Reopening mines and counting ballots
News round-up on the mining behind climate tech
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.
If you liked last week’s feature on Greenland, check out dozens of other Green Rocks stories. This one is a round-up of news where mining and the energy transition intersect.
But first, I found more real-life green rocks.
Climate going metal
More than half of Inuit women surveyed in Canada’s mining industry said they experienced sexual harassment on the job.
Papua New Guinea’s Porgera gold and silver mine in on track to reopen with PNG having a greater stake in the mine after licenses were withheld last April.
Three First Nations in Ontario declared a mining moratorium in an area called the Ring of Fire, which is in the crosshairs of various metals companies.
Pacific Island groups have written to the UK to request support against deep-sea mining.
Greenpeace activists in the US confronted a DeepGreen-chartered vessel at sea.
Rio Tinto has begun producing lithium from waste rock at its boron mine in California.
Investors in the US have called on Congress to permanently ban mining in Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed, where the Pebble Mine is still looking to develop a project.
The biggest copper producer, Chile’s Codelco, is taking Ecuador to court over stalled plans to develop a copper mine in Ecuador.
A US Senator is asking President Biden to restart a study of the environmental impacts of a mine in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, where a controversial nickel and copper mine plans to open.
Chinese EV maker BYD is putting all bets on lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, ditching alternative batteries with nickel and cobalt that are more popular in the US.
Scientists trying to protect a rare plant in an area slated for lithium mining in Nevada say the US government has been considering protecting the area sine 1994.
Ecuador, a ‘new frontier’ in copper mining, may usher in a new wave of pro-mining governance with the election of president Guillermo Lasso.
A report from Indonesian researchers recommends the government pay attention to workers’ rights and environmental corner-cutting when it builds up its nickel industry for EVs.
Li-Cycle will build its third battery recycling facility “spoke” in Gilbert, Arizona.
Serbia ordered a Chinese-owned mine to stop constructing a copper mine shaft after it was shown not to uphold environmental standards.
A Philippine alliance of mining-affected communities condemned the government decision to resume mining amid pandemic conditions.
The presidential election in Peru, the second-largest copper producer, on Sunday is heading into a run-off between a candidate who has vowed to nationalize foreign mines and a candidate whose father was jailed for human rights abuses.
Reads
≠ endorsement
Native Americans converge at proposed Thacker Pass lithium mine site (Sierra Nevada Ally)
The Cost of Cobalt (Al Jazeera video)
How 'agromining' — farming plants that contain metal — could help power the future (ABC News)
How Tesla’s Battery Mastermind Is Tackling EV's Biggest Problem (CNBC video)
U.S. Faces Uphill Climb to Rival China’s Rare-Earth Magnet Industry (Wall Street Journal)
Giant Copper Mines Start to Get Serious About Green Hydrogen (Bloomberg)
This land is sacred to the Apache, and they are fighting to save it (Washington Post)
Secrecy and Abuse Claims Haunt China’s Solar Factories in Xinjiang (Bloomberg)
'Deeds, not words': mining firms reshape boardrooms as investors demand sustainability (Reuters)
The US is worried about its critical minerals supply chains – essential for electric vehicles, wind power and the nation’s defense (The Conversation)
Rare rocks: Reuse and substitutes of critical resources (Deutsche Welle)
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My Tory MP, Peter Gibson, spoke in the House of Commons a while ago to express his enthusiasm for deep sea mining. I wrote to him, giving him clear evidence of the huge dangers that this poses to the natural world. His response was to ignore the evidence and double down on his desire to see local companies get started on this mining as soon as possible. Have any other UK readers noticed their MPs supporting deep sea mining? Tories, of course, don't give a damn about anything beyond money for the few, creaming off the huge excess value of horrible jobs undertaken by people they rarely even think about, let alone meet. Labour ought to know better but I suspect the prospect of some jobs for potential voters would be enough.