GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Ford Motor Company faces new accusations that its electric vehicles aren’t as good for the environment as the company claims. An investigation by Bloomberg claims that material used in Ford’s F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck is from a mine that is causing damage to the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.
The report, published Sunday, says the aluminum in the truck’s frame includes bauxite from the Mineracao Rio do Norte mine. The mine is already approximately three times the size of Manhattan and the owners, a consortium of mining companies, is looking to expand it.
The bauxite mining process involves stripping the land of trees and combing off the topsoil to unearth the “red clay-like rock” sitting just below the surface. Mine executives reportedly told Bloomberg that they are working to reforest large parts of the mine, but that process takes decades to fully heal.
That bauxite is then transferred to a refinery in Alunorte, about 600 miles down the Amazon River from the mine, to create alumina oxide, which is the starting point for creating the metal we know as aluminum. That refinery, Hydro Alunorte, is on the wrong end of a class-action lawsuit of the nearby communities who claim it is polluting their rivers and streams and are causing severe health problems, including cancer, birth defects and neurological dysfunction.
Research conducted by a team at the Federal University of Para found that aluminum and lead concentrations were about 57 times higher in fish than the accepted safety levels and that tests on nearby residents found elevated levels of aluminum in 90% of their test subjects.
It takes several steps in the process before the aluminum reaches Ford’s Rouge assembly complex in Dearborn. Per Bloomberg, the alumina is shipped to a smelter in Canada, which sends the raw aluminum to a parts manufacturer in Pennsylvania before being shipped to Michigan.
WOOD TV8 reached out to Ford for comment but did not hear back as of Tuesday afternoon. Ford spokesperson Artealia Gilliard did send a statement to The Detroit News saying: “Ford is committed to a supply chain that exceeds minimum regulatory compliance requirements and respects human rights, including the right to clean air and clean water. That commitment applies to everything we make and that others make for us. We encourage people to call attention to issues, investigate all of them and work with suppliers to align their business practices with our standards.”
According to The Detroit News, Ford switched from a steel frame to aluminum to make the truck lighter while still delivering strong towing and payload capacity. With its standard issue battery, Ford says the 2023 F150 Lightning can pull up to 5,000 pounds and can carry 2,235 pounds.
