Auvergnats against the mining industry

Auvergne, its forests, its volcanoes, its beautiful rivers... and soon its lithium megamine? Located in Allier in the town of Echassières, a mine project led by the mining giant Imerys is raising the concern of residents and environmental organizations. Mineral extraction is expected to begin at the Beauvoir quarry (photo in one) from 2028 and last at least a quarter of a century. Used in particular for electric car batteries, lithium has become a strategic metal, our enemies wanting to ensure the perpetuation of the techno-industrial system.

Green smoke

We are not talking about a simple hole in the ground here: the ambition is to create one of the largest lithium mines in Europe, from which some 34,000 tons of lithium hydroxide would be extracted each year, enough (according to the propaganda) to equip the batteries of 700,000 electric vehicles per year^[1].

Of course, our government of well-known technoluminaries supports this project with all its weight and joyfully participates in the vast green smoke that surrounds this mine. According to Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, “c.This project [is] exemplary in terms of environment and climate ”. For her part, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, then Minister for Energy Transition, declared: “The lithium that will be extracted in a responsible manner will make it possible to produce in our gigafactories the batteries necessary for the electrification of our activities. ”^[2].

In short, as always, technocrats use greenwashing to neutralize any questioning of technical progress and, more generally, of the industrial order.

A “clean” industry does not exist

It must be said that the managers of the Imerys company promise “emissions that are half those of all other hard rock lithium farms in existence today in the world ” and “to limit environmental impacts on the surface ”^[3]. The reality is that Imerys, like most major mining companies, is actively participating in ongoing ecocide and ethnocide. Indeed, this company is accused of polluting waterways in the Amazon, pollutions that have forced local communities into exile.^[4].

As for the promises of “clean mining” regularly put forward by the extractive industry, you only have to look at the reports of independent specialists to realize that they are a scam. Thus, according to the geological engineer Aurore Stéphant, the mining industry is “the main producer of solid, liquid and gaseous waste, all industrial sectors combined.^[5] ”.

The illusion of debate to silence growing dissent

But don't panic! A public debate will be organized in spring 2024. We know very well where this kind of pseudo-debate leads: to the reproduction of the techno-industrial order. Faced with the enormous challenges, especially for the powerful automotive industry, we may fear that the voice of citizens will not weigh very heavily. This was verified during a previous debate organized in the small town of Coutansouze where this mine will be located.

The representatives of the Imerys firm were careful to avoid answering delicate questions, in particular on the consumption of water and chemical products in the project.^[6]. When you know that it takes between 41,000 and 1.9 million liters of water to extract a ton of lithium^[7], the question is however far from being anecdotal. And in a context of drought that is tending to become widespread, the concern of residents for their water resources is entirely legitimate.

A fight under close surveillance

Faced with the mining giant, resistance is being organized. The inhabitants have created several associations, including “Stop Mines 03”, whose slogan is clear: “lithium neither here nor elsewhere”^[8]. They thus intelligently avoid the NIMBY trap (“Not In My BackYard”: “not in my garden”), which would consist in opposing the mine on their territory without worrying about the impact of lithium mines for the populations of the global South.

This challenge is already under close surveillance by the State, and the future mine sector is considered to be “site with a dispute likely to become radicalized in the short term” by the services of the Ministry of the Interior^[9].

A simple cog in the megamachine

As we can see, and it is not surprising, the defenders of this mining project (the industrialists and the State) are using lies and tongue-in-cheek to try to put the inhabitants to sleep. But many are not fools: the “ecological transition” is just another mass manipulation to justify the conservation of a deadly system.

The extractivist industry is one of the pillars of the techno-industrial system, and the “ecological” transition is the myth that will make it more and more essential. In fact of transition, it is a question of adding to the dependence on oil a dependence on rare metals^[10] by relying on a criminal industry: mines are the cause of gigantic ecological damage (pollution, droughts, destruction of ecosystems, etc.) and social (exploitation, diseases, displacement or even extermination of populations, etc.)^[11].

It is therefore necessary to realize that fighting a single mine is irrelevant: in the event that activists succeed in shutting down a mine, another one would open a little further away. The entire extractivist system must be targeted. Beyond that, it is illusory to believe that we can preserve life on Earth without targeting the entire technological system. The mining industry is just a cog in a vast network of extraction, processing, consumption and infrastructure sites that are consuming our planet uncontrollably.^[12].

Think strategically

A question then arises: will fighting against each ecocidal project, in isolation, allow us to save the planet? It is clear that this strategy, used for decades by environmental activists, has been ineffective in stopping the mad rush of industrial civilization. The reason is simple: we are in an asymmetric battle, where the defenders of the planet are fewer and less powerful than the proponents of the techno-industrial order.

In this context, adopting a strategy of wear and tear, in this case a defensive posture, is ineffective. The history of struggles shows us that to win an asymmetric fight, it is necessary to favor a offensive strategy called “cascading failure” intended to bring down entire sections of the system. Victory is possible, with, at the end of the road, a world where the mining industry will be nothing but a bad memory.