Each chapter of the project focuses on the extraction of a specific mineral, reveals the often overlooked supply chains, and questions the complex impacts on the affected regions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chile, and Indonesia. Barefoot workers with rudimentary tools and in barely secured mines, contaminated water, devastated and poisoned landscapes: in every region examined by photographer Davide Monteleone for his series, the enormous problems of raw material extraction become apparent.

To fulfill the promise of future "clean" technologies, special materials are required, which are, however, partially obtained under questionable, dehumanizing, and environmentally hazardous conditions. Electric cars intended to improve the carbon footprint, smartphones indispensable in everyday communication, batteries that should store excess energy from wind and solar technology in the future: all require, among other things, cobalt, which has thus become a sought-after resource.

The majority of this element is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but little of the financial gain from this coveted resource reaches the people in the mining regions. This is because the element is refined by companies in other countries. China is now the world's largest cobalt importer. Therefore, Monteleone finds it important to also identify the supply chains used for the new and supposedly better energy sources.