UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the illegal exploitation and trade of natural resources are intensifying conflicts around the world, urging countries to ensure that mineral wealth benefits local communities rather than fuelling armed conflicts and criminal networks causing humanitarian suffering.
Addressing a UN Security Council open debate on natural resource governance, Guterres said the growing global demand for critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earth elements had created economic opportunities but also increased geopolitical competition and conflict risks.
“Surging demand from global markets is creating vital opportunities to advance development in producing countries,” Guterres said. “But it is also driving intense geopolitical competition, putting pressure on concentrated supply chains, and fuelling conflict with dire humanitarian consequences.”
He said revenues from illicit resource extraction were helping strengthen armed groups, linking local violence with international criminal networks and reducing incentives for political compromise.
“We see it in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where armed groups have reaped the benefits of illegal mining and mineral smuggling – and civilians have paid the price of ongoing conflict,” he said.
Guterres also pointed to Sudan, where he said the exploitation of resources, including gold and gum arabic, had contributed to violence and displacement.
“Everywhere, the greatest burden falls on the least powerful: women and children, and communities displaced from the land that holds the wealth,” he said.
The UN chief called for stronger international action to prevent natural resources from becoming a source of conflict, highlighting four key priorities; justice, prevention, peaceful settlement of disputes and climate action.
On mineral governance, Guterres said producing countries and communities must receive greater benefits from their own resources.
“It is time to break the age-old pattern where resources are extracted, value is captured elsewhere, and impoverished communities are left behind to cope with the environmental and socioeconomic damage,” he said.
He called for responsible investment, fair value chains, local processing and stronger transparency measures to ensure that resource-rich nations can retain more economic value.
“Countries and communities must benefit – first and most – from the resources in their own backyard,” Guterres said.
The UN secretary-general also urged greater cooperation among countries involved in mineral supply chains, saying action was needed beyond mining sites to prevent illegally sourced resources from entering global markets.
“Effective action must address the full value chain – not just the point of extraction,” he said.
Guterres said disputes over access to resources, ownership, territorial control and revenue-sharing were often political issues that required dialogue and mediation rather than only technical solutions.
He also warned that climate change was increasing pressure on natural resources, with droughts, floods and environmental degradation worsening competition over land, water and minerals.
“Drought, flooding, environmental degradation, and ecosystem loss often reduce access to land, water, and minerals,” he said, adding that such pressures could “heighten tensions, and even spark violence.”
Concluding his remarks, Guterres called for a transformation in the way natural resources are extracted, processed and traded.
“No more exploitation. No more plundering,” he said, urging the Security Council to prevent armed groups and criminal networks from using resource revenues to sustain conflicts.
“Ultimately, this is a political choice,” Guterres said. “And I urge you, as members of this Council, to choose peace.”
