Mineral Mining Required For Our Electrified Future Will Be Electric Too
Mining giants have spoken and zero-carbon mines will be electric, both battery and tied to wires
Solving climate change includes solving transportation emissions. And all ground transportation will be part of electrifying everything everywhere all at once. Mining equipment is no different and the journey has already started.
Mining involves among the most extreme energy requirements and energy availability issues of any industrial process on earth. Billions of tons of rock have to be shattered, removed from mines, crushed and processed to extract the minerals and chemicals we depend on.
Aluminum is made from bauxite, the most common element in the Earth’s crust, with four to five metric tons of ore per ton of end metal. A ton of steel requires up to two tons of reasonable grade iron ore. These elements are common in the earth’s crust. Copper returns kilograms of metal per ton of ore. Rarer elements like gold or platinum see grams of metal per ton of ore.
Those are the hard rock metals. Soft rock mining for potash, some uranium and probably limestone will certainly continue, with open pit, long wall, short wall, room and pillar and other techniques applied.
