Mining lithium for batteries is a growing part of South Africa’s plan to use the global shift towards green energy to revive its economy, but now it faces a challenge from thousands of angry farmers who fear losing productive land to open-pit mines. On the southeast coast, where a lithium mine operates and more than a dozen prospecting licences have been granted since 2023, scores of generations-old farming communities are relocating. Data from South Africa’s mines department reviewed by Reuters show lithium prospecting licences laying claim to some 73,000 hectares (282 square miles), an area slightly larger than the city of Pretoria. The existing lithium mine, which also plans to expand, covers 150 hectares of pits and 180 hectares of waste dumps. Farmers object to lithium prospecting“Should all these prospecting licences be granted mining licences, the impact would be catastrophic,” SCGA General Manager Heather McLeod said.