Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Science

The 20km ripple effect: How mines can trigger distant deforestation in Africa

The global push for a transition to green energy has sparked demand for critical minerals such as lithium, vanadium, copper and cobalt. These are needed for electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. Sub-Saharan Africa hosts about 30% of the world's mineral reserves, including huge quantitie...

The 20km ripple effect: How mines can trigger distant deforestation in Africa
Image: Phys.org
The global push for a transition to green energy has sparked demand for critical minerals such as lithium, vanadium, copper and cobalt. These are needed for electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. Sub-Saharan Africa hosts about 30% of the world's mineral reserves, including huge quantities of critical minerals: 92% of all platinum, 36% of all chromium, 54% of all manganese and 56% of all cobalt.

Originally published at Phys.org

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