copper for years demand has been soaring. it is, after all, the raw material of the energy transition. one of the world's largest copper processors is available, headquartered, and humble of germany. the company claims to care about protecting human rights and the environment. but does that also apply in south america? where much of the copper comes from? how does mining impact the environment and people's lives? new methods for mining copper have been developed in canada. there are plans to once again mine copper in germany, but is environmentally friendly mining even possible? or is the energy transition dirtier than imagined? like visit a friend who installed solar panels on his garage? he strives to lead an environmentally friendly life. what does that cover your energy needs? yeah. as if as organ owens mill. yes, we generate more than enough and it covers our household electricity completely. and we also charge our electric car within a yell to them. it's not bad. what strikes me, however, is the number of cables required to make the system work? ah, and the cables are mostly made of copper demand for this metal is higher than ever. solar energy in particular needs copper, the metal last the long time and is highly efficient and conducting electricity. wind power also depends on it because turbines contain tons of copper. and electric vehicles are the 3rd largest consumer of copper. they require about 4 times more copper than internal combustion engines. europe's largest copper processor is the company of office located in humboldt. fullest recycles copper, and it imports the raw material from various mines around the world. the company says it prizes transparency, deputy plant manager axel planned, walked us through production. after researching the locations of the mines, we were most interested in the question of sustainability. oh, problem. yeah. where's most of your or from being burnt and predominantly bullet. typically it comes from south america and most common supplies are chilly peru and also brazil. but we process quite a lot of hours. we have up to 100 all concentrates as well so that, but we also makes the concentrates here in order to ensure the most uniform process possible. the demand for copper is so great that recycling can't keep up. 70 per cent must be extracted. the largest copper mines are in south america in chile, especially these days. how do you ensure that other countries comply with your labor and environmental standards hasn't came out of clicked on? this is an issue that's very close to our hearts here. it is very important to us as customers to accept responsibility for this without so we've developed a very clear criteria that we feel bound to rec and hold al supplies to as well. one of the navy, and this is something we monitor through local business relationship here, but also by committing ourselves to international standards and requiring our customers to do the same on that's been well over a quote off of that sounds commendable. but according to our research in south america, the reality doesn't seem to quite match up. in march 2022, we set off to the heart of copper mining chile every year, 5500000 tons of copper, our mind. and she lay alone, who exactly out who best buys copper from as a company secret. it is only thanks to u. s. customs documents that we learned that albert has made purchases from the largest mine operator and sheila, the state own company, corporate us, your national little cobra, that sheila or co delco for short. this is where our reporting led us the largest mine in the world operated by could elko, it's located near kalama, in the middle of july as a comma desert ah, in kalama, close to the mines, we meet your hands, housing, a journalist living in she lake. he was willing to help us with our investigation. ah, the mines are about 4 kilometers north of the city. the largest of them is chucky come at that our destination the residential areas along the route are deserted. housing explained, that's due to the terrible air pollution juki comma is one of the biggest copper mines in the world, covering a massive area around 300000 tons of copper, our mind here annually, both underground and on the surface. housing wanted to introduce us to people from the region. it's not by chance that we found ourselves in a cemetery. ah, this is where we met the head of the miners union miguel, for the man this. his father also worked in the mine. at the age of 12, his little brother fell into a bore hole and died. the mine has not relinquished its hold over him ever since. it was over the sailors check up all the more of the sierra la la la, fetch her, they for this is where we commemorate the dead miners of tricky gun mata a so wet rocky, these men made and continue to make great sacrifices for the copper industry under their own don't glance like a sacrifice that's resulted in one thing. in particular, clemente money, a very short expectancy. i get the law mean at all. and canada, many miners die before they have the chance to retire. and fernandez told us that infant mortality is also higher than elsewhere in the country. by chance we met me with that. he laughed. huh. who lost her daughter more than 40 years ago on the day she was born even? ah, yes, legacy. and then it said cheeky, come, martin, and pollution is responsible for the death civil. these children. hardly anyone can sleep at night. she feel like you're suffocating. i myself got thyroid cancer. what i mean with the company co delco which runs the chicky, come out that mine is owned by the chilean state critic say that could alco acts like a state with an estate with its own rights and laws. we requested permission to film and conduct an interview, but were unsuccessful. they told us they didn't have the time. even union leader fernandez is not allowed on the premises. he's banned from the site because he is openly criticized. could elko idea is impossible and it has a trade unionist on the doors of co co remained close to me just as they are for us journalists, et cetera. hello, it is to the workers who toil away here. i'm not even employed by co delco, but my subcontractors think that will feel that only 30 percent of the workers are employed directly into a fellow day in the 70 percent officially worked for subcontract. ursula, they embezzling study plays sigma. establishing contact with the workers proved difficult. we tried following a bus of employees to the mining town of kalama. we hoped to start a conversation with nobody wanted to talk to us in public, but one worker agreed to give us an interview at his home. under the condition that we didn't show his face, the fear of could delco looms large in man, oh god, one of the god with they would track me down and destroy me. try the ladder. if they'd also get rid of the entire sub contractor a work for me, i think i'm was around the workers who could elko employees directly. oh, where some kind of space helmet with a built in breathing device for them. oh, no, not got it. we, on the other hand, he was only get simple masks. no, if you would ordering that the later one is, you know, as, oh, that all one don't. but all the co delco employees have expensive cut resistance, safety gloves, antique or don't the wardrobe and a little by we only wear simple leather ones would go. they. busy garzo from one hour long. if you do, are you afraid of getting sick? if am often see yes, of course, my grandfather died of lung cancer, but i have to feed my family somehow. my fellow union leader miguel hernandez told us that in the future could alco plans to employ only 10 percent of its workforce. all the rest are to come from sub contractors. i asked fernandez about a whistleblower portal on albus, his website. how easy is it for workers to lodge a complaint about cad? elko fernandez gave it a try it . so if you seen of it and it's really difficult to navigate the site or even find a link to the complaints page unless yes, a but i want her to think for a worker with basic technical skills. if it's impossible on television or sit and agular, well you gotta, ah, you got a link, then you can't even get to ruby's his complaint page. i know i louis we made a note to ask at hobbes about its complaints procedure once back in germany. the work and health conditions in the mind near kalama appear disastrous, but what about the impact on the environment? sick clouds of smoke drift from the mine into the city. how can it be that a state owned company could so blatantly be polluting the environment? we met with someone who claims to have evidence said a huge a moral is a lawyer for environmental law. he represents many indigenous groups who live in the area dividend kalama, so now allow that people in kalama, continuously exposed to find dust pollution at the elbow. people know, in gather of april i constantly developing severe respiratory diseases that the or dying suddenly of cancer f i a seal or i will m n thick, almost remarkable. canstio number one cause of death in our region. his cancer please. he balco selim, where there is a concept we then discovered why he wanted to meet here at the border of the canal co site. this was once a salt lake for decades, the mine operator could delco has been dumping waste water from the mines here. it's expanded to the point where it's now barely 5 kilometers from the closest village. ah. the village is called shoot you and was once an important oasis on the legendary ink a trail. the copper mines use up a lot of water so much so that most of the rivers here have dried up only the rio lowest, still hold some water soon and when i full, you can send that multiple studies have found over 66 different substances contaminating the river when empty, what doc seek all of them originate from mining lemon element. the up of mining has poisoned the entire region is that we build you at the gamino and annoying on through the rio. noah is the most important water source in the other comma desert, and yet it is said to be the most polluted river and she lay. we took a sample to bring back for analysis in germany. the lawyer took us to talk to one of his clients, jani velasquez is 57 years old, or audio said, my mom, he is, li cannon tie, also known as at the camino lawyer, said, hotel morrow is representing him and his people against the state and the mining company called alco ali a u. n. b like when i effect the electrical due to a a li casias there, there is simply no water left frag or culture or lay montoya. well, this is a huge problem for all of us today. yeah, my family has raised cattle for generations. reality to day. all we can do is try to farm, but even that is barely possible, so they go now yes, a field of cassette, unbelievable to, to 1st the state took land from indigenous people and now there water where the like, i love it, i say low, this is the school of my last cow, yasser ain't daniel. it died 20 years ago as the human away says, started drawing out a lot of gunner, they don't. the jour gigabyte hangs here as a reminder that our water was stolen from us. a lot they didn't look was so equal. ah, that yuki come out of mine requires an enormous amount of water. figures from 2011 found the mind consumed more than 60000000 cubic meters of water and a year, leaving almost nothing for the people. ah, the village of cooper is located close to a spring. locals grew corn here for centuries. now there is nothing left but sand and dust vivian door, no sip unknown me didn't mean it out. thank god, we live in cadell coast. huge mining area is seen him, but what does it blanche her can also be the more am, but i think i meant them. but as you can see, say we live in extreme poverty. so if go my bloody fit in, see a gay gay, your norm for the i said not up or not. so i assume the guess at the ample and the good, i'm sorry i i no nature, no butler, fidel co does nothing to mitigate the harm the company has done to us yesterday in 22 saw its profits increase const to compared to the previous year, reagan he $1000000000.00 for the tuition is desperate etiquette copa was born here. she showed us the spring for yeah, i see it that need that. oh my god. come down here per 2nd though. the only 3 leaders in the filter and try have completely i yeah, we don't want them stealing our water. they h. i can recover. they met oh, if the way from cooper moved away from cooper. he drove back to kalama. no, they're living from the copper mine and one way or another. but because of what is happening here? ah, we got a tip to visit a whistleblower who was measuring the air pollution? he from 2021. leave me a single but a sure to the standards in europe, a bite pancillo or a joke. and earlier in what jamaica she can't, they lack of been respected. hear me. she'll kill us. e se dull in 15 percent higher than european why the last saturday but the will all these well, this contraction of arsenic. i assume that concentration that said that the european limit eagle, but i will have my little there as well as say read is a sports field in the danella mentors school central level deal yet to sleep 200 percent muslim. lucille, oh, they know that the us quit his job because arming levels of air pollution could chose to do nothing for measurements have been ignored towards field every day and in school on the same grounds where the station is located. ah, and as a result of that awesome don sun continued to be born amy hereto a level he was he was still a toddler. highly men did not speak or eat in their dilemma, cause control, and apparently i to help him will eat alien ah, that to kalama, 18 years ago to an to pollution on children. he be a friend to the family, a chair your own, but we expect that environmental pollution is harman more still in the womb of neo natal or materially booted with heavy metals minute at this very moment of the brain, especially in children who severed only a year from may there a pair that are linked to pollution on it. we all know that forgive me families of fidel. okay. boss says living pontiac and not here has some be the means to leave the city or something will change that the mine is not only a problem for the people of kalama transported across the other, comma on there that he of until august that from or is shipped all over the world, including to humble this to go for augusta, which was kalama, people thing, the 2 cities that come in death. we a say it is this we go beneath this cassette is this anatomical pathology. him but he's cancerous tumors, which my, laura jim are on average 5 to 7 times higher than in the rest of the country. yes. overall, these is caused primarily by the heavy arsenic contamination and kalama. and until august authority of liquor, by the university of berkeley in the united states is 6 times more people develop bladder cancer and that than elsewhere. and sheila and the rate from kidney cancer has increased by last 9 years. so increment downward, the steadily increasing this and more in the future. useful bulk of, o mental health. a seal, for example. don't all bustle, mom used to be metals in the data. i caution kid a copper arsenic for when i go up and down a sandy ah, we go to the port of until august, though, where the order is loaded. the day is everywhere. ah, how is it fair that in this region, local suffer to provide the raw material needed for the energy transition while consume green electricity with a clear conscience? it's a troubling dynamic. we returned to germany and humbled with it. this is deputy plant manager accent bond with both of our investigation closing creams. the closest city to chucky come on that is better than elsewhere. and sheila, constant sheila and, and for my phone to the time you can i information you've shared with mock them. it need to be examined. i felt like that, but my dad that we at rufus attached great importance to ensuring good conditions for our route, the supply chain and, and blue. but importance really mean should and act accordingly. constant kennedy, like applebee's, actually afford to stop buying. copper companies like could alcove this kidney stones is finance what it arose, not working together but but looking for ways to improve what it is are in need of improvement, ought i not? and to bow to these standards ones in this, these and standouts best moved me to standard sunday. and for the 1st one we had collected from the rio law in the village of chu, chu, eggs, the independent laboratory man, blamed the results to us. he's an expert at greenpeace. the were extremely high. he concentrates young design, which levels after disasters with red mud result, bloom and m extraction, initial of alto. we've seen the sediment and in the water, which was then released that a high concentration device after an accident was wild in like this, after an accident and mental catastrophe, a little bit cut us toll for the out and connect effect to population vendors suffer googling it. used for irrigating fields or for stock, or even as drinking water than the population will be exposed to nick concentrations home of and that is unacceptable. there's big health consequences. they can function that pronounced a new interview. the company's sustainability expert wanted to give more in depth answers to our questions. up referred to its code of conduct, which all business partners there it says quote, guide our actions with their view would offer clarity from our footage. and she like ah, we who this is located, christian ted of sustainability. let me invite this quote. it says in the code of conduct. we've been forced to labor or child labor and we've been didn't as populations from hungry now. course investigated just that and the indigenous population and she lay as effect as lee by copper mining will be he next to cooper apo is 1st name it in for all i was i'm with you on side. so that statement is of course difficult to verify an evaluator, but in general, this man writes you just quoted, it is really bandwidth or very high handle. it's a launch pusher we it's of the water from the rio loa and the, the high levels of arsenic, sued, and then concave switched a long name. but for me to comment on these figures, because i don't know the details will exerts leash good does, but i to all suppliers kind diva and we'd be available options in all social trends with suppliers. indeed, if in utah we clearly defined criteria that i'm talking here of extreme cases. you could bring business relations with c oldenburg. ah. would indeed be the time for it. i gen, hine, are footage this is what i saw. there is no joke. and if things were working with the partners, then it wouldn't look like this house in this country is because i don't have the facts to. so i don't really comment on from the academy elect in as to whether or not of who has had pursued the matters. we discussed was one 3rd in general terms heavily. anyone reported something on your web. ex whistleblower page of committed as of his hasn't for any violation so far, but i pull to do so on the website of the internet and that's not the only way on this you i and we can do by email by phone and coordinate independent entity a pinkish taylor icon, a new new maya can be submitted anonymously. and then there are external or into players who take on the matter later on voted in. so no grounds for action as goes on as usual, and politicians doing about it. just economic affairs and climate action is headquartered in berlin, written breen, hardy lead ministry yet. but he had time to answer our questions about the energy transition. oh, so, so much copper in the 1st place. it has deposits of its own. oh, come on of ghost law. rich for more than 1000 years, the all packed in the hamas bag mine in the hot mountains. ah, today. i think more than a museum, why is that? ah, sir, your highness goals have winkleman lead to the old deposits. the that form when copper reacts with oxygen are clearly visible. sunset spotswood. i'm in go to school. so i'm i 1988. oscar. yes. wow. closets were exhausted. nothing significant. left farms. mom of i've had head to other countries. open pit mining archival of bone. that's of course, always cheaper when is safety and environmental standards for mining worldwide who's going but off long vote and see if to mine here, a lot of clue. in other words, it says where less value is placed on people in nature. it is cheaper to mine. it's simply a dirty business to this day, water contaminated with pollutants runs out of the hamas bag. the gigantic waste water lake at the come into mine and she lay rest her blood the mining leaves behind was turned off. what a true note once that on the doorstep him was empty, pollutants everlasting, almost terminated with heavy metals, like the nuclear power plants on fish, half and safeguarded forever was everlasting pollutants on those in their backyard. yet consumers of copper. so mind the metal itself. there are, in fact, plans to start extracting copper in germany once again. after all, the price has risen to the point where mining could become viable again which begins south of berlin. this for brown coal mining la posits are also thought to be present near the mining areas. part of the mining district people here are facing major changes. all mining comes to an end. popper and alternative cloudy, evolve, head of urban planning, see opportunity for the region. skipped to the legal man copper under ground off a for about 10 years. the large number of jobs whose top coordinate issue for the city and the port and to no longer be dependent areas from around the world. but it deposits in germany and to conan in deutschland, and long been warning of the risks. but gree to speak out on camera. how a company cook for she allows it or copper shale who sasha has been in favor of mining them. devonne deny sampling doesn't. and he's a company we want to prove it is economically feasible to my bro, where it's densely populated, is kind of social regulations of up to about this. and we're up here who here, here you see the san layers on here is the copper shells for she found that we'd have to get to mission get come. when their money was split into 2 countries, ex drilling was carried out in the east at that time, mining was too expensive. in the meantime, however, the price up or has risen 7 fold might be a now seems lucrative. he had mondays fast after yet for tories and customers. wonder if yes, if you can optimize a whole lot better here than you building a whole city in the andes of 5000 meters of 1000 me to who does processing water and everything else becomes located than it is here in dallas. and is for, for wouldn't have to be transported half way around the world for processing and humbug. but one major downside cleared to build the mine everlasting pollutants. and the toxic waste water. is it in copper ecologically? with we took a trip to canada. there are corners of north america to one of the province of ontario. pictures from the 1970s, but devastating environmental dam paused by the copper mines the lunar landscape. apollo munitions ah said. they're the most polluted place in the western hemisphere. we wanted to see what it looks like today and the so heavily forested as address environmental pollution, the 1972 at oak stack in the world. it was to better disperse pollution from the copper mine pulse was devastating was heavily polluted today. and of the ecological catastrophe that happened here 50 years ago. it's part thanks to this man, professor peter beckett. he b pon, in canada for his role in a re greening project that rejuvenate sudbury. peter showed us a special place that the program got started. ah ha, all this same site that was in this area. beach and, and the houses for all the lack of education in 1979. but when and green with dutch a re nature ation program. also, isabel and she lays desert blue appli enjoy areas cuz the ols will restoration. ecology about bush, the, the problem, the to come up with a suitable vessel be which such and such as the deserts all the still being mined in sudbury, the full have largely recovered and lakes that 40 years ago had no life left in them. the wrench and university in sudbury study water in silver lake 11978. this was reputed to be the lowest at the mattel lake in the world. it had no fish, like lemon juice, a remarkable recovery that it has been reduced to 2 per cent of what it was. then once john gun and his students checked the fish population in silver lake and their lakes in the area, the fact of here is a very good sign. so there are sensitive species that can light copper, nickel, and l in silver lake under the current conditions. so at those story that follow environmentally friendly john, that the metal in sudbury mines is treated under ground so that very few heavy metals are brought to the surface we drove to valet or smelter in sudbury. there we met with glen watson, sibyl for sustainability. we to know how the company managed to take production clean. oh, you need a strong government and the government is willing to work with industry as well. every that reduces your impact on the environment is, is costly. you have to average after our internal policies that are, are committed to doing and continual improvement, and have to be committed as a company to, to put the resources and those, those gains are not strict is going to have the return that or in a business like setting it up, it is expensive, so iron to produce sustainably if braun likely to do so. what about the restoration program? peter galatians at the university. but we'll call so far they the program since the $5000000.00, which if one of the restoration programs is, is fairly modest. considered dead. and it's of square miles of forests where thing, but blackstone, it is far sudbury has come. this reminds and the on tacoma, desert and elsewhere in the world for sudbury can also be a role model for more popper mining in germany. this til op for renewable energy have much of a choice doing. but jen, how copper is source college. i'd must enforce reasonable mining standards for this vital resource comes unless.