From extraction to equity: Rethinking compensation and procedural justice in Nigeria's emerging lithium economy

As the global shift toward renewable energy accelerates, lithium extraction has emerged as a new frontier of resource governance, particularly in the Global South. Yet, while transition minerals are central to decarbonization, their extraction often reproduces historical patterns of exclusion and injustice. This study examines how compensation adequacy and procedural fairness shape community satisfaction with reparation mechanisms in the context of early-stage lithium extraction. Drawing on a structured survey of 303 affected residents and applying multivariate regression with interaction terms, the study evaluates the relationship between compensation satisfaction and procedural, distributive, and recognition justice indicators. Findings reveal that satisfaction is driven less by the magnitude of compensation than by the honesty, timeliness, and transparency of the process. Gender emerged as the most significant moderating variable, with men reporting higher satisfaction from compensation mechanisms than women, whose judgments were more strongly shaped by procedural legitimacy. Income, education, age, and household size showed no significant conditioning effects, indicating convergence around procedural fairness as a general evaluative standard. These results underscore the need for co-designed, gender-responsive, and historically informed compensation systems in mineral governance. With a focus on local perceptions in a frontier extraction context, this study contributes to a growing literature that views compensation not merely as a technical solution but as a relational practice for building trust and fostering institutional legitimacy in the governance of energy transitions.