The Dark Side of Critical Minerals

I first saw a photo similar to this one in an article about Cobalt in National Geographic (original by Mark Thiessen). The battery looked like a well-aged tree, and I was intrigued because generally when you saw a Lithium battery in half it tends to spontaneously combust. If you scroll down, I've included a short video about how I replicated this photo, beware there are some safety concerns.

Scarcity remains a constant theme for the Energy industry. Whether this be through the depleting reserves of fossil fuels or the increasing demand for key energy materials, it would seem that, as a species, we're intent on extracting every last nodule of interest from the Earth's crush until the world ends up as a large ball of silica (SiO2), mostly devoid of life. In my mind, scientific research that bridges the basic energy sciences, engineering, and earth science is one of the most important efforts we can be pouring our resources into.

The environmental impacts of mining, and needs for research are fairly well documented, the harder and darker side of this problem is the human one. In 2020, the World Economic Form released a report on human rights and child labor issues associated with Cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While Cobalt specifically has received significant media attention, ethical sourcing is a significant concern across the critical materials supply chain (Transition Minerals Tracker, 2022).

It's important to acknowledge that clean processing and extraction technologies alone will not solve the humanitarian issues in the critical minerals supply chain. Research has focused largely on reducing the carbon emissions associated with processing, recycling of waste streams for added supply, and the extraction of critical minerals from traditionally hard-to-tap sources. Recycling has reduced the demand for new extraction, but total mineral demand remains a key issue; the demand for Lithium alone in 2050 is expected to rise to over 500% of current global production (World Bank, USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2021, via Visual Capitalist). The 282.5 billion tons of produced tailings is also causing significant environmental concern.

Much of the traceability that is becoming prevelant in materials sourcing started with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Though key drivers such as the Dodd-Frank Act (2010) and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance didn't start until much later, the UDHR provided the basis for many modern reformative frameworks. Legislative frameworks focused on traceability and tools provided by projects like the Responsible Materials Initiative (RMI) have increased disengagement between companies and exploitative Artisan and Small-Scale Mines (ASMs), though there's still much work to be done on this front. Disengagement is important, but many argue it fails to address the root causes of exploitative practices.

Reform efforts will be central to the future of mining; the ideal case includes formalizing ASMs to reduce exploitative practices while still providing livelihood to local communities. However, developing robust methods to implement reform is still an open challenge: many projects that were once considered successful formalization pilots have since collapsed. Due to financial issues caused by a sharp decline in demand, the Mutoshi Cobalt Project collapsed after the COVID-19 pandemic and practices in the mine have since largely reverted to their previously unregulated state; mines in the greater Mutoshi area never saw the benefits of the formalization—which was intended to be expanded—resulting in wider safety, labor, and gender pay gap issues. There is also significant concern that formalization, in any form, may promote industrial and financial goals over community livelihoods, leading to inequitable formalization and "Green Colonialism."

In terms of what we can and should do: it's important to acknowledge that funding for reform programs generally comes from mining companies, materials suppliers, and purchasers that build ASM reform into their supply chains. This means that consumer buying power and the right legislation can be a force to drive the development of robust, community-centered reform programs.

The local element is key, and often underestimated. The voices and needs of miners and their families should be the top priority in reform efforts. Many prior projects have shown that local, community-led efforts with community buy-in—while perhaps require more overhead to initiate—lead to more sustainable long-term models because of how intertwined these industries are with the communities. While not explicitly about Cobalt mining, Our Common Nature hosted by Ana González and Yo-Yo Ma is an incredible podcast that explores this connectedness with coal miners in West Virginia, and it's well worth a listen.

This points to a few calls to action. On the research side, especially in the development of new energy technologies, increasing the focus on using earth-abundant materials and updating the impact tracking of potential rare earth minerals (REE) use beyond just carbon emissions to include humanitarian impacts is paramount. Recycling should also be a research priority; minerals heavily associated with ASMs including Nickel (1.4%), Lithium (2.9%), Cobalt (10.4%), and Rare Earth Elements (<1%) generally see very low recycling rates, especially compared to their commodity counterparts. This is partially due to the lack of collection infrastructure, but also due to the fact that these materials generally exist in trace quantities in products making them difficult to separate economically. The recycling of products to separate these trace elements is a key area where scientific and engineering research can make an impact.

But this also points to the need for consumer and corporate accountability; the tools to evaluate where the materials in products are coming from exist. This applies both to day-to-day consumer products and procurement/supply chains in companies of all sizes. Admittedly this is a little abstract, but it's important not to underestimate the power of behavioral and economic drivers. When purchasing moves towards ethical and sustainable materials sources this pushes companies to seek out those sources. When companies seek out those sources, especially domestic ones, this incentivizes government investment, and that further incentivizes more funding for research in these areas. It's a large problem, but we can, and should, start small.

But large strides remain in the rethinking and revitalization of reform programs. Programs like the Alliance for Responsible Mining's CRAFT framework are a start, but more research that uncovers the needs of communities directly associated with Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining is needed to prevent local environmental damage and resource drain from the communities that are affected the most.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/067a81_e4dd51a2e2f745b6a03b8e90cfeb2b49/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

If you do choose to replicate this photo, please be aware of a few things:

1. The battery needs to be fully discharged, and I mean completely. It's best to leave it connected to the power resistor for a few hours, and ensure a 0V reading with a multimeter before trying to breach the casing.

2. These batteries tend to contain some pretty hazardous chemicals for your health, wear a respirator, wear gloves when not using the saw or sander (no gloves on machine tools), and wash your hands thoroughly after handling.

3. Leaving these batteries in the open air on a shelf for display is a health hazard. I would recommend sealing it in a chemically inert, photographic epoxy like ultraclear.

Thanks, as always, for reading.