The global push for electric vehicles (EVs) has sharply increased demand for critical minerals such as cobalt and lithium, creating a tension between rapid industrial growth and long-term sustainability. Extraction is concentrated in a few regions -- notably the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Chile, and Argentina -- where it has produced serious socio-environmental harms, including ecosystem degradation, labour exploitation, and the displacement of Indigenous communities. In the DRC, cobalt mining is frequently linked to child labour and hazardous working conditions; in Chile, lithium extraction intensifies water scarcity and threatens local agriculture and biodiversity. Policy instruments such as the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) seek to promote ethical sourcing, but an extraction-driven model continues to deepen global inequalities. This chapter examines the contested temporalities of the transition, in which the short-term economic incentives of extraction conflict with longer-term environmental and social goals. It argues for a place-based framework built on community-centred governance, sustainable mining practices, and circular-economy strategies, including recycling and material substitution, to align resource security with equity and ensure that the shift to EVs does not reproduce the injustices it aims to address.

翻译：全球推广电动汽车（EVs）的进程急剧增加了对钴、锂等关键矿产的需求，在快速工业增长与长期可持续性之间形成紧张关系。开采活动集中在少数地区——尤其是刚果民主共和国、智利和阿根廷——造成了严重的生态环境与社会危害，包括生态系统退化、劳工剥削和原住民社区迁移。在刚果民主共和国，钴矿开采常与童工和危险工作条件相关联；在智利，锂矿开采加剧了水资源短缺，威胁当地农业和生物多样性。美国《通胀削减法案》（IRA）等政策工具试图推动道德采购，但以开采为主导的模式持续加深全球不平等。本章探讨了转型过程中时间性的冲突：开采的短期经济激励与长期环境及社会目标相互矛盾。研究主张构建基于地方的框架，以社区治理、可持续采矿实践及循环经济策略（包括回收利用和材料替代）为核心，将资源安全与公平相结合，确保向电动汽车的转型不会重现其本欲解决的正义问题。