Power Metal review: The dilemma of mining more metals so we can ditch fossil fuels

by Pelican Press
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Power Metal review: The dilemma of mining more metals so we can ditch fossil fuels

SALAR DE ATACAMA, CHILE - AUGUST 24: A lithium mine supervisor inspects an evaporation pond of lithium-rich brine in the Atacama Desert on August 24, 2022 in Salar de Atacama, Chile. Albemarle Corporation, based in Charlotte, N.C. is expanding mining operations at their Salar Plant to meet the rising global demand for lithium carbonate, a main component in the manufacture of batteries, increasingly for electric vehicles. To extract the lithium, natural brine is pumped from under the salt flats to a series of evaporation ponds. During an 18-month process, the liquid s moved through 15 ponds, eventually turning from blue to yellow with a lithium concentration of 6 percent. It is then trucked to an Albemarle chemical plant in Antofagasta, where it is processed into battery grade lithium carbonate powder and shipped out internationally. The evaporation process produces large quantities of salt byproduct, much of which is then reprocessed and sold. Chile is the second largest global producer of lithium, after Australia. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Lithium for batteries being extracted in the Atacama desert, Chile

John Moore/Getty Images

Power Metal
Vince Beiser (Wildfire Books (UK, 20 November); Riverhead Books, (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”…



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