- by Graham Holton
- The Guardian
- Issue #2108
French journalist Guillaume Pitron has written a fascinating, well-referenced and important study on the consequences of the world’s increasing demands for the rare earths necessary to manufacture new technologies. He has produced an eye-opening analysis of what is required to mine and refine the requirements for our ‘Green’ technologies. Pitron raises the question of how green is “Green,” and what impact it is having on developing countries, indigenous peoples and the environment.
To meet the Paris Accord goal of NetZero by 2050, the world needs green technologies. These require large deposits of rare earths – so named, not because they are hard to find, but because high concentrations of the metals are rare. These minerals consist of a family of seventeen elements, including scandium, yttrium and lanthanum. Rare earth production will need to double exponentially every fifteen years, which Pitron says is equivalent to mining “more mineral ores than humans have extracted over the past 70,000 years.” Inevitably, the way extractive capitalism works, this rush for mineral deposits will have a devastating impact on the environment, indigenous peoples and civil and sovereign rights in developing countries.
Without these rare metals, modern technology would not function, whether it is telecommunication, electrical and hydrogen engines, renewable energy technologies, computers, lighting, or satellites. While the world maintains adequate supplies of base metals, even they have limited life spans. Antimony, necessary for car batteries, has only 12 years of known reserves, while zinc and tin have around 18 years of reserves remaining. Rare earth metals are rarely recycled, as so little has been used until now. There is an acute shortage of rare earths, so more reserves must be found quickly.
Most of the minerals needed for the modern green revolution are supplied only by a few countries. China has already placed tough restrictions on its rare earth exports to ensure it has enough for its own industries, forcing other industrialised nations to search for new supplies. China accounts for 85 per cent of global rare earth production, 86 per cent of tungsten, 83 per cent of germanium, and 73 per cent of natural graphite. South Africa supplies 71 per cent of the world’s platinum, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has 63 per cent of the world’s cobalt. Russia supplies 40 per cent of the world’s palladium and Turkey 48 per cent of its borate.
The demand for electric vehicles will require 400 new mines by 2035, including 97 for natural graphite, 74 for lithium and 72 for nickel. The mining and refining of the necessary metals are having a devastating impact on the environment. To purify a tonne of rare earths requires 30,000 cubic metres of water, which becomes saturated with acids and heavy metals. Toxic sludge contaminates soils and the atmosphere around the world. To manufacture a 2-gm microchip produces 32 kg of waste. It is estimated that the amount of worldwide electronic waste from just mobile phones and computers is at least 52 million tonnes annually. Much of this waste is sent to developing countries to be processed to recover the metal content. The mining and refining of rare metals require a huge amount of energy.
As the demand for metals heats up, countries have restricted exports and cancelled production licences. In 2022, Chile cancelled the lithium mining permit to two companies. In 2021, Argentina limited the export of borate, copper, iron, lithium, and strontium. In 2013, the Mongolian government stopped Rio Tinto’s operations in a copper mine in the Gobi Desert. India, Russia, Kazakhstan, and South Africa have restricted their metal exports. Mines have been nationalised in Ghana, DRC, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe to ensure resource sovereignty.
In 1998, Kanak separatists gained majority holding of the world’s biggest nickel mine in New Caledonia. The consequences are still being felt, as the recent riots and their violent suppression indicate how important the mine is to the French economy. Rare earths have become essential for economic and military sovereignty. In 2022, President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to support the extraction, processing, and recycling of critical metals.
To meet the Paris Accord goal of Net Zero by 2050, the world will need to install wind turbines. This will require 90 times more aluminium, 50 times more iron, copper and glass, and 15 times more concrete, than is presently being consumed annually. The turbines, as currently built require 3,200 million tonnes of steel, 310 tonnes of aluminium and 40 tonnes of copper. Production of the rare metals required for renewables and digital technologies will consume 8 per cent of global energy.
The problems regarding the guaranteed supply of the minerals and the energy necessary to manufacture new technologies in Australia have not been fully digested by Australia’s federal and state governments. What is required to meet the demand for hydrogen technologies and renewable energies necessary to meet Net Zero by 2050? On current projections massive investment in affordable energy and access to rare metals will be needed. Past warnings of limited resources and energy have not been heeded.
Maybe it is time we dusted off old copies of the Club of Rome’s Limit to Growth (1972) and E F Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful (1973) to read the warnings made fifty years ago.
