Will #ClimateBill lead to more #mining in #Virginia?
Four of the five 'critical minerals' for electric vehicle #EV batteries have been mined in the state in the past. Will their economics now change?
by Dwayne Yancey August 18, 2022
"The key to electric vehicle #batteries are five so-called 'critical minerals' – #lithium, #nickel, #cobalt, #manganese and #graphite. Four of these five minerals have been mined in Virginia in the past; the fifth (lithium) is suspected in Virginia but has yet to be proven. Will increased demand for these minerals make these deposits economically viable again?
"To some extent, this is unknowable because we don’t know what that demand – and those future prices – will be. In theory, if a single fleck of something is worth a billion dollars, then some company could spend a half billion to dig it out and still make a fortune. We also don’t know whether mining for these minerals will be allowed in Virginia. There’s a large deposit of #uranium in Virginia that’s never been mined and probably won’t be.
"In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court #SCOTUS upheld Virginia’s moratorium on #UraniumMining. There’s a #gold vein in Virginia, too, that’s been mined in the past. There’s also a state study underway over whether to allow or ban gold mining in the future. Even just the potential of gold mining has stirred controversy in Buckingham County. All the minerals we’ll deal with today occur outside the traditional coal-mining country of Southwest Virginia, so who knows what the state or local reaction will be if and when someone proposes to open a mine somewhere else?
"So let’s look at what we do know.
"Electric vehicles may be #EnvironmentallyFriendly in the sense that they’re not spewing #carbon into the atmosphere, but they do require six times more #minerals than conventional vehicles, according to the International Energy Administration – so a lot more #mining will be needed to support electric vehicles than the ones we have now. Mining is generally not considered an environmentally friendly thing to do so here’s a classic trade-off: A green-friendly climate bill is actually going to promote more mining somewhere, if not in the #UnitedStates then somewhere on the planet."
https://cardinalnews.org/2022/08/18/will-climate-bill-lead-to-more-mining-in-virginia/
#ExtractiveMining #OpenPitMining #WaterIsLife #Greenwashing
