SECURING CRITICAL MINERALS SUPPLY CHAINS STARTS WITH SECURING COMMUNITIES
As governments and companies race to secure access to the critical raw materials needed for the energy transition, a new consensus is emerging: resilient supply chains depend on more than geology, infrastructure, and investment. They also depend on trust between mining operations and local communities.
The issue was firmly on the international agenda at the recent G7 Summit, where leaders committed to strengthening cooperation on critical mineral supply chains, diversifying sources of supply, coordinating stockpiles, and reducing vulnerabilities associated with concentrated markets. The declaration reflects a growing recognition that critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, and rare earth elements have become central to economic security, industrial competitiveness, and the global transition to net-zero economies. (Reuters)
Yet while discussions often focus on strategic autonomy, investment frameworks, and geopolitical competition, the realities on the ground are frequently more complex. Many of the minerals required for the green transition are extracted in fragile, conflict-affected, or governance-challenged environments. In these contexts, efforts to secure supply chains can only succeed if they also address the security, rights, and development concerns of the communities living alongside mining operations.
This is one of the central objectives of our new EU project implemented in partnership with the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) strategic support. CRM Secure is a four-year EU-funded initiative (2026–2029) with the goal of reducing security risks associated with critical raw material (CRM) extraction and trade across Latin America, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. The project strengthens the resilience of communities and institutions by promoting inclusive community engagement, improving the responsiveness and accountability of security actors, and fostering policy learning and dialogue. Through multi-stakeholder platforms, rights-based security approaches, enhanced grievance mechanisms, and strengthened capacities to address criminal, environmental, and governance challenges linked to the extractive sector, CRM Secure seeks to support sustainable development, social cohesion, and peace in resource-rich regions.
Too often, security in extractive contexts is still understood primarily as the protection of assets and infrastructure, rather than as a condition that enables sustainable development, community well-being, and peaceful coexistence among stakeholders. Across many mining regions, local communities raise concerns about land access, environmental impacts, displacement, insufficient consultation, and unequal distribution of benefits. Where these grievances remain unaddressed, tensions can escalate into protests, operational disruptions, violence, or broader instability. In such circumstances, the security risks faced by companies are often symptoms of deeper governance challenges rather than isolated incidents requiring a purely security response.
This is particularly relevant at a time when governments are seeking to accelerate the development of critical mineral projects. The challenge is not simply to move faster. It is to move smarter.
For mining companies and investors, the choice is increasingly clear: security can either be a strategic asset or an operational liability. Where security is governed responsibly, with community trust at its centre, it contributes directly to project resilience, social licence and long-term operational stability. Where it is not, security incidents become symptoms of deeper governance failures, where the surrounding communities suffer the consequence and the companies carries reputational, legal and financial consequences that can dwarf the original cost of getting it right. The question is no longer whether responsible security governance is worth investing in. It is whether companies can afford not to.
Effective community engagement, meaningful consultation, and transparent grievance mechanisms are no longer peripheral corporate social responsibility activities. They are core components of operational resilience and risk management.
The role of security providers is equally important. In many extractive contexts, mining companies rely on a combination of public security forces and private security companies to protect personnel, facilities, and transport routes. Private security governance remains one of the most significant yet under-addressed dimensions of critical mineral extraction. Communities frequently have limited visibility over security arrangements and limited access to remedies when abuses occur.
Improving security in mining environments therefore requires more than additional guards, technology, or perimeter controls. It requires a shift towards responsible security governance.
From a civil society perspective, responsible security governance means ensuring that security measures are designed and implemented with communities rather than imposed upon them. It means establishing regular dialogue between companies, communities, public authorities, and security providers. It means creating accessible grievance mechanisms that communities trust and use. It means ensuring that security personnel understand local dynamics, respect human rights, and contribute to conflict prevention rather than conflict escalation. It also means recognising that environmental harms, social grievances, and security incidents are often interconnected and should be addressed through integrated approaches.
Encouragingly, these priorities are increasingly aligned with emerging regulatory expectations. The European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) reinforces the principle that companies must identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for adverse human rights and environmental impacts throughout their operations and value chains. For extractive industries, this includes risks associated with security arrangements, stakeholder engagement, land rights, and community impacts.
While the CSDDD is often discussed in terms of compliance, it also presents an opportunity. Companies that invest in robust stakeholder engagement, transparent security governance, and effective grievance mechanisms are likely to be better positioned to manage operational risks, attract investment, and maintain long-term access to critical resources. In other words, responsible security is becoming not only a human rights imperative but also a business imperative. Responsible security helps to de-risk critical raw material extraction.
The G7’s efforts to build more resilient critical mineral supply chains are understandable and necessary. However, supply chain resilience cannot be achieved solely through diversification strategies, strategic partnerships, or stockpiling initiatives. Resilience ultimately depends on whether mining projects can operate sustainably and legitimately in the communities where extraction takes place.
The experience of many resource-rich countries demonstrates that projects lacking community trust often face delays, disruptions, litigation, reputational damage, and increased security costs. By contrast, projects built on meaningful participation, accountability, and respect for rights are more likely to generate stable operating environments and long-term development benefits.
As governments, investors, and companies work to secure the minerals required for the global energy transition, there is an opportunity to move beyond outdated “fortress security” approaches and embrace more inclusive models of governance. Responsible security should not be viewed as a constraint on investment or production. It is an enabler of both.
The future of critical mineral supply chains will be shaped not only by what lies beneath the ground, but by the quality of relationships built above it. Securing critical minerals therefore starts with securing something equally valuable: the trust and resilience of the communities who live with their extraction every day.
Learn more about ICoCA and DCAF partnership in this factsheet.
Learn more about ICoCA’s work in the extractives sector.