India, June 30 -- Africa's drive to supply critical minerals for the green energy transition is triggering extensive, often overlooked deforestation far beyond mine sites.

Using satellite data, researchers found that every hectare cleared for mining causes an additional 34 hectares of forest loss up to 20km away.

This is driven by roads, settlements and agriculture supporting new mines.

The global push for a transition to green energy has sparked demand for critical minerals such as lithium, vanadium, copper and cobalt. These are needed for electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. Sub-Saharan Africa hosts about 30 per cent of the world's mineral reserves, including huge quantities of critical minerals: 92 per cent of all plat...