Study Reveals Infrastructure for African Mines Causes Massive Deforestation
A study led by the University of Sheffield has found that infrastructure supporting industrial-scale mining in Africa is causing deforestation at a rate 34 times greater than the mines themselves. Between 2001 and 2020, 187,000 hectares of forest were lost due to mining activities, equivalent to the size of Mauritius. The study highlights that the construction of roads, housing, and agricultural land to support mining operations is a major driver of deforestation. The research focused on mines extracting cobalt and copper, which are essential for renewable energy technologies and electronics. 
