Clean energy technologies are often seen in their final products: electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines, or a stronger power grid. But behind these technologies are minerals, mines, processing hubs, workers, communities, ecosystems, and trade routes spread across the world. MineralSense helps make these connections visible. It traces how critical minerals move through global supply chains and highlights the social, environmental, and governance questions that come with them.
Explore the minerals behind clean energy, the places they come from, and the risks that are often hidden from view
Clean energy growth is increasing demand for critical minerals.
Some minerals are produced or processed in only a few countries.
Mining and processing can affect water, land, health, labour, and ecosystems.
Many clean technologies depend on supply chains most users never see.
Stay informed. Demand transparency. Support ethical sourcing initiatives by pushing for stronger public oversight of supply chains, corporate accountability, and independent verification wherever you buy or invest.
Researchers, advocates, and working professionals dedicated to exposing exploitation in critical mineral supply chains.
Evan builds the digital tools behind MineralSense, including the mapping, data organisation, and interactive features that help users explore mineral supply chains.
Sodgerel brings research and community engagement experience to MineralSense. She is starting her PhD on critical minerals and helps shape the project’s research direction and grounding.
Arvind leads research, communication, and public engagement for MineralSense, helping make critical mineral supply chains more understandable and relevant to wider audiences.
Behind every mineral number is a real place and a real community.
Explore stories and investigations from mineral-producing regions, and see how clean technologies connect to water, labour, health, land, governance, and accountability.
DRC • Cobalt
A Raid and Afrewatch investigation reveals reports of miscarriages, infections and birth defects among women and girls in mining communities. More than half of 144 interviewees raised concerns about reproductive health, linked to contact with contaminated water.
March 2024
DRC • Cobalt
Communities near cobalt mines report contaminated water, reduced crop yields, and severe health impacts. Nearly all surveyed residents raised concerns about reproductive health or that of family members.
March 2024
DRC • Cobalt
Save the Children's programs help children return to education after mine work. Tens of thousands of children still work in deadly conditions daily.
June 2024
USA • DRC
A federal appeals court ruled that purchasing cobalt through global supply chains does not constitute "participation in a venture" involving forced labor.
March 2024
Chile • Lithium
Indigenous communities in Chile's Atacama describe the salt flat as sacred. Mining plans threaten water sources critical for agriculture, livestock, and survival.
January 2026
Chile • Lithium
As Chile accelerates lithium extraction, Lickanantay communities are demanding unprecedented governance roles in decision-making about their ancestral lands.
April 2025
Chile • Lithium
Lithium extraction requires massive amounts of water in one of the driest places on Earth. Indigenous communities describe dwindling water tables and the fight to protect ancestral lands.
December 2024
Indonesia • Nickel
Indonesia's nickel smelting boom has displaced villages, polluted rivers, and left workers in hazardous conditions. A look at the environmental cost of the EV supply chain shift.
September 2024
Global
71-81% of critical mineral production is controlled by companies from wealthy economies, while social and environmental harms fall on producer nations.
March 2025
Global
Supply gaps, concentration risks, and the environmental and social impacts of scaling up critical mineral production for the energy transition.
2024Tracking exploitation risks, supply chain transparency, and policy developments.
Clean energy starts long before the finished product.
Explore how EV batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, and power grids connect to mines, processing hubs, factories, ports, communities, and ecosystems around the world.
Click a product to see which countries supply its critical minerals
Click on a highlighted country to see which battery mineral connects it to the EV supply chain, why it matters, and what questions responsible sourcing should ask.