NI555 - Dig, baby, dig! - May/June 2025

The Big Story in this issue tackles the current race for critical minerals. Heralded as the way out of planetary death by fossil fuel, critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium, copper and rare earths, are key to the green energy transition we all need. Now, turbo-charged by Donald Trump’s lunge for the mineral wealth of Ukraine, Greenland and Canada, powerful nations are jostling even harder to grab the metals for future transport and energy systems, digital tech and weaponry in an unstable world.

But what about the people who live in the areas of mineral extraction – who face having their homelands turned into ‘zones of sacrifice’? Already mining companies have a dire record on depleting and polluting essential water resources; on fuelling social conflict and human rights abuses. This story takes us to the sharp end of the mining boom – to Peru, Chile and DR Congo – and hears from those enduring or resisting ruinous extractivism. It questions whether we really can save the world by digging more holes in it – and points to smarter ways of tackling the challenges ahead.

84 pages.

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