Sustainable Supply of Rare Earth Minerals Key to Low-Carbon Energy Future
Within international waters, metallic nodules found in the vast Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Pacific as well as in cobalt and tellurium crusts, found in seamounts worldwide, provide some of the richest deposits of metals for green technologies.
But minerals in more pristine and distinctive ecosystems near hydrothermal vents should remain off-limits for mineral extraction for the foreseeable future, the researchers add.
Morgan Bazilian, Professor and Director of the Payne Institute for Public Policy, Colorado School of Mines, said: “As the global energy landscape changes, it is becoming more mineral and metal intensive. Thus, the sustainability and security of material supply chains is essential to supporting the energy transition. How we shape that pathway will have important consequences for everything from the environment, to development, and geopolitics.”
The study’s authors also recommend:
• Enhance and coordinate international agreements on responsible mining and traceability in order to establish mineral supply justice.
• Greatly expand the recycling and reuse of rare minerals to extend the lifetimes of products and stretch out reserves.
• Diversify mineral supply scale to incorporate both small and large-scale operations while allowing miners to have control over mineral revenue through stronger benefit sharing mechanisms and access to markets.
• Focus development donor policies to recognize the livelihood potential of mining in areas of extreme poverty rather than just regulating the sector for tax revenues.
• Stipulate stronger Extended Producer Responsibility for products that use valuable rare minerals. This can ensure that responsibility for the entire lifespan of a product including at the end of its usefulness shifts from users or waste managers to major producers such as Apple, Samsung, and Toshiba.
• Materials security of essential minerals and metals to be actively incorporated into formal climate planning including establishing a list of “critical minerals” for energy security (which is already done to some degree by the European Union and United States).
Saleem Ali, Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware, said: “Our analysis is aimed at galvanizing international policy-makers to include mineral supply concerns for green technologies in climate change negotiations. We need to build on the resolution on mineral governance passed at the United Nations Environment Assembly in 2019 and operationalize a clear action plan on supply chain security for a low carbon transition.”
Benoit Nemery, Emeritus Professor at the Centre for Environment and Health at KU Leuven, said: “Let’s not achieve a low-carbon future at the expense of mineworkers and public health.”
The Expected Rising Demands for a Decarbonized Future
Between 2015 and 2050, the global EV stock needs to jump from 1.2 million light-duty passenger cars to 965 million passenger cars
For the same period, battery storage capacity needs to climb from 0.5 gigawatt-hour (GWh) to 12,380 GWh while the amount of installed solar photovoltaic capacity must rise from 223 GW to more than 7100 GW.
Another research study has predicted increases in demand for materials for EV batteries of 87,000 percent, 1000 percent for wind power, and 3000 percent for solar cells and photovoltaics between 2015 and 2060.
