global rush…

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