WCC News: Faith leaders and communities call for mining justice at 2026 AMI

The race for critical minerals is reshaping global economics. As the push for a green energy transition accelerates, communities across Africa are absorbing costs that rarely make the headlines. The 2026 Alternative Mining Indaba (AMI), held in Cape Town, South Africa, from 9 to 11 February, drew together those voices - mining-affected communities, faith leaders, civil society organisations and advocates - to insist that the continent's mineral wealth must serve people before profit. Rev Illizwelonke Nyoni from the Church of Christ Zimbabwe Photo: All Africa Conference of Churches 2 March 2026 The gathering's theme, "Alternative Stories of Mining – United in Solidarity with the Mining-Affected Communities across the Continent," said something deliberate: that the stories told here would not be the industry's stories. The gathering drew faith leaders committed to mining justice in Africa, tracing a thread of advocacy running through recent national gatherings - the 2025 conference on human rights and extractive industries in Luanda, Angola, and grassroots AMIs in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe - each one defending communities against land loss and building the case for accountability. Community members described what mining has cost them: forced removals without adequate compensation, burial grounds disturbed, ancestral sites erased, rivers and farmland damaged. The AMI Declaration named dispossession not as historical memory but as present condition - "a continuous lived reality, disrupting livelihoods, ancestry, memory, and dignity." Faith actors arrived at this year's Indaba with something to say. Dr Tinashe Gumbo, programme executive for Economic Justice at the All Africa Conference of Churches, said "the faith foundations and underpinning message of good stewardship of creation and natural resources have been diluted over time," and welcomed "the bold position taken by the faith actors in Southern Africa to reclaim the AMI space." Admire Mutizwa, director of the Church, Peace, and Just Societies Programme at the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, put the economic imbalance plainly: "While mining companies are increasing their profits, communities in mining areas are incurring much more costs." The commitments made by faith leaders at this year's Indaba, he said, reflected a simple truth - "justice is a matter of faith." The question of climate ran close beneath the surface throughout. Athena Peralta, director of the WCC Commission on Climate Justice and Sustainable Development, pointed to a tension that the green transition has sharpened: "Mining and climate change are very much intertwined. Mining activities contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the transition to a zero-carbon economy has increased the demand for rare earth and other minerals, fuelling more mining." Under the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action, launched in 2025, churches are pressing for a just transition away from fossil fuels - one that does not trade one form of extractivism (the large-scale, export-driven removal of natural resources) for another. On 12 February, delegates marched through Cape Town's city centre to deliver the AMI memorandum to the South African government and the mainstream Mining Indaba organisers. Their demands were specific: full disclosure of mining contracts, community benefit-sharing agreements, stronger oversight, and guarantees that mining revenues reach the schools, hospitals and infrastructure communities were promised. Eric Mokuoa, AMI chairperson said, "Africa cannot afford another century of dispossession disguised as development. Our stories, our land, and our dignity must guide the future of mining." The Indaba closed with faith leaders, civil society, and community representatives committing to maintain the AMI's national platforms, document losses - material and spiritual - and accompany affected communities through what lies ahead. The declaration's closing reference anchored it all: "The earth is the Lord's, and all that is in it." (Psalm 24:1) Learn more about the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland