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Does hard rock mining release CO2 inherently or does it just require energy? If it's just energy, which seems like to me, energy might be supplied by hydrogen o

Does hard rock mining release CO2 inherently or does it just require energy? If it's just energy, which seems like to me, energy might be supplied by hydrogen or other CO2-free sources. Water use compared to personal use isn't that important. Most water used by an industrial society is used in agriculture and that's probably true for Chile. I think what's really going on here is that the current methods of producing lithium are really not very environmentally harmful. Agreed. The negative impact of mining generally comes from companies incentivized to cut corners. Strong regulations requiring waste be contained, etc, are what needed. The worst problem is that large companies do cost arbitrage across the world, incentivizing countries to lower their standards - why all the "rare earth" mining went to China when they were willing cut corners and then the West screamed bloody murder when China stopped wanting to be the world's garbage dump.

lacker 6y ago
Water use compared to personal use isn't that important. Most water used by an industrial society is used in agriculture Oh that's a good point. So for comparison, a ton of wheat takes about 1300 cubic meters of water, so 8x the water per ton as lithium. That wheat sells for about $200, so lithium is using orders of magnitude less water per dollar of revenue. This comparison makes lithium mining look even more environmentally friendly than comparing it to urban use does. Of course these are all estimates based on brief internet research so the true numbers could be different. I couldn't figure out from Google where exactly the CO2 emissions from lithium mining comes from - that sort of thing would have been great for the actual professional article to provide.
- throwaway201103 6y ago
  Doesn't the water for the wheat mostly fall naturally from the sky? I live in farm country and while some fields have irrigation systems, most do not.
  - fennecfoxen 6y ago
    It may fall from the sky, but if you use it to grow wheat you're reducing what's going to be available downstream. There's a lot of water-politics about this in the American west, and you might not even be entitled to use the rainwater that falls on your own land.
    - throwaway894345 6y ago
      Pretty sure the OP is talking about rain that falls directly on the fields. That’s how crops are grown in the midwest.
bigger_cheese 6y ago
Water used in Mining also has an environmental impact - wet processing of minerals creates "tailings", which is essentially contaminated waste water which then needs to be stored somewhere usually in a dam. A lot of the largest environmental disasters in recent history have been caused by tailings dams.
AtlasBarfed 6y ago
I would think the geothermal water can be used for energy at the same time it's used for lithium extraction.

lacker 6y ago

Water use compared to personal use isn't that important. Most water used by an industrial society is used in agriculture Oh that's a good point. So for comparison, a ton of wheat takes about 1300 cubic meters of water, so 8x the water per ton as lithium. That wheat sells for about $200, so lithium is using orders of magnitude less water per dollar of revenue. This comparison makes lithium mining look even more environmentally friendly than comparing it to urban use does. Of course these are all estimates based on brief internet research so the true numbers could be different. I couldn't figure out from Google where exactly the CO2 emissions from lithium mining comes from - that sort of thing would have been great for the actual professional article to provide.

throwaway201103 6y ago
Doesn't the water for the wheat mostly fall naturally from the sky? I live in farm country and while some fields have irrigation systems, most do not.
- fennecfoxen 6y ago
  It may fall from the sky, but if you use it to grow wheat you're reducing what's going to be available downstream. There's a lot of water-politics about this in the American west, and you might not even be entitled to use the rainwater that falls on your own land.
  - throwaway894345 6y ago
    Pretty sure the OP is talking about rain that falls directly on the fields. That’s how crops are grown in the midwest.

bigger_cheese 6y ago

Water used in Mining also has an environmental impact - wet processing of minerals creates "tailings", which is essentially contaminated waste water which then needs to be stored somewhere usually in a dam. A lot of the largest environmental disasters in recent history have been caused by tailings dams.

AtlasBarfed 6y ago

I would think the geothermal water can be used for energy at the same time it's used for lithium extraction.