Lithium & Cobalt
The mining the energy transition runs on. Lithium brines and hard-rock spodumene, cobalt in the Congo and the artisanal pits, rare earths and their processing, deep-sea nodules, and the supply chains behind every battery.
Part of Underground
11 moments in this segment.
- - Blood cobalt: the Congo's green energy mines. Foreign Correspondent on artisanal cobalt digging in the DRC, the metal behind the batteries in electric cars, laptops and phones.
- - The truth about deep sea mining. How nodule collection on the abyssal plain would actually work, and what is known about the ecosystems it would disturb.
- - The true cost of lithium mining. Mining companies move onto the Andean salt flats, which hold over half the world's known lithium, while local communities fear for their scarce water.
- - Inside the global race for lithium. FT film following the lithium supply chain from Chile to Norway and the United Kingdom, and the disputes it has generated.
- - Cobalt mining is still a dangerous job in Congo. Southern DRC holds roughly four million tonnes of cobalt, near half the known world supply, yet remains among the poorest countries on Earth.
- - Polymetallic nodules: life-giver or energy future?. Filmmakers were mid-shoot on the seabed nodules when researchers announced in July 2024 that the rocks appeared to be producing oxygen in the abyss.
- - What Is the Impact of Lithium Mining?. BBC News on lithium extraction from brine beneath Chile's Atacama and the water cost of pulling it up.
- - The trillion-dollar race to mine the ocean floor. Four Corners on the companies moving to harvest metal-rich nodules from the Pacific abyss and the scientists warning of irreversible damage.
- - Congo produces its first traceable artisanal cobalt. The state cobalt agency delivers 1,000 tonnes of traceable artisanal cobalt, a first step toward formalising a sector that supplies much of the world's battery metal.
- - Lithium rising: the race for critical minerals. Full-length documentary filmed across five countries on the competition for lithium, cobalt and copper behind electric vehicles and battery storage.
- - Should we mine the deep ocean?. BBC World Service asks whether the seabed can supply the metals the energy transition needs, or should be left undisturbed.
