The environmental impact of mineral mining
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 28 May 2025
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rising demand for critical minerals to fuel the green energy transition means an expansion of mining around the world.
New mines are opening, existing mines are being scaled up.
In the fourth programme in our series, we find out about the impact of mineral mining on the planet and for those people both working in the mines and living nearby.
We head to the Democratic Republic of the Congo where there are claims that child labour is being used in so called ‘artisanal’ mines and there is little scrutiny of the supply chain.
Presenter: Sam Fenwick Producer: Lexy O'Connor
(Image: Artisanal miners carry sacks of ore at a mine near Kolwezi in 2022. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Sam Fennick, and you're listening to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:07.0 | This week, we're exploring the importance of critical minerals, seen as essential to modern life |
| 0:12.8 | and the green transition. It's in almost every smartphone, tablet, laptop, rechargeable device, |
| 0:18.5 | and crucially most electric vehicles. But getting those minerals out of the ground comes at a cost. |
| 0:24.9 | Today we're exploring the impact of critical mineral mining on the planet |
| 0:29.5 | and the people who live and work nearby. |
| 0:32.5 | The companies are recognising that they need to up their game, they need to be responsible. |
| 0:37.1 | Can we make mineral extraction safer, greener and more ethical? |
| 0:41.8 | That's all coming up on this episode of Business Daily. |
| 0:50.5 | We're doing a bit of off-road in here, aren't we? |
| 0:53.1 | Yeah, yeah. |
| 0:54.0 | These roads used to be used to haul the rock. |
| 0:58.5 | That was mine for the Kalen. |
| 1:00.7 | I'm in my hard hat and a high-vis jacket, |
| 1:03.7 | and I'm bouncing up a rough gravel track in a pickup truck |
| 1:07.8 | that's taking us around the edges of a huge open pit. |
| 1:12.3 | We're in Cornwall on England's southwest coast, |
| 1:15.6 | and at the wheel is Hanno Bice, head of mining at Imris, British Lithium. |
| 1:20.8 | So we're driving deeper into the quarry nail going down. |
| 1:25.0 | How far will we go? |
| 1:25.9 | So this is probably about 40 metres below surface level. |
| 1:31.6 | The eventual quarry will be as deep as about 200 metres. |
... |
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