The ability to say no to mining is part of a robust consent process which is often denied to mining impacted communities. The mining project does not need to reach a certain threshold of impacts in order for communities to be able to say no to mining. All communities have the right to say no. We support participative democracy for all communities in the decisions that affect them, and support the autonomy and territorial sovereignty of all Indigenous peoples. 

Why do communities say no to mining? 

Section 1: Impacts of mining

Mining gives rise to ever expanding ecological, economic, cultural and social harm across our living planet. Those most at risk of this harm are Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in the Global South and also, increasingly, the peripheries of the Global North. 

Environmental impacts

There are various types of mining: surface mining (strip mining, open pit and mountain top removal), underground mining, placer mining, solution mining, deep sea mining, and artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM).  Each type carries its own propensity for environmental damage, however all impact on water bodies and habitats and pose a high risk to human health. Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities’ way of life and livelihoods are often also put in danger. 

Water

Extractive industries undermine the water cycle at every stage of their project, and for a long time afterwards. See this report for an in-depth analysis of how mining undermines the water cycle. 

All mining uses large volumes of water, which is normally extracted from local water sources. The water is then pumped from the mine back into the water table after being used in mine processes, and therefore containing heavy metals such as mercury and cyanide. Solution, or in-situ mining – such as lithium mining, is particularly water hungry, and carries high risk of chemical leaching. 

Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) occurs when the rock extracted from the mine contains sulphides which, when exposed to air and water, produces sulphuric acid (or AMD). This strips out heavy metals from the rock, such as arsenic and mercury. AMD is a permanent problem, which, once started, continues in perpetuity, poisoning land and water. The UN has labelled acid mine drainage the second biggest problem facing the world after global warming.

Water quality and aquatic life are also at risk from potential tailings failures, or via seepage into groundwater. Tailings never become benign, and the tailings facilities that hold them require perpetual upkeep. The Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration Tailings Management Handbook states: “Unfortunately, humans have no experience in designing facilities to last forever, so responsible tailings management is required for as long as the TSF  [Tailings Storage Facility] exists.” No mining company agrees to nor commits the funds to upkeep their tailings facilities in perpetuity – therefore this expense, and potential catastrophe, are left in the hands of the host state, and at the expense of its people. A recent example of tailings failure catastrophes include the Brumadinho dam failure, in southeastern Brazil – which killed 272 people, flattened entire villages and caused widespread environmental devastation.

Deep sea mining of course has the potential to affect water health on a massive scale. It could lead to the destruction of aquatic habitats and ecosystems; produce sediment plumes that can smother marine life, and can also disrupt ocean currents. Although no commercial deep sea mining operation has yet been established, extensive seabed exploration has been carried out. The Deep Sea Mining Campaign is working hard to hold back the onslaught of the potentially catastrophic impacts on the virtually unknown ecosystems of the deep sea.

Habitats

Mining, particularly surface mining, destroys habitats and leads to mass loss of biodiversity. Mining is a significant driver of deforestation, affecting up to a third of the world’s forest ecosystems. Salva La Selva (Rainforest Rescue) supports forest communities to resist threats such as mining in what are some of the most biodiverse places on earth. 

Underground mining can lead to land subsidence from collapsed underground tunnels (as was the case in Monaghan, Ireland) – again destroying habitats and also putting communities and key infrastructure at risk.

Human health

Effects of mining on health can be experienced by both mine workers and the community around and downstream from the mine. When the water is contaminated, in the ways outlined above, humans drinking this water, and animals who are then eaten, take in toxic elements which lead to health issues. Crops also absorb heavy metals – and populations living nearer mining projects have been shown to be consuming excessively high levels of heavy metals and metalloids through their food sources, ‘entailing serious concerns for the population’s health’. 

Mercury, for example, is used to mine gold and other metals, and is easily spread through air, water and soil. It poisons fish and accumulates up the food chain. Mercury exposure can cause irreversible brain damage, developmental delays, loss of vision, hearing and coordination, as reported in villages near gold mining in Senegal. In the village of Choropama, northern Peru, a mercury spill at the Yanacocha mine – Latin America’s largest gold mine, is still impacting the health of villagers 20 years later. 

Air pollution is another threat for communities and nature. Toxic dust can be blown from dry stack tailings or from blasting. A study found 2.5 particulate matter containing arsenic and mercury on the leaves of trees 60 kilometres from a gold mine at Kittila, in Finland. This toxic dust can cause respiratory diseases and cancers, with children particularly vulnerable. On Sami land, where reindeer forage, dust containing heavy metals such as antimony, copper, cobalt, nickel and chromium was found on moss, having blown from mines in the area. 

Diesel emissions have also been proven to be hazardous for health, and many mines pump out massive amounts daily from the burning of this fossil fuel. A gold mine in County Tyrone, Ireland, is proposing to burn 4.3 million litres of diesel per annum.

Workers at mines are not only subject to the same contaminants by air, water and food as the local communities, but they are also subject to health and safety concerns at often dangerous workplaces. Frequent incidents include mine collapse, landslides, gas explosions or other machine failures. Workers tend not to be unionised and health and safety practices are often lacking.  The Morowali Industrial Park in Sulawesi, Indonesia, has seen the death of many workers on multiple occasions; just after YLNM visited in 2023, 18 workers died and 41 were injured at a smelting facility. The most recent accident just two months ago killed four. 

Climate

Mining requires a large amount of energy – for heavy machinery, water pumping, ventilation (for underground mining) and other processes. If this energy is fuelled by fossil fuels, the level of emissions seriously questions our ability to limit climate breakdown and may lead to the violation of local, regional and global climate agreements. Also, as peatland, grasslands or trees are impacted or completely destroyed, important carbon stores are lost.  

Social, cultural and economic impacts

Community tensions

There seems to be a guide book for mining companies wanting to impose their projects – and one of the first steps is to sow community division. 

‘They mine the community before they mine the land’, says Hal Rhoades, previous coordinator of YLNM. This includes paying a small number of community members to be on their side, often in very visible but not very senior positions such as ‘Community Relations Manager’. Others, particularly in areas which have no experience with mining, fall for the promise of jobs and ‘progress’, and clash with those who see the mine as destructive. It is also the case that tensions may arise due to the fact that communities are thrown into the highly stressful, emotive and high stakes situation of standing up to a multinational corporation, and often their own state institutions, with little or no support. 

On the other hand, resisting mining may bring people together and many environmental human rights defenders speak of the new friends made, the deepening of existing friendships and the very meaningful shared experiences of standing up for what’s important. 

Women

Women are typically the most heavily impacted by the impacts of extractivism. Mining hits the home first – in terms of water and food supply to feed the family, and also in terms of crop failure and animal death. Due to the gendered nature of care work, women are the first to see the effects of this. On top of this we have the societal and familial breakdown; the creation of mining districts with transient, mostly male, workers typically brings increased human trafficking for the sexual exploitation of women, along with a rise in domestic violence. 

Yet, it is women who are stepping forward to lead the resistance, despite and in spite of the continuing oppressions of patriarchy. See our YLNM position paper on Gender and Extractivism for a deeper analysis of gender and extractivism. 

Impacts on local livelihoods 

Mining tends to target rural areas where Indigenous and Local Communities have been sustaining themselves with livelihoods that also sustain the land – such as farming, fishing, eco-tourism, and craft-making. However, mining is incompatible with these livelihoods. See this report for the many ways in which mining undermines agriculture. 

Culture is often tied to livelihoods, and so not only are communities losing their means of making a living, they are also at risk of losing the underpinnings of their cultural identity and accompanying spiritual practices. 

‘Jobs’ debunked

One of the main carrots dangled to entice local communities to accept a mine is the promise of jobs. This is especially enticing if it is an area neglected by the state, experiencing poverty and outward migration. However, this promise rarely materialises. The number of jobs touted in the propaganda, if not fabricated, refer to the labour required for the construction stage, which typically lasts only a couple of years. After that only a small percentage of the jobs are needed, and these are specialised jobs which are normally filled from workers from outside the area, if not the country. 

It may be true that indirect jobs are created or supported in the servicing of the project (restaurants, hotels, drivers etc.) However, this is a false economy, and when the mine closes the services are no longer required, often leaving ghost towns in their wake. 

Democratic deficit

Indigenous Peoples, on paper, have democratic say in decisions that affect them via the ILO 169 and the provision for Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). However, in practice, this is often only a tick box exercise, not real meaningful participative decision making. Similarly, the Aarhus Convention, giving the public access to information and the right to participate in decision making in environmental matters, is often not complied with. In reality, communities’ right to say no is not being honoured. Nor is there a clear path to justice, if this right is violated.

Militarisation, violence and criminalisation of defenders

Environmental human rights defenders opposing mining projects have increasingly faced criminalization, harassment, violence and even death. Between 2012 and 2022, 1,910 land and environmental defenders were killed, according to Global Witness. In 2024, Frontline Defenders documented the killings of 324 human rights defenders in 32 countries – 20.4% of these were land rights defenders. 

Our member Kalikasan People’s Network and Global Witness also reported on how the militarisation of mining is threatening Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines. Since 2012, the Philippines has been ranked as the deadliest country in Asia for people protecting land and the environment, with mining linked to a third of all killings documented by Global Witness. 

Defenders are also being criminalised on an ever-increasing scale. Terrorism charges for organising or even just participating in protests are often used to demand long sentences and extortionate fines. Many other charges are thrown at defenders. See again the report from Frontline Defenders for details of cases of judicial harassment and criminalisation of people resisting mining projects. Even if the cases do not result in a conviction, they are designed to exhaust resources and spirit, and cause a ‘chill effect’ on the community. 

 

Section 2: Mining in a capitalist economy 

 

Extractivism reflects and sustains an economic and developmental model based on the unsustainable and unjust exploitation of People and Nature. It is driven by out-of-control production and consumption, a global addiction to economic growth (GDP), a logic of abusing human rights and pillaging life sustaining systems on which the wellbeing of all life on Earth depends.

Being asked to accept these extractive industries within this unjust, ecocidal economic system is like being asked to fill a sieve with water – a sieve with an ever-expanding rim. An impossible task, but those asked to sacrifice themselves for it are not the ones who benefit. 

 

Unjust weight of extractivism 

The global south

As the work of Eduardo Galeano highlights, extractivism is just the modern face of colonialism, with capitalism as its engine. It follows the same system of exploitation and injustice. Jason Hickel’s work, such as ‘The Divide’, clearly shows that, despite the aid rhetoric, the Global North is a net extractor of resources and wealth from the Global South.   This appropriation amounted to $242 trillion over the period from 1990 to 2015, a sum large enough to eradicate extreme poverty 70 times over. 

The peripheries of the core

With the new rush for minerals in the name of the ‘green transition’ (but in service of the same old capitalism), sacrifice zones are expanding within the Global North itself. Industry and government try to tell us this is a balancing of the scales. However, when mining does ‘come home’, it does not settle justly. It doesn’t happen at the centres of capital, but is again pushed to the margins. It is the peripheries of Europe which are being readied for sacrifice – the Balkans, Iberia, Fennoscandia and Ireland. A quarter of the island of Ireland is already concessioned to mining companies, compared to 0.8% of England. The peripheries are social as well as geographical – the Sami in Fennoscandia bear the brunt of their mining boom. In North America Tribal Nations from Nevada to Dakota are seeing the land they were pushed onto now being invaded for mining.

 

Section 3: Green capitalism

Transition for who and for what?

How the capitalist economy demands ever more gobbling up of the natural world to turn into sellable stuff is not new. But what is new is its green superhero cloak. Using words like ‘critical’ to describe what they’re extracting deliberately implies that these minerals and metals are critical for our survival, however the reality is a different story. 

The demand projections for so-called critical minerals are astounding. Global demand for lithium is projected to increase by 500% by 2050 . The EU alone will demand 60 times more lithium by then. Similar astronomical projections exist for other ‘critical minerals’ like nickel, cobalt, and rare earth metals. Taking copper – another green-painted metal, demand is projected to rise to 36.6 million tonnes annually, yet supply (if it’s all extracted) is forecast at 30.1 million tonnes per year – so there isn’t even enough in the ground to satisfy this eternally increasing demand. 

Yet what is dangerous is the deliberate confounding of the projected demand and what is actually needed to tackle the climate crisis in a just and equitable way. To start with, only a small percentage of critical minerals are destined for renewable technologies for society’s energy needs. Only 7% of nickel is currently used for batteries. Other destinations are war, aerospace, the construction industry and consumerism. 

In 2017 the US Department of Defence used 750,000 tonnes of minerals on arms, and this is before the genocide in Gaza and the renewed intensification of military aggression by imperial powers in recent years. Then we have the creeping privatisation of the space race – to bring billionaires and their friends on a trip to space, to litter the moon with tiny sculptures, or for mining the moon and asteroids. 

A large percentage of the lithium currently being mined is being used for the seemingly green Electric Vehicles (EVs) market – along with nickel and cobalt. However, EVs are not the climate solution they are claimed to be. The private car model was flawed from the start – leading to a decimation of our public transport systems, deadly air pollution and badly designed urban centres. We need free, reliable, accessible and well- designed public transport to replace the wasteful model of the private car, not industrial policies that lock us into reliance upon its expansion. 

Lithium, cobalt and nickel are also used for the manufactured mass consumption of electronic consumer items, – such as smartphones and laptops, for which there is demand far beyond any reasonable need, – due to profit-maximising capitalist strategies such as planned obsolescence and manipulative advertising. Indeed, tech giants like Amazon deliberately dump millions of new products every year to maintain market space for more needless production and consumption in order to maintain the market.

Another illustrative example of the deliberate wasting of these supposedly critical minerals is that of the disposable vape. Each throwaway vape houses a lithium battery – 2 million of which are discarded weekly in the UK alone. Communities in the deadly ‘lithium triangle’ – stretching across Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, are having mining imposed on them for the green transition when really much of it ends up in our landfills or littering the streets.

Finally, we need to ask: the minerals and metals which are destined for renewable energy technologies – what is this energy being used for? Is it to meet the needs of people – heating homes, running hospitals and schools, fueling public transport, etc? Or is the energy demand vulnerable to the same criticisms as the mineral demand? In Ireland, data centres overtake electricity use of all urban homes combined. 

In sum: we say no to mining

The expanded extractive plans we’re seeing globally have been brewing for many decades but in recent years, with the rise of concern for the climate crisis, industry actors and government have cloaked their intentions in a guise of benevolent public servitude, claiming more extraction is the key to a climate safe future. 

This misleading claim ignores the fact that the climate crisis is intrinsically linked to the other crises we are facing – social, economic, ecological – which are all further exacerbated by increased extractivism. We cannot mine our way out of the climate crisis. 

Communities have a right to know the realities of mining before the companies are granted any permissions, and to understand the system in which it is steeped. The communities then have a right to say no to mining. We support those communities in their search for information and understanding, and in their needs for networking. 

We also support communities already affected by the reality of mining, who have come to the conclusion that there is no way to make mining better, who are suffering its consequences and looking for or working on post-extractive alternatives. 

 

Section 4: a world beyond extractivism

 

We believe that Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities who are at the frontlines of resistance hold the key to a post-extractive future, and must lead the way. YLNM exists to bring this future into reality through solidarity and collective action.

We advocate for approaches that are ecologically and socially just – that value diverse ways of life; that protect the land, air and waters we all rely on. These approaches will take us beyond the inherently violent and harmful practice of extraction as if the Earth has no limits. 

We promote locally-rooted, globally reaching and systemic alternatives to mining and extractivism. We do this by weaving together a world beyond extractivism for current and future generations.