Mining has a bad rep. amongst sustainable investors. They see it as a nasty, unsustainable business riddled with pollution and human suffering. Sure, the industry has it’s problems, but it’s important to understand that mining of certain minerals is absolutely essential, if we are to transition from a fossil fuel powered energy system, to a renewable one.
Minerals have already played a key role in the evolution of mankind and the progression of civilisation. For our ”green future” it will not be much different, as lot’s of crucial minerals are required to make green technologies a reality. These include solar panels, wind turbines, electric cars and, energy efficient lightning.
Electric cars use 4x the amount of metals and minerals compared to conventional cars. Considering the ambitious targets set by government around the globe in terms of electric car penetration, there is no way around the fact we will need to mine a lot more copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt, and also more rare metals such as neodymium and dysprosium.
Innovation isn’t the sectors strongest point as many of the processing technologies date from 50 or so years ago. The bigger players are showing an increasing interest in innovation and interest in deep sea mining, which comes with its own set of concerns. Watch the Bloomberg Green: Dirty Mining Drives the Climate Revolution.
0 Comments