Excerpted from THE SIGNAL Current Affairs.Strange World. August 28/22
The New Gold
| What’s driving a global rush for critical minerals? Lisa Sachs on the environmental challenges of clean technology. |
Lisa Sachs is the director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment at Columbia University and the vice-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Mining & Metals.
According to Sachs, cobalt—along with lithium, copper, nickel, and other critical minerals, as they’re called—are essential for building vitally important new technologies, particularly for the kind of products necessary to reduce fossil-fuel consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions.
Critical minerals are the main building blocks of electric-vehicle batteries and potentially key for producing, distributing, and storing clean, renewable energy. And yet, Sachs says, mining these minerals comes with substantial environmental and social costs.
“Mining has always come at environmental and social costs. It’s inherently extractive, whether it’s underground or open-pit. It requires digging up the Earth, disrupting biodiversity, sometimes at substantial and irreversible scales. Mining and processing require enormous amounts of water, and both divert water from other purposes that can be core to livelihoods. Both discharge waste, too, into waterways used for other purposes, including human consumption and agriculture, with potentially devastating consequences—to people and to marine life. Mining and processing are also very energy-intensive. Most energy for mining comes from fossil-fuel sources. More mining and more processing mean more emissions. And mining has historically been implicated in terrible violations of human rights and social disruptions. If a mine is under or near a community, it can mean the displacement of that community, with major consequences for livelihoods and culture. Heritage sites have infamously been cleared to make way for mines.”
Lisa Sachs
Source: National Mining Association – 101 Constitution Ave. NW Suite 500 East – Washington, DC
There are 66 individual minerals that contribute to the typical computer
but it should be evident that without many minerals, there would be no computers, or televisions. There are others, in addition to those listed.
Computer Component Monitor
Phosphorescent Coating – Transition Metals:
ZnS – Zinc Sulfide
Ag – Silver
Cl – Chlorine Al – Aluminum Cu – Copper
Au – Gold
Y2O2S – Yittrium Sulfate
Eu – Europium
(KF, MgF2): Mn Potasium-Magnesium Floride:
Manganese
(Zn,Cd)S – Zinc Cadmium Sulfate
Zn2SiO4:O4: Mn, As – ZincSilicate, Manganese, Arsenic
Gd2O2S: Tb – Gadolinium Sulfate: Tebrium Y2SiO12:Ce – Yitrium Silicate: Cerium
CRT Glass:
Pb – Lead SiO2
Plastic Case, Keyboard
Thermoplastic – Polypropylene, PVC CaCO2 – additive
TiO2 – White Pigment
Amonium Polyphosphate
Element/Compound
Zn, S
Ag Cl Al Cu
Au
Y
Eu
K, F, Mg, Mn
Cd As
Gd, Tb Ce
Pb Si
Ca Ti P
Mineral Source of Element
Sulfur, Hemmimorphite, Zincite Smithsonite, Franklenite
Ag, Pyrargyrite, Cerargyrite Halite
Bauxite
Chalcopyrite, Boronite, Enargite,
Cuprite, Malachite, Azurite, Chrysocolla, Chalcocite Gold
Alunite, Orthoclase, Nephelite, Leucite, Apophullite; Flourite, Cryolite, Vesuvianite; Lepidolite: Dolomite, Magnesite, Espomite, Spinel, Olivine, Pyrope, Biotite, Talc
Realgar, Orpiment, Niccolite, Cobalite, Arsenopyrite, Tetrahedrite
Monzanite, Orthite
Galena, Cerussite, Anglesite, Pyromorphite Quartz
Calcite, Gypsum, Apatite, Aragonite Rutile, Ilmenite, Titanite
Apetite, Pyromorphite, Wavellite
MINERALS IN TYPICAL COMPUTERS
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Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) Monitors
Pb – Lead
Thin Film Transistors
Ferro Electric Liquid Crystal Indium Tin Oxide
Metal Case
Iron
Flat Screen Plasma Display Monitors
Glass
Pb – Lead
ZnS – Zinc Sulfide Ag – Silver
Cl – Chlorine
Al – Aluminum
Cu – Copper
Au – Gold
Y2O2S – Yittrium Sulfate
Eu – Euopium
(KF, MgF2): Mn Potasium-Magnesium Florite: Manganese
(Zn, Cd) S – Zinc Cadmium Sulfate
Zn2SiO4: Mn, As – ZincSilicate, Manganese, Arsenic
Gd2O2S: Tb – Gadolinium Silicate: Tebrium Y2SiO12: Ce – Yitrium Silicate: Cerium
Printed Circuit Boards, Computer Chips:
Silicon
Cu – Copper
Au – Gold
Ag – Silver Tin
Al – Aluminum
Pb Si Fe Sn In
Fe
Si
Pb Zn, S Ag Cl
Al Cu
Au
Y
Eu
K, F, Mg, Mn
Cd As
Gd, Tb Ce
Si Cu
Au Ag Sn Al
Galena, Cerussite, Anglesite, Pyromorphite Quartz
Hematite
Cassiterite,
Sphalerite (Commonly found with Zinc) Magnetite, Limonite
Quartz
Galena, Cerussite, Anglesite, Pyromorphite
Sulfur, Hemmimorphite, Zincite, Smithsonite, Franklenite Ag, Pyrargyrite, Cerargyrite
Halite
Bauxite
Chalcopyrite, Boronite, Enargite, Cuprite, Malachite, Azurite,
Chryssocolla, Chalcocite Gold
Euxenite
Euxenite
Alunite, Orthoclase, Nephelite, Leucite,
Apophullite; Flourite, Cryolite, Vesuvianite; Lepidolite: Dolomite, Magnesite, Espomite, Spinel, Olivine, Pyrope, Biotite, Talc
Realgar, Orpiment, Niccolite, Cobalite Arsenopyrite, Tetrahedrite
Monzanite, Orthite
Quartz
Chalcopyrite, Boronite, Enargite, Cuprite, Malachite,
Azurite, Chrysocolla, Chalcocite Gold
Ag, Pyrargyrite, Cerargyrite Cassiterite
Bauxite