Renewable energy, batteries and electric vehicles are built from minerals, and this category asks whether the world can supply them. Our posts follow lithium from Chilean brines to direct lithium extraction and demonstration plants that recover it from seawater, and they weigh concerns about shortfalls against evidence that supply can meet demand. We also look at cobalt, nickel, graphite, copper and rare earth elements, and at why changes in battery chemistry can reduce reliance on the scarcest of them.
Minerals are also changing how we make materials. Several posts explore green steel, from molten oxide electrolysis to steel made from aluminium waste, along with green aluminium and the projects led by Fortescue. Others examine deep-sea mining, agromining with plants, and platinum group metals.
The theme running through the category is that mining for a clean energy system is largely a one-off build, while mining coal, oil and gas never ends, because fuel is burnt and gone while metals can be recycled and reused. That is why we expect the number of mines to fall sharply in coming decades, not grow. If you want to understand where the metals for the transition will come from, what they cost, and how recycling and new technology will change the picture, start here.
Renewable energy, batteries and electric vehicles are built from minerals, and this category asks whether the world can supply them. Our posts follow lithium from Chilean brines to direct lithium extraction and demonstration plants that recover it from seawater, and they weigh concerns about shortfalls against evidence that supply can meet demand. We also look at cobalt, nickel, graphite, copper and rare earth elements, and at why changes in battery chemistry can reduce reliance on the scarcest of them.
Minerals are also changing how we make materials. Several posts explore green steel, from molten oxide electrolysis to steel made from aluminium waste, along with green aluminium and the projects led by Fortescue. Others examine deep-sea mining, agromining with plants, and platinum group metals.
The theme running through the category is that mining for a clean energy system is largely a one-off build, while mining coal, oil and gas never ends, because fuel is burnt and gone while metals can be recycled and reused. That is why we expect the number of mines to fall sharply in coming decades, not grow. If you want to understand where the metals for the transition will come from, what they cost, and how recycling and new technology will change the picture, start here.
Deep-sea mineral mining is a proposed industry that aims to extract valuable minerals from the ocean floor. While it offers potential benefits for meeting the growing global demand for metals, it also poses significant environmental risk. The pros and cons are shown to provie little benefit to the supply of minerals but the money speaks. More destruction likelu
The molten oxide electrolysis process by Boston Metals has the opportunity to revolutionise steel refining. During the past decade, they have progressed from lab scale to millions of tonnes industrial process and would enable rapid decarbonisation of the steel industry.
Red mud is a hazardous waste from aluminium production and research is underway to extract the steel from aluminium waste. […]
Green steel shouild be viewed as fast-to-abate not hard-to-abort as is generally viewed. Using renewable energy reduces emissions in all parts of the steel refinery emissions.
Agromining using hyperaccumulator plants would be a very profitable crop in the tropics. Research from University of Queensland shows promise from nickel.
Steel accounts for 6% of global emissions. With a small number of iron ore miners and steel producers – what are technologies to de carbonise the industry?
Making aluminum green is easy with renewable energy. While there are some more substantial technologies to make sure that aluminum is even lower emissions, an easy start is to contract for renewable energy and storage.
With the exit of coal mines, use of green hydrogen and renewable energy for steel making, and full deployment will the number of mines crash?
Direct lithium extraction is used in land based brines by a number of companies, but the vision is that the ocean has huge quantities, or could be extracted as part of desalination.
With established miners extracting lithium, who will be some of the up and coming miners. Here are 8 of them. There are another 150 miners globally.
