“…enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves.”
With these words, the non-elected UN Secretary-General Guterres opened the Clime Conference in Glasgow. Well, we at Naturaldeposit believe that we should emit fewer emissions. Yes, we also share the opinion that we should not pollute nature and share Elon Musk’s statement that our hydrocarbons reserves will run out. But isn’t this shift to clean technologies dependent on metals and their mining?
Let’s just take the example of vehicle electrification. Battery metals like lithium or nickel, rare earth elements, copper, and aluminum are all examples that are essential for Evs. Where do all these elements occur? In the earth and have to be extracted by mining.
Another example is energy production. The most reliable source, nuclear power or uranium offers so far the only reliable source of energy. Even if more wind power and solar plants were to be produced, they would require mineral resources that are mined.
So what is the strategy behind this, everyone is asking.
Let the countries that don’t care about emissions mine the natural resources and let the rich countries buy them? This is the strategy the U.S. government is trying with OPEC+, and extremely unsuccessfully. Europe is also feeling this at the moment, as they have to cut production every time the Chinese economy stutters.
We stick to the fact that the energy transition is dependent on metals.
Let’s just take copper, which is really a key component in almost all applications. Most copper mines have been in business for a long time. The oldest has been in business for more than 100 years. The current U.S. government has put a stop to one of the most significant copper projects, the Resolution Mine. The mine has the potential to supply 25% of the U.S. demand. So where is the copper going to come from? In South America, one protest follows another and keeps the global copper supply in short supply. At the same time, we don’t want a copper mine in our front yard.
So let’s keep in mind that the self-proclaimed leaders want to reduce our CO2 emissions, and create clean technologies. But we should not use natural resources that are extracted from mining. Since these facts are completely illogical, the only question that remains is: Has the world already reached clown status?