Plan to Zero (#20) Dig, dig, and dig some more!

Copper, lithium, rare earths, and other materials are critical to the future of the grid and the transition to a green economy.
Mining is to most people the opposite of green, they consider it the opposite of environmentally friendly. But to make the transition, mining is important.

Copper use is growing faster than supply, and we may be copper constrained within 5 years. buildings, electric vehicles, and other transition elements will require more and more copper unless there are material breakthroughs that don’t seem to be on the horizon. Copper is likely the most crucial element to mine. The good news is we know where to find it, the bad news is that much of the copper is off limits for various reasons.

Several US sources of critical transition materials were put off limits for mining by President Biden by executive order. Largely the government is telling the world they want the transition to happen, but not with US produced resources.

There are sources of materials, mostly aluminum, steel, and copper, but mining them means a whole new mineral recovery process. There is a large amount of these resources from the 1950-2010 period in landfills. Those landfills may be leaking toxics, may have toxics in them and will be hazardous to mine.

How we rehabilitate those resources, and clean up the toxics is not a priority to anyone in the supply chain right now. The question is “will the government look at policy to recover this material”? Of course, the need for Cobalt and rare earths will not be satisfied by landfill mining. This only answers part of the question.

Real mines, like other infrastructure has dozens of steps in the bureaucracy that were designed to make it really hard to open and operate a mine. The local press is full of stories of sand mines taking a decade or more to approve. Think of approval for iron mines or other massive open pit or deep rock mines.

One option is to re-survey existing abandoned mines and if the survey shows economic recovery of needed materials, to re-activate the mines, but the current regulations make the liability to re-open a mine beyond what any company is willing to take on. The same is true with tailings piles that exist at many mines or former processing plants. The government seems determined to stop the transition with their stance on mining and material recovery.

The numbers in some reports are staggering, for lithium, some of the numbers indicate we have found less than a decade worth of lithium, and then there is no more on the planet. Bringing forecasts of needs, sources, and regulations together needs to be a priority.

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This is the last of the issues articles, next week I start the path of a real plan. It is radical and will push a lot of people's buttons, but it works economically and environmentally. Hope to see you then.