Most Critical Minerals Are on Indigenous Lands. Will Miners Respect Tribal Sovereignty?

Mining — whether for fossil fuels or, increasingly, the critical minerals in high demand today — has a long history of perpetuating violence against Indigenous people. Forcibly removing tribal communities to get to natural resources tied to their homelands has been the rule, not the exception, for centuries.

Today, more than half of the mineral deposits needed for a global energy transition — including lithium, cobalt, copper, and nickel to make things like batteries and solar panels — are found near or beneath Indigenous lands.

In 2007, the United Nations adopted a resolution called the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that included the right to free, prior, and informed consent to the use of their lands, a concept known as FPIC. This principle protects Indigenous peoples from being forcibly relocated, provides suitable avenues for redress of past injustices, and gives tribes and communities the right to consent to — and the right to refuse — extractive industry projects like mining.