Transition minerals

South America is one of the world’s largest producers of minerals. Chile is a leader in copper and lithium exports, while Peru is the second largest producer. New mining concessions have been granted in Colombia and Ecuador to meet growing demand for the minerals essential for batteries and condensers for wind and photovoltaic technologies. Many mining projects are located in fragile ecosystems, like the Amazon or the highlands, which are rich in water sources.

What are the impacts of the renewable energy value chain in the Andes?

There are two main affected groups who bear the burden of transition minerals to respond to the necessary transition to clean, renewable energies:

• Local farming and camelid gazing communities, such as the Indigenous populations inhabiting the Andean highlands, home of streams and rivers which nurture the Amazon and fossil waters under salt lakes.
• Amazon Indigenous Peoples who have protected the rainforest ancestrally in this region, shared by nine different countries in South America, including 60% of the Peruvian territory, 53% of the Colombian territory and 48% of the Ecuadorian territory.

Land rights, access to water, health issues, lack of FPIC, forced displacement, and killings and violence are among the main impacts so far identified by civil society organisations, including Indigenous Peoples and environmental activists. Explore the table on the right to see examples of impacts linked to transition mineral mining.

"The energy transition - who does it benefit? Does it benefit the communities, like the Inca territory? Or does it benefit the countries of the Global North?"

Fast and fair for whom? Silvia Quilumbango from DECOIN on the impacts of copper mining in Ecuador.

The Resource Centre has been tracking human rights issues related to transition mineral mining projects in Peru, Colombia and Ecuador over the past 20 years – the majority of which are currently at the exploration stage. For our briefing Below ground: Human rights and renewable energy value chains in the Andes, we looked at in-depth research by our partner organisations Acción Ecológica, Corporación Geoambiental Terrae and Derechos Humanos y Medio Ambiente (DHUMA) alongside our records of alleged attacks against human rights defenders; environmental issues such as air, soil and water contamination, failure to comply with environmental standards and failure to address harms; lack of respect for Indigenous Peoples’ and Afro-descendants’ fundamental right to FPIC, including governance of collective rights and their human rights conduct in practice.

The allegations and mines covered in this report provide an instructive snapshot of the risks to local communities, the environment and the energy transition at large if respect for human rights and effective due diligence is not urgently embedded in the transition mineral sector. Read the report and use the interactive map to explore details related to specific mines.

In its report Transition minerals in Ecuador, Acción Ecológica highlighted alleged violations of human and environmental rights including environmental damage, violation of the right to free, prior and informed consultation, arbitrary detentions, and intimidation and threats by mining companies. We asked Solaris Resources, Codelco, ENAMI and Ecuacorriente to respond.

In its report The face of lithium and uranium in Puno, DHUMA identified alleged harms caused by Canadian mining projects Macusani and Falchani - owned by American Lithium through its subsidiaries Plateau Energy and Macusani Yellowcake - on the communities of Puno. We asked American Lithium to respond.