Why is the mining industry a target for disinformation?

The International Energy Agency projects that mineral demand for clean technologies could triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2040. However, secure supply of these critical minerals is increasingly precarious as China restricts exports, including rare earths, gallium, germanium, tungsten, and antimony, in retaliation for US tariffs as it works to reshore/friendshore supply.

Demand is driven by the minerals-intensive energy transition, the staggering roll out of data centers for AI, as well as military needs for advanced weaponry — all just as supply is tightening across a range of metals.

How do misinformation campaigns work? (bots, AI and viral falsehoods)

Disinformation campaigns often follow a playbook. It typically starts with a sensational narrative seeded online: perhaps a rumor of toxic waste spill, a doctored photo of environmental damage, or a conspiratorial tweet claiming a mining CEO bribed officials. From there, bot networks and troll accounts amplify the message at scale.

Refute documented approx 1,135 bots pushing anti-mining narratives across social platforms and forums. On apps like TikTok and X (Twitter), these fake accounts can account for the vast majority of engagement. For example, up to 83% of viral posts on mining DEI and employee safety come from accounts exhibiting inauthentic behavior.

Modern disinformation goes beyond troll farms manipulating algorithms in St. Petersburg or Beijing, with the next wave including AI-generated content using deepfakes at scale.

Crucially, these influence operations can be multilingual and multi-platform. A false story might start on Facebook in Spanish targeting a local town, then be picked up by Russian state media in English, and later translated into Chinese – each time tailored to the audience with a particular spin.

Mining companies have limited internal disinformation threat-related skills, as well as lacking capacity for a co-ordinated response. By the time mining companies recognize and respond to disinformation campaigns, the narrative has already morphed and traveled further. And an official response can sometimes make the problem worse. This creates a perpetual game of whack-a-mole, where mining firms find themselves perpetually reactive, struggling to reclaim control of the conversation.

Just as mines invest in fences and keypasses, they also need to invest in monitoring and safe-guarding the digital information zone around their operations. They should have started more than a decade ago, but it’s not too late — and now the weight of national governments is coming in to support.

In the short-term it would be easy to throw disinformation at disinformation — but, in the long-term, this would be a disaster for trust and community cohesion. The old adage that “sunlight is the best disinfectant” holds true here in winning hearts and minds.

Some examples of disinformation against the mining sector

Mining companies have limited internal disinformation threat-related skills, as well as lacking capacity for a co-ordinated response. By the time mining companies recognize and respond to disinformation campaigns, the narrative has already morphed and traveled further. And an official response can sometimes make the problem worse. This creates a perpetual game of whack-a-mole, where mining firms find themselves perpetually reactive, struggling to reclaim control of the conversation.

Rio Tinto – Jadar Lithium project (Serbia, 2024)

• Impact: Europe’s largest planned lithium mine faced massive protests and project suspension
• Disinformation tactics: CEO Jakob Stausholm claimed the project was targeted by a “carefully designed and well-organized” disinformation campaign; both pro- and anti-mining inauthentic narratives detected, linked to ongoing protests; “Russian disinformation experts consider it to be highly likely that the Kremlin has played a role in spreading this disinformation”, according to the US State Department
• Claims: the disinformation campaign propagated claims of secret uranium mining, local water poisoning, acid rain over Belgrade
• Complexity: Multiple actors involved, including environmental activists, geopolitical actors, and competing foreign interests
• Outcome: Project paused, staff intimidated, 30,000-person protests in August 2024

The Montepuez Ruby Mine incident, Mozambique (2024)

• Impact: in October 2024, a false social media post initiated by illegal ruby smugglers, claimed the mine would allow free public mining for 24 hours. This digital deception quickly escalated into a real crisis when 500 people stormed the mine, engaging in violent clashes resulting in multiple casualties and a three-month operational shutdown, costing millions in lost revenue.

Wagner Group operations (Central African Republic, 2023)

• Impact: After nine Chinese nationals were killed at a gold mine in March 2023, disinformation video circulated falsely claimed France secretly ordered the attack to discredit Wagner mercenary group
• Broader context: Wagner has exported disinformation campaigns to every African country where it operates, with Russia extracting an estimated US$2.5 billion in gold from Africa since 2022

Just as mines invest in fences and keypasses, they also need to invest in monitoring and safe-guarding the digital information zone around their operations. They should have started more than a decade ago, but it’s not too late — and now the weight of national governments is coming in to support.