For years now the conversation has revolved around the energy transition and the retreat from fossil fuels such as oil and coal. At the center of that shift sits lithium, an exceptionally valuable light metal that has become the key component in the high-capacity batteries powering electric vehicles, but also smartphones and the storage systems that make renewables like solar and wind usable.
As global demand has climbed, the value of lithium has surged, pushing many countries to dig into their own territory in search of deposits. Extracting the mineral, however, requires large open-pit mines. That characteristic risks devastating consequences for the local environment, and it hits hardest those who live off farming. The first socio-political fallout is now playing out in South Africa, where the country’s ambitions of economic revival are colliding with the anger and the fears of thousands of farmers.
How exploration licenses are hitting rural communities
The South African government has decided to bet on critical minerals, valued by the authorities at roughly 40 billion rand (about $2.2 billion). Speaking in Parliament in February, President Cyril Ramaphosa described them as an industrial sector in full expansion, capable of creating jobs and strengthening the country’s industries.
The reception among the population, though, has been anything but enthusiastic. On the south-eastern coast, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, the hunt for lithium is putting rural communities on alert. Figures from the Department of Mineral Resources show that exploration permits already granted in 2023 cover roughly 73,000 hectares (some 180,000 acres) — an area larger than Pretoria, South Africa’s capital. The zone covered by the permits takes in 117 farms and even stretches of beach.
Beyond the environmental impact, the broader economic hit is a source of concern. The local South Coast Guardians Association (SCGA) argues that if every exploration permit were converted into a working mine, the consequences for the area would be catastrophic. Roughly 30,000 jobs tied to farming, services and tourism are at stake.
One of the most exposed sectors is the sugar supply chain: the area’s sugar mill processes 2 million metric tons of sugarcane a year, grown by 2,000 smallholders and 600 large commercial operations. Joe Nkala, a sugarcane cultivation adviser to small-scale farmers, put it bluntly:
«The future of farming here is lost. My children will have to find a new life.»
The green transition’s dilemma: environment versus subsistence
The climate crisis and recent international geopolitical tensions, with their knock-on effects on oil, are driving investment toward clean energy. Looked at in aggregate, clean technologies require less raw material than traditional fuels. A 2024 study by the Breakthrough Institute, a US energy and environment research center, found that coal requires the extraction of 1,180 metric tons of material per gigawatt, against just 59 metric tons for wind and 45 for solar (battery minerals included).
Despite that greater efficiency, the local impact of open-pit mining is severe. In the village of Magog, in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, residents have described how blasting at the sites has cracked brick houses and thrown up large clouds of dust, causing respiratory problems and forcing several families to abandon their homes — some of which have already been demolished to make room for the mines.
The director of SA Lithium, Ian Harbottle, defends the operations, explaining that the existing mine has created more than a thousand jobs and that the 150 relocated households agreed to move after obtaining better terms. Harbottle also maintains that the mine complies with environmental rules and does not discharge water into rivers, reusing it instead in internal basins for production processes or to suppress dust.
That is not a view shared by local farmers, who fear that the expansion of the mining sites could permanently degrade water and soil, wiping out any possibility of working the land for future generations. The fear is not unfounded: from the United States to Portugal, rock waste has already compromised soil quality. The South African case underscores the need to balance the world’s hunger for clean energy against the economic survival of the people who live off the land.
Editor’s note
This article was originally published in Italian on money.it by Emanuela Ceccarelli on August 16, 2026 as «Batterie elettriche, il boom del litio scatena le proteste. In Sudafrica gli agricoltori si ribellano». It has been translated and adapted for an international audience by the Money.it International desk.
