A clean energy future hinges on minerals such as copper, cobalt, lithium and rare earth elements. But the race to secure them puts pressure on the places where they are mined, often affecting communities contributing the least to climate change. With supply and processing concentrated in just a few countries, these critical raw materials have also become a geopolitical flashpoint.
To secure critical minerals, the United States and European Union are moving supply chains to aligned regions—producing more at home, bringing industries back or moving operations to allied countries. But simply shuffling where minerals are mined does not automatically make extraction more ethical or sustainable.
In a new commentary published in the journal Nature Energy, researchers from Colorado School of Mines, University of Utah, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dartmouth College and Copenhagen Business School propose a new framework of “just-shoring” to shift focus from competition and security to the rights and interests of those whose lands are most at risk.
Nicole Smith, a cultural anthropologist and associate professor of mining engineering, and Aaron Malone, a human geographer and research assistant professor of mining engineering, are the Mines co-authors of the paper, which was led by Jessica DiCarlo of the University of Utah.
“There is enormous pressure to secure new mineral supplies, but the urgency of the agenda can obscure a more fundamental question: who bears the costs of producing them?” said Smith. “History suggests that when supply chains are reorganized without rethinking the terms of extraction, familiar patterns emerge. Although there may be new minerals, new trade routes, and new terms of trade, the same communities absorb the risks.”
Shoring up supply chains
Critical raw materials power everything from wind turbines and electric vehicles to semiconductors and advanced defense systems. But mining and processing are concentrated in a few countries, making global supply chains particularly vulnerable; China, for example, dominates the mining and refining of rare earth elements.
Governments and firms typically pursue three strategies for securing independent critical raw minerals: On-shoring by developing new domestic operations; re-shoring by reestablishing previously offshored industries; and friend-shoring by relocating or expanding supply chains to geopolitically aligned countries. Reshuffling where critical minerals operations occur may yield components for green energy, but it also threatens health, air, water, biodiversity and livelihoods—with limited assessment of whether the project mitigates climate change at all.
More than half of the proposed facilities are located on or near agrarian or Indigenous land. Some frameworks, like the Paris Agreement and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, recommend a shift to local resource control, but only on a voluntary basis.
Just-shoring pushes beyond best practices to make accountability and transparency enforceable, giving communities a legal right to co-govern throughout the entirety of the mineral lifecycle, from initial exploration and permitting through the final stages of closure and clean-up and recycling. It is guided by three questions: Who benefits? Whose risks are amplified? How much material extraction is necessary for a just transition?
“If we want critical minerals to advance an energy transition that is just and equitable, we have to think about more than just reshuffling the geographies of what is produced where,” Malone said.
The authors argue that the rush for critical minerals could undermine the very climate goals they are meant to serve. While decarbonization is urgent, urgency cannot be an excuse for extraction that deepens inequality or damages the environment.
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Other authors include Jessica DiCarlo of the University of Utah, Raphael Deberdt of the Copenhagen Business School, Scott Odell of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and George Washington University and Lydia Jennings of Dartmouth College.
The commentary was published in the journal Nature Energy under the title, “A just energy transition requires just-shoring critical materials.” Note: A long-form article expanding this framework is currently in review.
About Mines
Colorado School of Mines is a public R1 research university focused on applied science and engineering, producing the talent, knowledge and innovations to serve industry and benefit society – all to create a more prosperous future.
