The global economy is becoming increasingly reliant upon rare earth minerals, the ores of 17 metallic elements that are a key part of renewable energy solutions to climate change, enabling us to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

Two of these elements, dysprosium and terbium – classified among the so-called heavy rare earth elements – are particularly valuable. Among other applications, these metals are used to make high-strength permanent magnets used in electric vehicle motors and wind turbines. Dysprosium and terbium are also used in hightech weapons and a wide range of electronics including smartphones, hard drives and data storage devices.

While heavy rare earths are helping to power the green transition, the way they are currently extracted presents serious environmental and social risks. Mining involves injecting chemicals into large areas of land, generates large amounts of waste and releases toxins into the air, soil, and water.

As the world’s main producer of heavy rare earths since the 1980s, China has mostly borne the environmental burden of their extraction.

But over the last decade more and more heavy rare earth mining operations in China have been shut down as the government tightens its regulatory framework, clamping down on illegal mining and putting safeguards in place to protect against the worst environmental harms.

Yet global demand is still growing rapidly, and China remains the world’s largest processor. With many of its own mines now closed, where is China’s supply of these minerals coming from?

Heavy Rare Earths Supply Chain Risks: Illicit Minerals from Myanmar are the World’s Largest Source of Supply - Global Witness, 2022 DOWNLOAD

post

page

attachment

revision

nav_menu_item

custom_css

customize_changeset

oembed_cache

user_request

wp_block

wp_template

wp_template_part

wp_global_styles

wp_navigation

wp_font_family

wp_font_face

acf-taxonomy

acf-post-type

acf-field-group

acf-field

ai1ec_event

exactmetrics_note

Identifying Pathways to Support British Victims of Modern Slavery towards Safety and Recovery: A Scoping Study
News & AnalysisGuidance

Since 2013, the number of British nationals referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) as potential victims of modern slavery has increased year on year, rising from 90 in 2013 to 3,952 in 2021. These figures include potential adult and chi...Read More

TAGS: Europe
The life of workers under the Coup and the third wave of COVID-19 pandemic in Myanmar
News & Analysis

On February 1, 2021, the military arbitrarily staged a coup in an attempt to take political power in Myanmar. Labor groups have actively participated in demonstrations against the military coup, and there has been an increasing number of arrests and...Read More

Lived Realities of Sustained Liberation for Survivors of Trafficking in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
News & AnalysisPublications

Many women and girls in Ethiopia work as domestic workers in urban cities as well as abroad, particularly in the Middle East. The conditions faced by women and girls in domestic work are well documented (see Freedom Fund 2019 and Tayah & Atnafu ...Read More

Accelerating the use of tech to combat human trafficking
News & Analysis

Authors: Hannah Darnton, program manager in ethics, technology and human rights at Business for Social Responsibility.Thi Hoang, analyst at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. There is a growing need for the developmen...Read More