Regular registration fee is available until 1 October Membership & Registration Payment

WORLD ANTHROPOLOGICAL UNION

CONGRESS 2024​

Paper

Digital minerals in green energy transitions: supply chain disparities

presenters

    Allison Furniss

    Nationality: Canada

    Residence: South Africa

    University of Cape Town

    Presence:Face to Face/ On Site

Keywords:

Abstract:

The global shift towards green energies has spotlighted the expansion of cobalt and lithium extraction from Central Africa, particularly with the rise of electric vehicles and increased use of wind and solar energy technologies. Within this discourse, little attention has been paid to 3T minerals, the ‘digital minerals,’ necessary for the fabrication of digital components within green energy technologies.[1] The present study centers 3T minerals within the broader discussion of green energy transitions through an analysis of women who work along the supply chain of 3T minerals from extractive sites in Central Africa to export from Tanzania. This study outlines the presence of 3T minerals in green energies and analyzes the gendered disparities along the chain when considering all roles including that of miners, mineral traders, mineral transporters and auxiliary workers. This study considers the gendered implications of the global production of green energies, with women’s labour concentrated in less lucrative and more precarious positions. Based on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2022 and 2023, the present study uses participant observation, interview and focus group methodologies. This study asks, how are 3T minerals situated within green energy transitions? How ‘green’ are green energies when considering the vast global networks involved with their fabrication? What disparities exist along the 3T mineral supply chain? How is the 3T mineral supply chain gendered?