To go Green, we'll have to get Dirty

To elaborate from the previous posts in this bog, which have touched upon the Australian renewable sector, I wanted to approach a potentially feather ruffling topic. A key way in which Australia will be incorporated into the global communities struggle, to mitigate anthropogenic climate change, is by proving the raw materials from which a greener future will be built. A quote from which I have not been able to find a source, although there are frequent bumper stickers in more industrial and agricultural reliant communities reads;

"Everything is either farmed or mined" 

De-industrialisation through western Europe has led to a population which can be significantly removed from where the everyday items of their life come from. I bring this to your attention, because there is a largely overlooked issue of how we will produce solar panels, wind turbines, wave power generators, as well as the large scale battery systems which will enable humanity to be weaned from fossil fuels. If we take a look at battery installations there are a number of key ingredients; Nickel, Lithium, Cobalt, Graphite, Manganese and Cooper, along with a host of REE. Tesla, a major supplier of battery installations and electric cars, have announced that significant parts of the battery system can be recycled, however they have not announced how much is coming from recycled means, so these materials need to be mined. Figure 1 displays the change in demand, predicted for a world which switches to electric vehicles 100%.

Figure 1. The percentage change in global demand (from 2017) for major materials and metals in an electric vehicle world. 

As displayed in Fig. 1 the demand for related materials is going to increase, which will in-turn see an increase in exploration and development of mines for these commodities. The development of large scale mines is reliant upon a deposit being found and acquiring of the appropriate permits/licenses from which to extract the commodity. Although often targeted by somewhat lazy journalism, mining operations are very rarely beneficial for the local environment and biosphere, despite this and almost counter-intuitively, mining is integral for our transition to a renewable future. Fig. 2 showing exploration to mine activities in Australia for base metals.

Figure 2. Top left, An exploration drill rig in Western Australia, Photo J Chapman. Top Right,The KCGM Super-pit Gold mine in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, photo J Chapman. Bottom left, Haul trucks at the Nova Ni-Cu-Co mine. Bottom right, Drill core from the Nova Ni-Cu-Co mine in Western Australia. 

Using Nickel as a brief case study, the demand for Nickel has historically been from Steel production, however this is forecast to change to meet battery demands, shown in Fig.1. The Philippines is currently the largest producer of Nickel, however recent controversy over the environmental impacts of the mines, led to ~50% of production being temporarily halted. Nickel mining has numerous environmental impacts, even when extracted in developed nations, however by undergoing the mining processes in more environmental conscious jurisdictions, these can be mitigated, to an extent.

Figure 3. Left, A mineral exploration drill-pad in Western Australia. Right, The KCGM Super-pit Gold mine in Western Australia. Photo creds J Chapman.

Figure 3 shows an unassuming mineral exploration drill pad in Western Australia, juxtaposed to the KCGM super-pit Gold mine in Kalgoorlie, with dimensions of 3.5km long by 1.5km wide and 570m deep. Although the initial response of many may be that this is as an environmental nightmare, it is also an environmental necessity, if we are going to meet the increased demands upon the metal market by growing renewable and electric vehicle market.