Renewable energy and electrification rely on critical minerals and metals

What’s keeping countries from domestically supplying their own minerals?

From an energy security, defense supply, and economic standpoint, many countries are looking to reshore critical mineral mining. In other words, they want to increase their supply of domestically produced minerals and metals and rely less on other countries. This is easier said than done.

One limitation is simply where in the world minerals and metals are located. More specifically, where are the critical minerals that are needed to produce renewable energy and energy infrastructure in general? Most of the world’s copper comes from South America. A lot of steel and iron comes from Australia. The US has a supply of rare earth elements, but it’s a broad array of elements and what is currently being mined in the US and Canada is not enough to meet current and future demands for energy production. A similar situation unfolds in Australia. It’s a continent with large uranium reserves, but with little demand and resources to mine and use it for nuclear power generation. 

The amount of time to obtain permits and approvals to develop a mine is also a significant constraint. This is no secret. A new mine in the US can take upwards of 20 years to be approved. In other countries with less stringent federal and environmental standards, approvals may take as little as five or seven years. However, stipulations to funding by global banks and multinational private enterprises often require stricter standards that would be acceptable at a global scale. This helps both investors and mining companies protect their public image and global brand by mitigating social, economic, and environmental risks. So, they may voluntarily take a longer time to undergo more rigorous testing and monitoring in advance of starting a new mine. To best position themselves, they are self-regulating to a higher standard, derisking their mining approach to attract investment.

There are other limitations as well. For example, let’s examine the goal of increasing domestic mineral supply in Australia. While the Australian government has been supportive of mining in general, processing is a different story. Many mining companies rely on processing facilities in China. So, even though the minerals and metals are mined in Australia, to be used in Australia, they still rely on a foreign country for the processing. This is due to the cost, perceived environmental impact, and the general lack of human resources. 

When renewable energy is more reliable than diesel: A solar/diesel hybrid plant for a lithium mining town

At first it sounds meta—a lithium mining company building a solar plant (which requires lithium) for a lithium mining town. But an Argentinian application of corporate social responsibility could be just the direction that mining companies need to follow to get community buy-in for mining operations.

Let’s consider a unique win/win project located in a very remote, high-altitude mining community in Argentina. The small town of about 2,200 residents previously relied on diesel to meet their energy needs. This was mostly problematic due to how many times diesel trucks were unable to reach the town due to weather or poor road conditions. Of course, diesel also emits a lot of carbon emissions through the combustible use of this fuel. Diesel and traditional fossil fuels are generally touted for their reliability. But in this instance, the intermittent supply of the diesel was causing unreliability.

In 2019, the mining company built a solar/diesel-hybrid plant for this community. It reduced diesel consumption by 600 liters per day. It also reduced diesel transportation and spills. The plant generated energy savings for the town as well—to the tune of $USD140,000 per year! As you might imagine, the high desert lands of Argentina get a lot of sun. While the solar plant provides power during the day, the diesel plant kicks in at night, when the sun’s not shining.

The increase in reliability and availability of electricity helped improve quality of life in the town as well. Now, the homes have refrigerators and freezers. They have also improved the public lighting system in the town, which had previously experienced frequent blackouts. We are seeing more projects like this happening around the world. Countries like Australia have been implementing renewable energy not only in the communities around a mine site, but also to power mining operations, too. 

What’s on the horizon for critical minerals mining in terms of technology?

We are excited about some newer mining methods being put in place today. Both bioleaching and in-situ mining methods limit a mine’s footprint and the environmental risks. Even though we’ve worked in the mining industry for decades, we’re still passionate about the environment and want to limit harm that may come from mining. This is a common sentiment across the global mining industry.

We also like the idea of our clients becoming more efficient in how they extract minerals. There’s such a big push now to reduce energy consumption and minimize the environmental footprint. This is where the industry is headed, and it’s cool to see how automation is already playing a role in that process. Also, from a safety and efficiency perspective, we’re encouraged by the demonstrations we’ve seen for driverless haul trucks at a mine site. We should also note Fortescue’s first hydrogen-powered haul truck that debuted in Australia last year. While we look forward to seeing more battery electric vehicles (BEVs) on mine sites, we’re excited for hydrogen-powered vehicles too.

Though, there’s a larger concern in the industry that’s felt by many. And we’re hoping that technology may be part of the solution. It seems like fewer students today are pursuing mining as a career path. We’ve certainly seen this in North America, and it extends beyond mining into other science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers, too. Not only is this concerning from a current supply/demand perspective, but even more so because the easy-to-find-and-extract minerals have already been claimed and/or mined. In addition, we’re seeing fewer new workers entering the mining industry that want to be physically in the mine. Automation could help alleviate both of these challenges.

Automation could be a selling point to get more people into the mining career path, while also offsetting the lack of qualified miners entering the industry. Automation can reduce efficiency losses and extend the life of machinery. It also has major potential for mitigating risk and making sites safer. Automation can help us find and extract ore bodies that are deeper underground or located in challenging environments. New generations of miners will have to work wisely with technology to overcome obstacles we haven’t dealt with before.  

What about critical mineral supply and demand?

It’s exciting to see bold electrification and renewable energy goals. For example, companies pledging to install thousands of wind turbines or generate 50% of their electricity from solar. But all these energy infrastructure plans will need a higher quantity of mined commodities to meet future needs. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reported anywhere from an 8-30% increase in various critical minerals demand in 2023. Other estimates project a demand six times the amount of current supply for net zero scenarios.

Around the world, it really ebbs and flows. This makes it hard to say if we can meet the demand for so many minerals and metals. Even if we have the resources, there are politics going on behind the scenes. For instance, Australia is positioned to meet the demand. But it depends on so many uncontrollable factors like the larger supply chain, geopolitics, human resources, and reliability of processing.

We’re excited about the prospect of more recycling, too. While it can’t make up the whole difference, we believe it’s a wasted opportunity to NOT recycle. Metals recycle easily—much better than plastics. And if done properly, recycled material can help us bridge the supply gap.

Mining has a bright future

We all agree that it’s an exciting time to be in the mining industry. Other than the industrial revolution over 200 years ago, there have been very few other times we’ve experienced so much growth and demand in mining. Local, state, and national power delivery projects are at the end of their lifespan and need to be refurbished or replaced. On top of that, new renewable generation, energy storage, and delivery infrastructure needs to be built.

The push for more mining, and more environmentally conscious mining, means we’re poised to see great advancements in the industry in the coming years. The push for electrification and renewable energy depends on it.