Abuses in Aluminum Supply Chains a Blind Spot for Car Industry

• Automotive companies need to do more to address human rights abuses in their aluminum supply chains.
• The transition to electric vehicles means that automakers are expected to double their aluminum consumption by 2050.
• The effects of mining and refining the raw materials needed for aluminum include the widespread destruction of the land of the municipalities and the damage to their water sources. The aluminum industry’s reliance on coal also means it is responsible for 2 percent of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.
• Car companies should use their increased purchasing power to protect communities damaged by the aluminum industry and put pressure on mines, refineries and smelters to respect human rights.

(Washington, DC) – Automobile companies must do more to address abuse in their aluminum supply chains and the bauxite mines they source from, Human Rights Watch and Inclusive Development International said in a report. Automakers used almost a fifth of the aluminum consumed worldwide in 2019 and are projected to double their aluminum consumption by 2050 if they switch to electric vehicles.

The 63-page report “Aluminum: The Auto Industry’s Blind Spot – Why Car Companies Should Address the Human Rights Impact of Aluminum Production” describes the global supply chains that car manufacturers with mines, refineries and smelters from countries like Guinea, Ghana, Brazil, China , Malaysia and Australia. Based on meetings and correspondence with nine major automotive companies – BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Groupe PSA (now part of Stellantis), Renault, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo – Human Rights Watch and Inclusive Development International rated how the auto industry deals with auto Address the human rights impact of aluminum production, from the destruction of farmland and damage to water sources from mines and refineries to the significant carbon emissions from aluminum smelting. Three other companies – BYD, Hyundai and Tesla – did not respond to requests for information.

“Automakers view aluminum as a critical material in the transition to fuel-efficient vehicles,” said Jim Wormington, senior African researcher at Human Rights Watch. “They should use their ever-growing purchasing power to protect the communities whose land and environment are being damaged by the aluminum industry.”

Aluminum is a light but strong metal made from bauxite, a red ore. Bauxite is refined into aluminum oxide, an intermediate product, and then melted into aluminum. Aluminum is highly recyclable, but more than half of the aluminum used by the automotive industry is primary aluminum, which is made from bauxite.

Although many of the world’s leading automakers have publicly committed to addressing human rights abuses in their supply chains, they have done little to assess and address the human rights impact of aluminum production. Instead, they have prioritized supply chain due diligence for other materials that are central to electric vehicles, such as the cobalt needed for electric batteries.

Because it is an open pit, bauxite mines occupy a large area and often destroy farmland that supports the livelihoods of local communities. Bauxite mines can also wreak havoc on rivers, streams, and groundwater sources that communities rely on for household use and irrigation.

In Guinea, a West African country with the largest deposits of bauxite in the world, a 2019 government study forecast that a bauxite mining boom would destroy 858 square kilometers of agricultural land and destroy more than 4,700 square kilometers of natural habitat six times the size of New York City over the next 20 years . About 80 percent of the population in Guinea’s bauxite mining area depends on agriculture for a living.

Kounssa Bailo Barry, a Guinean farmer and activist, estimated in January 2021 that a bauxite mine owned by a joint venture between multinational mining giants Rio Tinto, Alcoa and Dadco had destroyed 80 percent of his village’s farmland. “Everything about Fassaly that made it a village has disappeared and we don’t benefit from what caused it,” he said. Barry’s village and 12 other parishes are entering into a mediation process with the mining company to find solutions to the damage it has caused.

Refining bauxite to aluminum oxide produces large amounts of red mud, a highly hazardous material that, if not handled and stored properly, can pollute waterways and harm people who come in contact with it. In the Brazilian state of Pará, a non-governmental organization that represents more than 11,000 people is suing a bauxite mine, a refinery and an aluminum smelter for allegedly contaminating waterways in the Amazon basin.

The production of aluminum is very energy intensive and most aluminum producers rely on coal power, a high carbon and polluting fuel. In China, which dominates global aluminum smelting, 90 percent of aluminum in 2018 was generated using electricity from coal-fired power. Aluminum production is responsible for more than a billion tons of CO2 equivalent annually – around two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Three German automakers – Audi, BMW and Daimler – have tried to promote responsible aluminum sourcing by encouraging their suppliers to join an industry-led certification program called the Aluminum Stewardship Initiative (ASI). The program uses third party audits to assess mines, refineries, and smelters against human rights and environmental standards, as well as other industry best practices.

However, ASI’s human rights standards lack sufficient detail and do not provide specific criteria for assessing how well companies respond to key human rights issues, such as relocating communities displaced by mining. ASI must also offer the municipalities stronger guarantees for participation in the audit process and more transparency about the audit results.

Since being contacted by Human Rights Watch and Inclusive Development International, some auto companies have taken steps to make aluminum a higher priority for responsible sourcing. Drive Sustainability, a coalition of eleven automotive companies that include BMW, Daimler, Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo, launched a project in May to assess human rights risks in aluminum production and nine other raw materials that could pave the way for collective engagement from automotive companies with aluminum manufacturers.

In January, Drive Sustainability also wrote to the Aluminum Association, an association of dozens of aluminum producers, “to express concern about the situation in Guinea” for information about members’s efforts to promote human rights due diligence Expressing support for mediation between communities and the bauxite mine supported by Rio Tinto, Alcoa and Dadco.

“These positive steps should only be the beginning of a broader automotive industry effort to address the human rights implications of aluminum production,” said Natalie Bugalski, director of law and policy at Inclusive Development International. “Auto companies should require mines, smelters and refineries to respect strict human rights and environmental standards and ensure that there are consequences if they don’t.”