MICHAEL KLARE: Lithium, Cobalt, and Rare Earths
According to the IEA, just one country, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC), currently supplies more than 80% of the world’s
cobalt, and another — China — 70% of its rare-earth elements. Similarly,
lithium production is largely in two countries, Argentina and Chile, which
jointly account for nearly 80% of world supply, while four countries —
Argentina, Chile, the DRC, and Peru — provide most of our copper. In other
words, such future supplies are far more concentrated in far fewer lands than
petroleum and natural gas, leading IEA analysts to worry about future struggles
over the world’s access to them...
Thanks to its very name — renewable energy — we can picture a time in the not-too-distant future when our need for non-renewable fuels like oil, natural gas, and coal will vanish. Indeed, the Biden administration has announced a breakthrough target of 2035 for fully eliminating U.S. reliance on those non-renewable fuels for the generation of electricity. That would be accomplished by “deploying carbon-pollution-free electricity-generating resources,” primarily the everlasting power of the wind and sun.
With other nations moving in a similar direction, it’s
tempting to conclude that the days when competition over finite supplies of
energy was a recurring source of conflict will soon draw to a close.
Unfortunately, think again: while the sun and wind are indeed infinitely
renewable, the materials needed to convert those resources into electricity —
minerals like cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, and the rare-earth elements, or
REEs — are anything but. Some of them, in fact, are far scarcer than petroleum,
suggesting that global strife over vital resources may not, in fact, disappear
in the Age of Renewables.
To appreciate this unexpected paradox, it’s necessary to
explore how wind and solar power are converted into usable forms of electricity
and propulsion. Solar power is largely collected by photovoltaic cells, often
deployed in vast arrays, while the wind is harvested by giant turbines,
typically deployed in extensive wind farms. To use electricity in
transportation, cars and trucks must be equipped with advanced batteries
capable of holding a charge over long distances. Each one of these
devices uses substantial amounts of copper for
electrical transmission, as well as a variety of other non-renewable minerals.
Those wind turbines, for instance, require manganese, molybdenum, nickel, zinc,
and rare-earth elements for their electrical generators, while electric
vehicles (EVs) need cobalt, graphite, lithium, manganese, and rare earths for
their engines and batteries…
https://tomdispatch.com/lithium-cobalt-and-rare-earths/
TOM
ENGELHARDT: A World at the Edge
