The War Below
Green energy needs mines - where should they be?
“What I want to do before I die is be confident that I’ve done everything I can possibly do to leave this place more livable for my children and grandchildren.”
- James Calaway. Chairman, ioneer Ltd.
How does Calaway hope to do this?
By digging a giant open pit mine in the Nevada desert. If you’re surprised to hear mining executives sounding like Greta Thunberg, get used to it. The mine Calaway hopes to build contains enough lithium to support 400,000 EV’s each year…for 30 years.
In many ways the potential mine sits in the perfect location – remote enough not to disrupt lives, but also within reasonable distance of customers like Tesla and big EV markets on the West Coast. Yet Calaway’s plans have been on hold for years because the site is also the only place on earth a wildflower called Tiehm’s buckwheat lives. Build the mine and the flower (very likely) gets eradicated.
This tension between the desire to extract the raw materials necessary to support low-carbon energy and the inevitable environmental damage this inflicts, is the central theme of Ernest Scheyder’s new book The War Below: Lithium, Copper and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives.
Resource Rich, Production Poor
The US holds almost a quarter of the world’s lithium reserves but produces very little. It holds the fifth largest reserves of copper, but may end up importing two-thirds of its supply by 2050. It has only one operating rare earth mine and almost all of the output gets shipped to China for refining.
It doesn’t have to be like this.
Scheyder documents many people and companies looking to change the status quo. He takes us to spots in Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, North Carolina and Minnesota all with vast potential supplies of critical minerals. And all with equally salient concerns about air quality, noise pollution, sacred cultural lands, water and wildlife.
Scripts get flipped in multiple points along the way.
One example is mining company executives in Idaho using the language of social justice to press their case:
“If we need it, don’t we have an obligation to produce it here?”
- Mckinsey Lyon. Vice President for External Affairs, Perpetua Resources
When Lyon says that outsourcing the environmental damage of mining to poorer countries is a form of “neocolonial economics” is she talking her own book? Maybe. Ok, probably.
But she makes an important point. The minerals are going to get mined. There is going to be an environmental cost. Wouldn’t we be better off monitoring and at least trying to control it?
In addition to the environmental implications of outsourcing mineral production, there are supply chain and national security risks. The world’s second largest lithium producer is Chile and they announced plans last year to nationalize their lithium industry. Bolivia’s president has suggested creating a lithium cartel, modelled on OPEC, that could have the power to restrict supplies. The same thing might happen with copper, as I wrote about earlier this year.
Mining is hard work physically and emotionally – the jobs can take employees to rural areas with limited infrastructure to support families. But they are also well paid and there are openings. Production at the largest US copper mine actually fell in 2023 because of a worker shortage. Domestic mining might be less damaging for the environment, less risky for the economy and a source of well-paying work. But then again I don’t live near a 500-foot waste rock facility five times the size of Central Park.
Sheyder avoids taking sides – both in the book and when I questioned him during our podcast. His point is that decisions will be made and the sooner we debate them openly, the better the outcome for all of us.
The politics here are fascinating. Trump spends his time dissing low-carbon energy, but would almost certainly be friendly toward mining the materials it needs. Harris wants to boost green energy, but would she be willing to go against environmental advocacy groups that oppose mining?
Not Just A US Question
These same issues are cropping up everywhere. While prepping for my interview with Scheyder I came across this fascinating piece about local opposition to a giant lithium mine in Portugal. Even Sweden, which plans to revitalize its far north by turning it into the green energy center of Europe, is struggling to balance the tensions.
Carina Semmeli, mayor of Luleå, a port town central to this effort, summed it up:
“Now we are at the start of a green industrial revolution. We need to be fast because it’s about being first on the market”.
But when asked about local opposition to actually locating windmills in the town:
“Everybody wants renewable energy, just not right here.”
What’s the best way to achieve sustainability? Accept environmental degradation in the cause of building a low-carbon energy infrastructure. Or is that just repeating the mistakes of the past when we transitioned to fossils fuels?
Make up your own mind by reading Scheyder’s book and listening to our interview.
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