Power Metal
Vince Beiser (UK, 20 November); , (US, 19 November))
The smartphone on which you are probably reading this article takes a heavy toll on the planet. If it is an iPhone, over 30 kilograms of ore had to be mined to harvest the metals within it, from the nickel and cobalt in its battery to the rare earths in its touch screen.
Even larger volumes of such “critical metals” play an essential role in most of the technologies needed to move on from fossil fuels. Wind turbines contain huge permanent magnets made with rare earths such as neodymium. The electricity they generate is carried on a power grid made of copper wires to charge electric vehicles with batteries made of dozens of kilograms of lithium.
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As journalist Vince Beiser explains in Power Metal: The race for the resources that will shape the future, all that material poses a Faustian bargain as we enter what he calls the electro-digital age. He writes: “Our high-tech, carbon-free future depends on one of humanity’s oldest and dirtiest endeavours: mining.”
Power Metal is no exposé. But his exploration of this dilemma is a balanced and readable brief on one of the more contentious questions of the energy transition. Beiser tours a lithium mine in Chile, visits a metal recycling centre near his Vancouver home and shadows several e-waste scavengers in Lagos, Nigeria.
For the most part, his book synthesises examples from the large body of research on the metals transforming the world. Yet just laying out the facts is damning enough. Processing rare earths in Inner Mongolia poisoned lakes and people’s lungs. Nickel smelters have stripped forests in Indonesia. Copper mines are a major user of fresh water in Chile.
Mining generates around 7 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions – and rising. Most of this happens far from the rich countries consuming the metals.
The social and geopolitical consequences are as significant as the environmental ones. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, cobalt mining is rife with forced labour and violence. Nickel mining funds Russia’s war in Ukraine. The concentration of production and refining of many of these metals in China gives it leverage over the global economy.
Mining generates around 7 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions – and rising
The news isn’t all bad. Under growing scrutiny, the mining industry has started to clean up its act. A rare earth mine in Nevada now recycles its wastewater. Lithium producers are exploring water-saving tech to separate the metal from brine. Researchers are looking at ways to extract metals from leftovers at former mines or even harvest them by growing metal-accumulating plants.
Beiser also finds delightful ways to show why the metals are so important to us: “Rare earths are like vitamins, or spices, or yeast, or LSD: they are used in tiny amounts but have major effects.”
But most mining inherently involves tearing up the planet, and the incredible demand means the consequences are sure to expand, potentially even to the ocean floor via deep-sea mining. In one projection he cites, by 2050 annual demand for copper will be greater than the total amount used between 1900 and 2021. Demand projections for other metals key to the energy transition are also astronomical.
None of this is terribly new. Similar points are often made by critics of efforts to use renewable energy and electric tech to end our dependence on fossil fuels. And, like many of these critics, Beiser’s mantra that “everything has a cost” suggests a false equivalence between mining and fossil fuel extraction. Calculations by data scientist Hannah Ritchie at the Oxford Martin School, UK, for example, show that the volume of metals needed for any green transition is orders of magnitude smaller than the volume of fossil fuels extracted from Earth’s crust.
What makes Beiser’s book valuable, however, is that his aim isn’t to stop a transition he views as necessary to tackle climate change. Instead, he asks how we might limit its damage: “We must reshape our relationship to energy and natural resources altogether.”
Recycling can reduce demand, but it is an energy-intensive, often dirty process and can’t be the whole answer. More effective is reuse, made easier by the “Right to Repair” movement. Best of all is to use less, especially if you can avoid buying a car heavy with metal, electric or not.
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