At the Edge of Europe: Hearing Those Who Live Near Proposed Lithium Mines

• by Nejra Kravić, Bernardo Álvarez-Villar and Natalie Donback

We began our journey into the changing landscape of Mediterranean energy with a few main questions in mind. Does Europe’s energy transition really require the digging of mines? And do the benefits of electrifying transport actually outweigh the damage caused by the mining of lithium for electric car batteries? Given the difficulty of this trade-off, we wanted to explore the question of who are the potential losers in the European Union’s push for “clean” energy.

Our reporting took us to the Spanish provinces of Cáceres and Salamanca, close to the border with Portugal, and to Lopare, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the eastern portion of the continent, where we gathered the concerns of many, from local officials to long-haul truck drivers. We wanted to speak with the communities affected by three lithium projects currently under consideration at the European level to understand if people see lithium mining as a curse or a blessing, potentially bringing much-needed economic and employment opportunities.

Beyond reporting the potential social and environmental impacts for the communities and territories affected by these mining projects, we wanted to highlight a common pattern across southern Europe: the center-periphery dynamic. While the center of a country or continent often claims high-value economic activities for itself, critical raw materials are extracted from peripheral regions, harming their environment and traditional economic sectors such as tourism and agriculture.

In Bosnia, for instance, residents expressed concerns that the proposed lithium mine would harm agriculture, beekeeping and milk production — industries critical to the region’s economy and way of life.

As we gathered stories from farmers, environmental activists and officials across Spain and Bosnia, a broader question began to emerge: How can we transition to green energy in a way that is not exploitative for the communities that will pay the inevitable environmental costs of mining? Cost-benefit calculations and conflicts of interest between different communities and territories are dilemmas that Mediterranean societies are facing more and more in their efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. Perhaps this is the big question that climate policies must address: How do we fairly share the burdens required for the green transition?

As we concluded our field reporting, it became clear that our stories were deeply interconnected. The impacted communities are often treated as an afterthought in broader European policy discussions. Such communities share a deep sense of frustration, as they do not feel heard by the policymakers in Brussels and feel precluded from choosing their own future and economic model.

Throughout the months of our reporting, we came to find that mining is a very polarizing but also multifaceted issue. Trying to get a broad — and, to the extent that it’s possible, objective — picture of what lithium mining would mean for different communities required that we consider multiple issues and angles, as well as diligently separate strong messages of advocacy from scientifically documented impacts.

All things considered, our reporting uncovered a disconnect between the ambitions of European energy transition policies and the lived realities of communities expected to bear the costs of extractive industries, raising questions about who gets a say in what a sustainable energy future looks like on the continent.

Top image: Residents of the Rebollar region at the cultural center of Ciudad Rodrigo in Salamanca attend an information meeting on lithium mining projects (Bernardo Álvarez-Villar).

Editor's note: This piece concludes the series “An Extractive Transition”, which offers a preview of the magazine we have in mind. It was produced as part of the first edition of the Magmatic School of Environmental Journalism.