News Round-up of the Climate Goes Metal variety
2022 may be the year when every mining story mentions the energy transition...
Climate technologies require enormous amounts of metal. I’m Ian Morse, and this is Green Rocks, a newsletter that doesn’t want dirty mining to ruin clean energy.
There’s been a lot of engaging features and major flash points since last I wrangled together all the mining news relevant to climate technologies. Let’s dig in.
A Reuters reporter took a trip along Peru’s mining corridor — a long stretch of road used by the biggest mines. The country is the second largest producer of copper, but people along the corridor have seen little of the benefits. Mining activism played a large role in getting the new leftist president elected, and it’s only just getting started. Several mines have been closed down due to protests. One farmer, Leon, said “All the wealth of Apurimac goes before our eyes, but it leaves us with nothing.”
National Geographic sent a reporter to Zambia to cover Bill Gates’ money searching for minerals to build batteries. Spotlighting sources like consultancy Wood Mackenzie, KoBold Metals, and a venture capital firm, the feature constrains its focus to artificial intelligence and “technologies not yet imagined.” Meanwhile, humanitarian efforts in Zambia can’t find enough money to address worsening flooding and droughts.
Wired Magazine details efforts in the US to build up battery manufacturing, and Bloomberg says businesses are grasping for materials. The US has already fallen behind on the lithium rush, CNBC said. Batteries, wind turbines, and solar panels are crucial to decarbonization plans, but companies don’t design them to be recycled, Maddie Stone writes.
The next major “frontier” in lithium extraction has been put on hold in Serbia after years of opposition that culminated when protesters blocked roads. The fate of the mine, which is set to reel in $2.4 billion investment from Rio Tinto, will be decided after the April presidential election. The company hasn’t yet abandoned the project. UPDATE: The Serbian government revoked all licenses to the mine on Thursday.
Indigenous groups in Ecuador submitted hundreds of thousands of signatures demanding the country recognize their right to consent to extractive projects on ancestral lands.
The New York Times spent several weeks hitting most of the major poster children in the world of mining for climate tech.
Chile’s new constitution, they report, must grapple with the nature of water and its role in lithium and copper mining operations. (Incidentally I had reported similar debates almost a year before.)
In Idaho, they highlight the Stibnite mine plans to produce gold and antimony, which the company says would be used for a battery technology that is still a half-researched idea. The EPA told the company its plan did not adequately address the major impacts to Native lands (which was originally reported by Jael Holzman in S&P Global a year before).
Their reports on China’s recent lunge for cobalt targeted Congolese corruption and lamented the US’s defeat in the ‘race’ for minerals.
CATL, the Chinese company that holds more market sway than General Motors and Ford combined, got a portrait that could be read as either a warning to US political hawks or a blueprint for government to boost the battery industry.
We also glimpse Bolivia’s salt flats, which are in the crosshairs of lithium producers, through the eyes of a rich Texan new to mining who says Bolivians are “so sensitive about the politics.” This newspaper has the resources to speak to more than two Bolivian sources, but they seem to prefer to read company reports about the country.
They also report from New Caledonia, the French territory in the Pacific Ocean, that Tesla’s deal to buy up nickel could fix the island’s violent relationship with colonists.
And if you’re curious, I wrote about how we get indium (solar cells, display screens) for PV Magazine.