A new analysis from the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre reveals that major mining companies fuelling the global clean energy transition are increasingly linked to human rights abuses, environmental harm, and community conflict.
The report, based on the 2025 Transition Minerals Tracker, documents a record 156 allegations of abuse in 2024 alone — part of a total 834 cases logged since 2010 involving minerals like nickel, lithium, and zinc, essential for electric vehicle batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines.
Companies named in the report include Glencore, Grupo México, Codelco, Georgian American Alloys, China MinMetals, Sinomine Resource Group, and South32.
The Tracker highlights that South America remains the region with the highest number of allegations, but Europe and Central Asia saw a 50 per cent increase in cases over the past year.
Australian mines faced allegations of systemic sexual harassment, unsafe practices, and unauthorised work on sacred sites.
Legal risks for companies are mounting, with 40 lawsuits now tracked-seven filed in 2024-demonstrating that communities are increasingly seeking accountability in courts.
The report notes that copper, copper-cobalt, and zinc are the minerals most frequently linked to abuses, and Indigenous Peoples continue to be disproportionately affected, with 18 new cases last year and 77 in total.
Caroline Avan, Head of Just Energy Transition and Natural Resources at the Resource Centre, warned: “The urgency of the energy transition is real, but it cannot be used to justify an unprincipled scramble for transition minerals.
“This is driving widespread human rights abuse, environmental destruction and growing community conflict which slows the transition.
“A transition built on exploitative supply chains of minerals is not simply unjust — it is unstable, unpredictable, and ultimately unsustainable — and this should deeply concern investors, governments and downstream users of minerals in the renewable energy space.
“If companies and States continue to pursue minerals recklessly, they risk undermining the very future they claim to support.
“We urgently need a reset — one that seeks to curb global demand through mineral recycling, and delivers shared prosperity in the necessary mining.
“In doing so, this will embed human rights at the centre of the clean energy economy, builds trust and shared prosperity with affected communities and protects the environment on which we all depend.
“The path to net zero cannot be paved with more injustice and global inequity. A just transition will be one that is fast but also fair.”
The Resource Centre is calling on policymakers, business leaders, and investors to embed human rights protections in the transition mineral supply chain to ensure the energy transition is both rapid and fair.
