Image

The Shifting Use of Critical Minerals

Critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, and rare earths have long been framed as essential for building a greener future. But as Global Witness recently reported, these same minerals are increasingly being redirected toward military use—shifting from powering clean energy to powering weapons systems. Read the full article here.

This militarization of “transition minerals” is a growing concern for those committed to justice, peace, and sustainability. Instead of reducing harm and promoting cooperation, the global scramble for critical minerals is deepening extraction, fueling geopolitical conflict, and expanding military-industrial priorities.

And the U.S. government is playing a central role.

In countries across Africa and Latin America, U.S. officials are negotiating mining rights not in the name of climate cooperation, but under the banners of national security, strategic competition, and economic development.

A key example is the proposed agreement with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Zambia—two countries central to the global cobalt and copper supply. While originally framed as a climate partnership, the agreement now fits neatly into a broader pattern of mineral diplomacy aimed at securing resources for industrial and defense needs.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the war has further blurred the lines between resource politics and military conflict. As Western governments continue to pour military aid into Ukraine, they are also eyeing the country’s rich untapped reserves of lithium and other rare minerals as part of a long-term strategy for energy and weapons supply chains. Ukraine is being positioned not only as a frontline in the fight against Russian aggression, but also as a future hub in the critical minerals economy—a battlefield and a business venture at once.

Congo alone supplies around 70% of the world’s cobalt, much of it mined under dangerous and exploitative conditions. Human rights groups have long documented labor abuses, including child labor and environmental degradation. Now, instead of addressing those harms, new deals risk expanding them—under the guise of peace, partnership, or regional stability.

And increasingly, these minerals are being funneled into military technologies—jet engines, missiles, surveillance systems—not just EVs and solar panels. The green transition is being absorbed into the logic of militarism.

For Indigenous and rural communities—those who live closest to these mineral deposits—the consequences are devastating: land theft, water pollution, militarized repression, and the criminalization of resistance. The promise of clean energy becomes just another form of colonial extraction.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

A true just transition must prioritize human rights, FPIC (free, prior, informed consent), ecological balance, and demilitarization. That means:

• Respecting the sovereignty of communities on the frontlines of extraction
• Ending the use of diplomacy as cover for resource grabs
• Refusing to let military and corporate agendas define the energy future

As people of faith, we are called to seek justice—not just in the outcomes we desire (clean energy), but in the ways we pursue them. If peace is bought with minerals, but paid for by the displacement of communities and the expansion of militarism, we must ask: whose peace, and at what cost?

Take Action

• Learn about and support Indigenous and grassroots struggles against unjust mining projects
• Call on policymakers to demilitarize the transition and prioritize local voices
• Pray for communities resisting exploitation in the name of peace or progress

The work of the Presbyterian Hunger Program is possible thanks to your gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing.