining operations reveals 17 allegations across all years, including lack of respect for women’s social, political and economic participation, livelihoods, health, access to jobs, as well as egregious accusations of rape and sexual abuses.
"We must not forget the ‘stakeholders’ corporate policies refer to are not watertight and abstract categories; they are often the self-same individuals and families living near mining sites."Glen Mpufane
- Allegations of abuses are highly multifaceted and interrelated: affected groups are often the self-same individuals and families living near mining sites and their local environment, with 404 allegations impacting local communities and their environment (64%) and 90 cutting across the workers and local communities’ categories (14%).
- Labour rights abuses, including risks of severe hazards and occupational health issues, remain a stark reality in the sector, with 162 allegations impacting workers across the whole period (25%). This includes a sobering 53 work-related deaths (1 in 12 allegations).
- Indigenous Peoples disproportionately bear the brunt of the harmful impacts of transition minerals mining – with 61 allegations (10%) across all years impacting their rights, including 36 alleged violations of their right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC).Of all the companies associated with at least one allegation of abuse, only 39% have a human rights policy in place – highlighting significant room for improvement.
- Only ten companies, including China Minmetals, Glencore, Grupo Mexico, First Quantum Minerals, and Solway Group, are linked to over 50% of allegations, while over two-thirds of all allegations involve just 20 companies.
It does not have to be this way: better policies and practices are within reach.
Respect for all human rights and recognition of local communities and Indigenous Peoples as equal partners needs to be the north star guiding corporate and government actions. It begins with embedding respect for human rights, as legislation across the world is beginning to mandate, and commitment by the Global North to curb demand for transition minerals and to centre respect for human rights, global equity and justice in their mineral supply chains.
At a minimum, a just transition will be centred on commitment to three core principles:
- Shared prosperity that builds the rights of Indigenous Peoples, workers and other communities rights in operations and supply chains through new models of business – powerfully articulated by Indigenous Peoples in a recent Declaration by Indigenous Peoples for a Just Transition.
- Corporate gender-sensitive human rights due diligence that identifies salient human rights risks and develops robust risk-mitigation plans.
- Fair negotiation between business, workers and communities, redressing power inequalities by recognising core rights, such as FPIC and freedom of association, and displaying zero tolerance for attempts to silence environmental and human rights defenders.
Transition Minerals Tracker
Explore our data on allegations, mining projects and companies through the Transition Minerals Tracker
Further Reading
This report was updated in September 2024 to reflect new information about the previous data set. An earlier version of the report included one additional allegation which has now been removed from the analysis.