welcome to the documentary from the bbc world service where we report the world however difficult the issue however hard to reach pod costs from the bbc world service i supported by advertising worrying marie or washington who was or was a born competitor or was champion in to sports shoes the michael jordan woman's basketball save lives at ten this sad but while she was fighting for titles on the ports she was facing prejudice often the reason is racism in sexes untold ledges aura a podcast when the bbc rural service and bbc south tells her remarkable story search for untold ledges wherever you found this podcast i am genuinely an object white and we're back with a a new episode of our podcast lazarus heist record in front of alive audience in new york city that's on you

special live episode of the large sized podcast hacking korea and were returning soon with a second season so what better moment to listen to the whole season one if you put it already listen again just over the whole story for the new episode and for the whole of the first season search for the lazarus heist wherever you in this context i may should lenny and you listening to episode too of the scramble for rare earths on the bbc world service number sixty three the periodic table is no conferring european it's the most reactive of the rare earth metals and that gives it a particular fantastic array of applications depending on what you makes it where it can produce blue colors

or deep red colors or even white and so the old cathode ray to television sets from the mid too late twentieth century you had to have european in order to produce the red green and blue from which all the rest of the images were derived doktor julie cleaner is author of rare frontiers from terrestrial subsidies saloon landscapes if you can detect the signature of european from starlight that can be used to classify stars and also purpose understand how or where a particular star was born on that's not all even your euro banknotes it's used to that bluish sheen uncertain euro banknotes in order to prevent counterfeiting activity and its incredibly successful

roughly twenty five billion euro banknotes in circulation the european central bank reported that in twenty twenty around four hundred and sixty thousand counterfeit notes were withdrawn from circulation the lowest number on record only seventeen fakes were discovered per one million genuine notes european is putting counterfeiters out of business we have already heard how extracting things like lithium and cobalt which our green energy transition depends on his problem in many ways some predict wig into need more metal in the next three decades then we mind over the previous seventy thousand years and that mining is very polluting and its expensive to china dominates the global market in europe

is very dependent on china for rare earths including ironically european and when i say very dependent i mean ninety percent dependent europe is better straggling takes place at home for a number of different reasons but is also really struggling dissidents relate to other parts of the world including on the african continent are within the into civic because china and russia as well have started to adopt indeed very jury strategic outlook on climate related transitions on green transitions digital transactions have essentially geared their foreign policy and defence and security strategies according to their knees at the start of the series i mentioned a young researcher at the institute for human sciences in vienna where i now work that research

was a libya lazard who you just heard her talk reminded me just how crucial rare earth metals and other critical raw materials will be in all our future is she says that over the last two decades eu eu has failed to develop an effective rarer strategy to help our transition towards green goals he has a good example if you look at solar panels china currently has a competitive advantage over the creation of solar panels but the eu is trying to regain a competitive apprehend compared to china especially with the new generation panel such as the ones which are proposed it heaven and tell you right fin film solar panels but for these for example we need rare minerals like to learn some of which china accounts for sixty two percent of global refining activity in twenty one percent of what was that

one reason why china is in such a powerful position china has actively promoted a strong industrial policy at home is also that they have a very strong demand due to air pollution within their own country so whereas we tend to point the finger at china for not going fast enough on its own domestic energy transition the reality that china is actually delivering at a much more or to teach strategic pace on the energy transition and it is doing so at home but it is also doing so as part of it's foreign policy trying to approach a number of countries which are climate vulnerable with a new soft diplomacy message saying where the new climate this is serious bolivia is suggesting that you it has been asleep at the wheel for years and that has put us at a big disadvantage when it comes to slipping renewable energy sources so

the eu finally woken up to this and if so how in britain matters after which is known as the vice president of the european commission responsible for brussels relationship with london and in particular the thorny question of the northern ireland pray i called but he has a second equally important role he's in charge of the use rare earth and critical raw materials strategy without political raw materials we cannot build a green or digital echo because he would still need more and more of them everything from their computers went to revise aerospace industry for all that we need these critical raw materials we are working very closely with can ideas on this matter tat i had several meetings with the serbian leadership or another very important lithium deposited some i was talking to the premier off real answer to all potential partners sub with

harmony can develop this type of cooperation so i think we would need to look for the best possible combination of what can be mine and source from within european territory how can you be developing the concept of urban mining i mean the recycling i'm sure that in this way it would be best in the world because it's in a very europe and tradition to re use recycling making sure high enviro those standards low carbon footprint but we ve heard that in some countries that serious push back against the mining and processing of rare earths some of the stories coming out regions where extraction is already developed a grim the story are about to hear appeared report by the international ngo global witness they sent it seem to me and my earlier this year

zounds job is to remove vegetation and drill holes into the mountains workers than inject ammonium sulphate solution into the holes effectively liquefied nea once a chemicals have percolated the mountain side the resulting solution is drained into bright blue collection the process has the appropriately unattractive name of in situ leaching ones leaching has sucked out the mineral hoard sound his colleagues will apply then the contaminated site moving onto the next one before starting all over again in my in the mountains will definitely collapse one day sow told global witness them with europe's high regulatory standards reluctance to host sort of mining operation in your backyard is let's face it understandable but these very fortunate to have a public opinion on board and i thought

once when i was debating this question with the nongovernmental organization i don't give me that advice was what you think we should do how can we address this better there was one worry clever lady who told me you to move it from the area not in my neighbour votes from baby the so called beam please in my neighborhood that's very good recipe but of course it requires enormous effort on all sides there will be cleared out to each year to the local community cannot building europe anything ever goes against the will of the people saw this so what we are discussing without a portuguese french serbian colleagues and models every promoter over this type of project but even if we get mad buying can we do it enough a few years ago shift ceviche said the eu was about ninety eight percent dependent on china for rare earths

berlin earlier this year he said the way now ninety percent dependent progress of sorts i suppose the question for the eu is what degree of incentives is it prepared to offer private investors what level of compensation and is it able to offer communities affected by mining or processing and will brussels be able to swayed eu members that they need mobilise full tilt in support of a rare of metal strategy in order to compete on the world stage because remember critical roma rules of the new oil and gas we ve seen what over dependency on a hostile supply mean since the rustle ukrainian war can the eu

indeed anyone expect to maintain their global political influence if china hold the keys to future progress or what we are doing here is that we are working with the time horizon for twenty ferrety saw if it comes to lay four or five promising projects in the euro bore it sir vicinity which should cover the needs we europeans about three manufacturing industry until twenty thirty shift herbage oversees the european raw materials alliance which seeks to diversify supply of these metals as far and wide as possible so far the alliance has invested some two billion pounds over the past five years but given that secure and abundant access stuff is essential to win ourselves of fossil fuels is really enough olivia

it is not convinced it takes in between seven and fifteen to sixteen years to actually have an active extraction and certain processing of critical minerals so it already takes us way beyond the twenty thirty deadline which the eu has imposed upon itself with the climate law which demands of the twenty seven countries of the eu to collectively reduce at least fifty five percent of greenhouse gas emissions converting ninety ninety levels to be fair motto shift to which the commission vice president with overall responsibility for critical raw materials recognises this going to be a long difficult hall so if these projects were materialise twenty percent of europe arisen a magnet needs by twenty thirty could be sourced from the eu side eighty percent but to be very fair and and honours its fifteen times more then right now so there

for these rather and permanent monitor magnates one of the key priorities upon which we are focusing alot of our efforts as well country which is assumed an especially important place in the eu search for rare of metals at the moment however that country is otherwise engaged ukraine has enormous potential i mean we ve been comparing them out so they national geological survey syn but we know from our sources and we see this as very very complimentary to all the efforts of ukraine go into great serve european union envy the european economy and i am absolutely convinced that we agreed with the prime minister that the development of the supply of critical raw material so we should be up to that european standards if it comes to invite a man if it comes to social dimension if it comes to seal to standards

it would be really a game changer for a strategic position of ukraine not only an european about the global market as a very important critical raw material provider morris shifter which was a little coy about the deals that the eu has struck with ukraine on the extraction of rare earth metals hardly surprising as a war on that war is not just about what you read in the news headlines we start to look at this issue of agriculture hydrocarbons and most importantly critical minerals and what we were amazed by michel was that ukraine is a global mineral superpower rub mugger as a co founder of selective a canadian data so an open intelligence company focused on mitigating risks and strengthening resilience ukraine ranks among the top five globally in terms of assess value of natural resources but we really whenever stay

what was the proportion of resources that were under russian control the russian ukrainian war is also part of the scramble for rare earths a drug an unmanned aerial vehicle jones have become crucial in ukraine's current conflict with russia they ve destroy putin's artillery systems and armoured vehicles one drawn in particular has become so popular it's even spawned a hit song by iraq by iraq heresies junkies this although these she loved by that time is the name of the turkish made drone that's been causing the russians all kinds of problems and its

says now means there's a three year waiting lists to get hold of one but by rector's and other drones wouldn't be flying if it wasn't for critical raw materials and rare earth metals its generally believed that russia's motives for invading ukraine either a die m pause last drove the dice or an attempt to push back nato's eastern encroachment depending on who believe but what if there was something else stake we were struck by the question of motives for the russian invasion the fact that the resource question wasn't really being discussed in the media russia understands that the world is changing that weren't a new great gave for critical

walls and rivers and this great game is being driven by paradoxically the green transition right the paris climate agreement which which gun and bring up it's a scramble and russia's involvement scramble to secure a range of critical minerals that are key to winning or at least being a competitor in this great gay you brain has deposits of one hundred and seventeen of the one hundred and twenty most widely used minerals and metals at least four

two of them are needed for the green transition and plenty of them are found in a part of ukraine that's being of particular interest to the russians we estimate that between twenty five and fifty percent of all of you preach reverence supplies are in the eastern part of ukraine currently at a russian occupation so what have they got we have things like strontium which we use in magnets in and simplified it we got session which is used for catalysts as well people glass we ve got rebellion which we use and for ourselves we got tantalum neo veal hum where are they what we discovered was that about two thousand of those deposits work under russian control and what that met in terms of a headline was about twenty percent of all of ukraine's region

wealth was in russian hands and the total valuation of that at today's prices was about twelve point five trillion dollars russia can refine some of these rare earths but struggles when it comes to using them in finished applications just like west russia remains on the hunt for new sources of rare earths over the past decade a private mercenary army called the volga group which was reportedly founded by a close pal of vladimir putin has been deployed in territories as far apart as crimea syria and beer but its most interesting operations is centred on various countries in central africa

actor samuel ramani teaches politics and international relations at oxford university and is the author of two upcoming books on wagner's activities lauderdale entered africa at approximately late two thousand and sixteen and it gets out after proving itself as an effective complementary counterinsurgency fighting force in syria had also to support for separatist rebels a video he had taken the last people's republics in eastern ukraine the water grill pair have carried out counterinsurgency operations in africa have the peddler does not want to send official personnel to and funded those military operations through local donors as well as mighty resources in those respective countries shows no surprise

as at russia has chosen the countries with the largest oil reserves the largest rare mineral reserves and largest extract is in general a gold and diamonds to carry out its operations the water group is also to deploy personnel to act as guardians of those minds who can secure and smuggle those assets out for a profit both for itself and for the russian state so we've seen them send troops out to libya where he does his operatives to central african republic mali mozambique and sudan and they might be looking towards the operations of the countries of the democratic republic of congo which also has a lot of cobalt golden bears ukraine is probably the biggest prize romani argues but africa as a useful back up the cookies for russia they ve already happened you have secured the most grit in areas for rare earth metals and adding mighty general into grant as part of campaigns you destroy ukraine's industrial capacity destabilized economy they have occupied twelve

four trillion dollars of these reserves in john bass and insulting you grant but the problem is the front lines are flew at any rate is committed to recapturing every inch of a territory so given that scenario russia is going to have to look africa to be able to secure additional rare earth metal reserves and i think that that fits part and parcel with their broader attention to the continent for arms contracts and so as a geopolitical paul in their new posts western multi polar foreign policy so the imposition of sanctions on russia after the invasion of ukraine the country has struggled to him the chips magnets in cables at the heart of modern technology moscow knows full well that although they in china currently allies there is no reason that the friendship will last for ever just like the west sure is engaged in a full blooded scramble for rare earths and other critical raw materials leaving

sighed the geo political aspects of the scramble whereas some of the growth areas there's two other players with looking at looking at turkey there were huge reaching discovered as discovered as well as north the northwest the scale of turkey's alleged discoveries are being questioned but it could emerge as a major player and then finally brazil where i am brazil is a an agricultural powerhouse but also mineral superpower it's the world's second largest iron war explore it it's a huge producer bauxite has come for iron am but it also has some of the largest rare earths supplies on the planet to put it in perspective its second only to china in terms of proven reserves but it's not a nest of extracting im out so other vast mining operations but critical raw materials in the name of greening the planet going to be sustainable one of the great parity

since as you know me share the green transition is that we need to extract and exploit natural resources to power the transition at scale and so the contradiction that the green transition is that it actually is leading to environmental and ecological havoc in some parts of the world in one of those places where this paradox is playing out is in brazil it is home if you include the entire basin and the neighbouring countries to but sixty percent of the world's tropical rainforests twenty percent of the world's fresh water supplies ten percent of the world's biodiversity it's already at the edge because of relentless deforestation degradation owing to land grabbing and forest fires and that the risk here is in the push to try to convert the world to a greener future

that we actually tipp the amazon for being the world's largest tropical forests to its biggest so that at the moment we would appear to be on a geopolitical collision course because of the competition surrounding access to critical raw materials what continue its hard to see how we can avoid a series of conflicts in the ensuing scramble doktor julie cleaner the author of rare earth frontiers from terrestrial sub soils to lunar landscapes is convinced that this doesn't have to be offered turning these elements into the new oil or sources of broader geopolitical conflict is completely and totally avoidable however if

we make them so it will be entirely our fault fade it's that because of their geological incidents that these things might be more prone to conflict it's actually i take more to the fact that extraction is organised according to a competitive market logic so whenever produces the cheapest commodity is the one that gets the most buyers and unfortunately this tends to reward the kinds of practices and behaviors bad a whirl very concerned about so for example i sourcing these elements in places with lax environmental regulations or from armed groups or militias you if they can provide the lowest cost commodity unfortunately they win in the market and this means that more ethical producers firms that what to do

type thing and are located in jurisdictions that require that our social and environmental practices often lose in this competitive global market landscape and so the way around this of course i think is with intelligently applied a subsidy and public investment but borrowing and i think will continue to see an intensification of the trends that we are already witnessing which is unfortunate i think but it is avoidable and there are alternatives it seems to me that klinger is making the critical point here obviously large companies backed by private investment will be the people who are identifying sources of rare earths extracting them assessing them and then applying them to their many vital uses but his tenure argues regulation and the implementation

of the highest environmental standards will be the only way to avoid the risk of major powers squabbling if not fighting over these resources instead of scrambling for rare earths we need a global strategy that distributes the benefits of these resources in an equitable way utopian perhaps but our planetary room for maneuver is shrinking by the day sixty five a group of go minded scientists were welcomed by a holiday in billboard in aims iowa become rare authors it proclaimed if a tall they were got it as a slightly eccentric bunch less rare authors and more flat surface but scientists from had succeeded in overcoming one of the key challenges faced by the manhattan project the development of a man

bomb by removing rare earth metals from uranium today rare earth is at the forefront of technological development everything from oz landing to the observation of proteins into acting inside human cells we we've already become massively dependent on rare earths and other critical raw materials like cobalt lithium copper and more if we are to have any chance of surviving climate change we have broadly two options drastically alter our lifestyles and reduce our and see on or mineral sources for power communications and construction or stay in our present standards of living by ditching fossil fuels for green energy based on rare earth metals materials

to run both political and environmental risks that at the moment we cannot calculate it's a ice which is already being made for us welcome to the brave new world of rare earths the scramble for rare earths was presented by me she glennie the producer has been carter and it was mixed by james beard the documentary just one of our bbc world service podcast there are many others to choose from what's it like working as an outsider as an american inside will the most secretive country in the world north korea and how do you go tracking hackers in real time even reading their messages i generally i opened the first and only u s news bureau in north korea and i'm jeff white an investigative journalist covering tech and organised crime and we're back with a brain

episode of our podcast the lazarus heist recorded in full a live audience in new york city were joined on stage by a north korean defector and a cyber security expert who tracks and there's even some advice about trying to keep yourself safe from hackers online that's all special live episode of philosophers amused the put about hacking and north korea the largest high slide show its available now and works to tell you were returning to do with it in season of the lazarus heist so done so already what better moment to listen to the whole of season one or if you put it already listen again remind you of the story for the new episode for the whole of the first season search for the lazarus highs were you found this podcast the

starting great or washington who was or was a born competitor or was champion in to sports shoes the michael jordan of woman's basketball she was at tennis tap but while she was fighting for titles on the ports she was facing prejudice often the reason is racism in sexes untold ledges aura a podcast when the bbc rural service and bbc south tells her remarkable story search for untold ledges wherever you found this podcast