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Schematic diagram illustrating the relationship between ore reserves, mineral resources, and the true extent of mineralisation within a hypothetical mineral deposit system Darker colours indicate increased geological confidence and probability of economic extraction. Circles indicate drillholes used for exploration and subsequent resource and reserve estimation, giving an indication of the confidence of the data used to delineate different parts of the mineralised system. Note that resources and reserves only make up a small part of the true extent of mineralisation; the latter may well be known as a result of field mapping, geological and geochemical sampling, geophysical imaging, and some drilling, but cannot be reported because the geological confidence in the continuity of the mineralisation and associated economic prospects may not be sufficient to meet the criteria needed for resource or reserve reporting. Exploitation of known reserves would be followed by conversion of resources to reserves and the delineation of more resources from the surrounding poorly delineated mineralisation, extending the initially stated life of mine and causing resources and reserves to remain static or potentially grow coincident with production. There are many examples of the above—such as Olympic Dam, Antamina, Ertsberg-Grasberg, Escondida, Kalgoorlie, Highland Valley, and the Sudbury Basin, amongst many others²⁰.
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Metal mining provides the elements required for the provision of energy, communication, transport and more. The increasing uptake of green technology, such as electric vehicles and renewable energy, will also further increase metal demand. However, the production lifespan of an average mine is far shorter than the timescales of mineral deposit form...
Citations
... Environmental and social impacts and geopolitical relations, not resource scarcity, constitute the main risks in metals and minerals supply [16][17][18][19][20] . Biodiversity and deforestation impacts of mining are well documented both for metals 9 and for bulk materials such as sand 21 . ...
As societies abandon fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy, electric cars and other low-carbon technologies, environmental pressures shift from atmospheric carbon loading to adverse impacts of material extraction and waste flows, new infrastructure development, land use change, and the provision of new types of goods and services. We call for interdisciplinary modeling to investigate this major change in environmental and social burdens and identify systemic demand-led mitigation strategies that explicitly consider planetary boundaries associated with the earth’s material resources.
... 900-2,200 mg/L Al), Huelva, Spain; (c) El Escorial creek (pH 4.5, 30 mg/L Al) in the Riotinto mining area, showing streambed massively covered by Al oxy-hydroxysulfates (hydrobasaluminite); (d) mine effluent (pH 4.5, 17 mg/L Al) emerging from Panasqueira mine (Portugal) and showing abundant suspended colloidal Al flocs. All pictures by Javier Sánchez-España [32]. In addition, many bauxite projects may be at risk based on environmental, social, and/or governance factors [32]. ...
... All pictures by Javier Sánchez-España [32]. In addition, many bauxite projects may be at risk based on environmental, social, and/or governance factors [32]. Industries recovering aluminum from primary resources are the largest producers of solid waste globally. ...
Aluminum biorecovery is still at an early stage. However, a significant number of studies showing promising results already exist, although they have revealed problems that need to be solved so aluminum biorecovery can have a wider application and industrial upscaling. In this chapter, we revise the existing knowledge on the biorecovery of aluminum from different sources. We discuss the design, overall performance, advantages, technical problems, limitations, and possible future directions of the different biotechnological methods that have been reported so far. Aluminum biorecovery from different sources has been studied (i.e., solid wastes and primary sources of variable origin, wastewater with low concentrations of dissolved aluminum at pH-neutral or weakly acidic conditions, and acidic mine waters with high concentrations of dissolved aluminum and other metal(loid)s) and has shown that the process efficiency strongly depends on factors such as (1) the physicochemical properties of the source materials, (2) the physiological features of the used (micro)organisms, or (3) the biochemical process used. Bioleaching of aluminum from low-grade bauxite or red mud can much be achieved by a diverse range of organisms (e.g., fungi, bacteria) with different metabolic rates. Biorecovery of aluminum from wastewaters, e.g., domestic wastewater, acidic mine water, has also been accomplished by the use of microalgae, cyanobacteria (for domestic wastewater) or by sulfate-reducing bacteria (acidic mine water). In most of the cases, the drawback of the process is the requirement of controlled conditions which involves a continuous supply of oxygen or maintenance of anoxic conditions which make aluminum biorecovery challenging in terms of process design and economical value. Further studies should focus on studying these processes in comparison or in combination to existing economical processes to assess their feasibility.
... Environmental and social impacts and geopolitical relations, not resource scarcity, constitute the main risks in metals and minerals supply [16][17][18][19][20] . Biodiversity and deforestation impacts of mining are well documented both for metals 9 and for bulk materials such as sand 21 . ...
As fossil fuels are phased out in favour of renewable energy, electric cars and other low-carbon technologies, the future clean energy system is likely to require less overall mining than the current fossil-fuelled system. However, material extraction and waste flows, new infrastructure development, land-use change, and the provision of new types of goods and services associated with decarbonization will produce social and environmental pressures at localized to regional scales. Demand-side solutions can achieve the important outcome of reducing both the scale of the climate challenge and material resource requirements. Interdisciplinary systems modelling and analysis are needed to identify opportunities and trade-offs for demand-led mitigation strategies that explicitly consider planetary boundaries associated with Earth’s material resources.
... Given lithium's predicted importance for future economic security and meeting climate goals, some nations are seeking to establish a sovereign battery manufacturing sector, commencing or even re-establishing extraction of lithium deposits (Jowitt et al., 2020;Kelly et al., 2021). Australia is reconsidering its current juxtaposition of supplying the world with more than half of the world's lithium supply (as spodumene, lithium ore), yet having little to no higher economic-value national battery manufacturing sector (Zhao et al., 2021). ...
Lithium’s role in the global green energy transition provides an engaging context to visualize the interconnectedness of chemistry to seismic shifts taking place in society. Lithium has seen a dramatic increase in utilization, but given lithium’s current low rates of recyclability, this development is exacerbating the e-waste problem. Equally important, we posit that lithium extraction, from either brine or ore, and the associated impacts on the environment and local communities should not be so easily decoupled from the shift in human behaviors causing its demand. Presented here is a mapping activity that was trialed in professional learning workshops organized in New Zealand for secondary/high school chemistry teachers. In their mapping activity response, the teachers were able to connect typical school chemistry content (batteries, chemical processes) with environmental (planetary systems) and social, economic, and ethical considerations (useful products, unintended consequences, inequity in access to water) of the ongoing electrification of society. The teachers indicated a positive intention to utilize the activity, or one similar with a different chemical process or product, in their own classrooms. A school-ready version of the activity is provided in the supplementary information, which was revised based on feedback from the teachers attending the workshops.
... 5−7 As the waste stream grows, natural sources of many key metals are diminishing, rendering the current process unsustainable. 8,9 Best estimates suggest that only ca. 17% of ewaste is recycled through environmentally sound practices, with the remainder either directed to landfill or shipped to developing countries for rudimentary processing, 7,10−12 in the latter case, the crude practices adopted result in the release of toxic byproducts which threaten human health and the environment. ...
The simple diamide ligand L was previously shown to selectively precipitate gold from acidic solutions typical of e-waste leach streams, with precipitation of gallium, iron, tin, and platinum possible under more forcing conditions. Herein, we report direct competition experiments to afford the order of selectivity. Thermal analysis indicates that the gold-, gallium-, and iron-containing precipitates present as the most thermodynamically stable structures at room temperature, while the tin-containing structure does not. Computational modeling established that the precipitation process is thermodynamically driven, with ion exchange calculations matching the observed experimental selectivity ordering. Calculations also show that the stretched ligand conformation seen in the X-ray crystal structure of the gold-containing precipitate is more strained than in the structures of the other metal precipitates, indicating that intermolecular interactions likely dictate the selectivity ordering. This was confirmed through a combination of Hirshfeld, noncovalent interaction (NCI), and quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) analyses, which highlight favorable halogen···halogen contacts between metalates and pseudo-anagostic C–H···metal interactions in the crystal structure of the gold-containing precipitate.
... As previously stated, there is no firm evidence for the physical exhaustion of primary mineral resources (e.g., Tilton, 2006;Mudd and Jowitt, 2018;Tilton et al., 2018;Mateus and Martins, 2019) because current knowledge on the distribution of geochemical anomalies is still limited, leaving room for further discoveries, especially if we go deeper into the Earth's crust. As shown by Jowitt et al. (2020), the global reserves for most metals have not decreased significantly with increasing production, illustrating the value of exploration efforts in the identification of new ore bodies and recurrent assessment of old deposits and their surrounds ("brownfield" surveys). Before the last kilogram of any raw material is extracted, the costs would rise, first curtailing but, in the end, eliminating demand. ...
Global attention is being given to renewable energy solutions as they are seen as crucial to secure decarbonization efforts. Solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind energies are considered leading technologies for the energy transition, and Portugal is following suit with the ratification of the national decarbonization plan in 2019, recognizing these technologies as the primary systems to decarbonize the electric generation sector, jointly achieving 39 GW to be deployed up to 2050. This work sheds light on the quantity of raw materials needed to accomplish the Portuguese decarbonization plan by using the material intensity of different technologies and several scenarios of technological mixes for the solar and wind parks. Coupling this assessment with forecast modeling of metal production allows to assess possible difficulties in technology implementation. Two sets of materials are identified, with high or low demand variability across scenarios, the first related to specific types of technologies and the second transversal to a broad range of technologies. It is expected for solar PV and onshore wind to require between 3.1 × 10 6 and 4.3 × 10 6 tonnes of concrete and up to 95 tonnes of dysprosium by 2050. Steel demand is anticipated to increase between 300 and 400% during this decade compared to the baseline decade of the 2010s; the decade of 2030-2040 has the highest demand for materials. The metals with higher depletion rates and requiring urgent systematic monitoring are Bi, Cr, In, Li, Mo, Ni, and Zn. Although not making the deployment of any technology impossible, the availability of some metals will hinder the large-scale adoption of some technologies. The demand for metals will continue to increase in the upcoming decades, so it is imperative to invest in research for (i) technological advances to reduce the material intensity in solar PV and wind technologies and (ii) geological knowledge improvements potentially resulting in new mineral resources discoveries, also expanding the known reserves needed to mitigate the foreseen supply risks.
... The extraction of metals through mining operations has become an indispensable activity in recent days to provide raw materials to sustain our society (Jowitt et al., 2020) and to achieve energy transition (Graedel et al., 2015). Over the lasts decades the consumption of materials has increased (Watari et al., 2021) and the annual production of metallic elements and alloys is approximately 2 billion metric tonnes (Raabe, 2023), representing 30 % of the CO 2 emissions of the industrial sector (Raabe et al., 2019). ...
... Prospecting for mineral resources and their extraction from the seabed, known as seabed mining, has attracted much attention in recent years [1][2][3][4][5]. With depleting mineral reserves [6,7], seabed mining is a promising opportunity to meet the growing demand for metals and minerals [8][9][10]. However, the economic viability of seabed mining projects largely depends on various factors, in particular the effective economic drivers (Figure 1). ...
Introduction. Seabed mining is attracting increasing attention as a potential source of precious minerals and metals to meet growing global demand. The vast and largely unexplored seabed mineral deposits present a unique opportunity to access valuable resources that are essential for various industries, including advanced technologies. However, the pursuit of seabed mining is not solely driven by resource availability. Economic drivers play a decisive role in shaping the process of prospecting and further development of a deposit. Research objective is to study various economic drivers determining the feasibility of seabed mining and highlight their impact on the industry. Results. Economic drivers that provide impulses for seabed mining were outlined, namely resource scarcity and growing demand for critical minerals, market fl uctuations and technological advances, as well as the state's independence from raw material import and possibility to generate employment. All of those are clear economic drivers of prospecting and seabed deposits development with an untapped potential to meet global demand. The study presents major economic drivers of seabed mining and their detailed analysis. Conclusions. Prospecting and seabed mining project development offer a potentiality to meet the growing global demand for minerals and metals, especially for critical elements required for various industries. It should be noted that seabed mining economic drivers understanding and optimization is vital for all parties concerned: subsoil users, politicians and prospectors. By applying methods of sustainable development, environmental management, and international cooperation, it is possible to maximize benefi ts while mitigating potential environmental risks. The paper sets a vector for further in-depth study of the economic drivers discussed.
... However, it is economics, not geology, that define what companies report as 'reserves' (these are legally defined as 'economically extractable' bodies of mineral resources), and it is these figures upon which pessimistic perspectives declaring that we are 'running out' are erroneously based. Published studies show that geological resources are likely to be much higher than any future demands [30,31] and that the absolute exhaustion of the planet's metals and minerals will not be the major factor limiting the supply of raw materials. Indeed, for copper, the estimates for geologically feasible geological models suggest that currently 'undiscovered' copper deposits are highly likely to constitute more than 40 times the currently identified resources [32,33]. ...
... However, the waning success in deposit discovery (Figure 3) suggests that we are not finding these 'undiscovered' resources in a timely fashion. much higher than any future demands [30,31] and that the absolute exhaustion of the planet's metals and minerals will not be the major factor limiting the supply of raw materials. Indeed, for copper, the estimates for geologically feasible geological models suggest that currently 'undiscovered' copper deposits are highly likely to constitute more than 40 times the currently identified resources [32,33]. ...
Clean technologies and infrastructure for our low-carbon, green future carry intense mineral demands. The ambition remains to recycle and reuse as much as we can; however, newly mined resources will be required in the near term despite the massive improvements in the reuse and recycling of existing end-of-use products and wastes. Growth trends suggest that mining will still play a role after 2050 since the demand for metals will increase as the developing world moves toward a per capita usage of materials comparable to that of the developed world. There are sufficient geological resources to deliver the required mineral commodities, but the need to mine must be balanced with the requirement to tackle environmental and social governance issues and to deliver sustainable development goals, ensuring that outcomes are beneficial for both the people and planet. Currently, the lead time to develop new mines following discovery is around 16 years, and this needs to be reduced. New approaches to designing and evaluating mining projects embracing social, biodiversity, and life cycle analysis aspects are pivotal. New frontiers for supply should include neglected mined wastes with recoverable components and unconventional new deposits. New processing technologies that involve less invasive, lower energy and cleaner methodologies need to be explored, and developing such methodologies will benefit from using nature-based solutions like bioprocessing for both mineral recovery and for developing sustainable landscapes post mining. Part of the new ambition would be to seek opportunities for more regulated mining areas in our own backyard, thinking particularly of old mineral districts of Europe, rather than relying on sources with potentially and less controllable, fragile, and problematic supply chains. The current debate about the potential of mining our deep ocean, as an alternative to terrestrial sources needs to be resolved and based on a broader analysis; we can then make balanced societal choices about the metal and mineral supply from the different sources that will be able to deliver the green economy while providing a net-positive deal for the planet and its people.
... 'years left') decreasing over time but still remaining Table 1. Estimated metal (Li, Co, Ni, Mn) and graphite (C) requirements for the production of lithium-ion battery cathodes; adapted from Jowitt (2023) Battery composition Li (kg/kWh) Mn (kg/kWh) Co (kg/kWh) Ni (kg/kWh) C (kg/kWh) Gravimetric energy density ( at 162 or so times reserves, significantly higher than for a number of other key commodities such as the base metals (Jowitt et al. 2020). The uncertainty over supply and demand balances for critical metals with small sized sectors such as lithium can be demonstrated by considering that a number of lithium projects are under development globally, including those at Thacker Pass and Rhyolite Ridge. ...
Some metals necessary to deliver renewable energy are considered critical. Metal criticality is a major factor in achieving energy decarbonisation, leading to efforts to make metals uncritical . Among the most critical is lithium. Like many critical metals, lithium represents a small-scale market experiencing significant demand increase causing price and supply volatility, and hindering necessary transformative investment. Global lithium demand is soaring, with current supply now dominated by pegmatite-sourced lithium hydroxide. Clay extraction has yet to be industrially proven, thus there remains uncertainty from where and in what quantity future lithium supply will come, and whether lithium remains critical, however geoscience research is best focused on pegmatite and clay-sourced lithium to improve discovery and extraction. Of five lithium criticality scenarios (business as usual; clays onstream; everything plus recycling; shift away from lithium; black swan event), only two project a longer-term criticality reduction. However, few metals will be critical over the very long term as techno-economic and ESG challenges can be overcome and/or metal demand will be structurally adjusted by substitution. Although criticality may be a short to medium term barrier to the energy transition, effective research and overall market forces will reduce the majority of mineral criticality over the longer term.
Thematic collection: This article is part of The energy-critical metals for a low carbon transition collection available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/topic/collections/critical-metals
