This blog was written by Rebecca Paisley, Project Geologist at Cornish Lithium Ltd. Rebecca is a volcanologist turned exploration geologist who is passionate about promoting women in geoscience and STEM careers. You can find her on Twitter @RebeccaPaisley9.
“If it isn’t grown, it must be mined.”
This is a fundamental truth that many of us don’t realise. Everything we use in our day to day lives from the moment we wake up (toothpaste), go to work (car, bus or train), drink a glass of water, message our friends (phone), and come back home (and sit in front of the TV) relies on on a wide range of materials that have been mined out the ground. Mining will be more important than ever this century and this means we need more young geologists, passionate about the environment, to drive the industry in a sustainable direction.
With many nations declaring a climate crisis, pledging to reduce carbon emissions or becoming “net zero” by 2050, it is clear new technologies and lifestyle changes are necessary for us to reach these goals. But electric vehicles and wind turbines don’t grow on trees. A single wind turbine has 1200 tons of concrete, 335 tons of steel, 4.7 tons of copper and 2 tons of rare earth elements. A solar panel contains elements such as silver, neodymium and indium. A battery pack in an electric vehicle can contain 65 kg graphite, 35 kg of copper, 22 kg of nickel and 9 kg of lithium. Take into consideration that there could be 300 million electric vehicles on the road by 2040 and half the world’s energy production could come from renewables (such as wind, solar and geothermal energy) by 2050, this equates to a lot of metals that need to be mined in the coming decades.
This transition to a low carbon future is already happening, but it is not always making headlines. Governments understand the need for using battery technology in cars and energy storage and are supporting the transition. The European Commission has approved a €3.2 billion investment to support research and innovation into battery technology. In the UK, the Faraday Battery Challenge programme has provided £274 million to fund projects developing a new generation batteries that are cost-effective, high-quality and recyclable. As part of this fund I work on a project called Li4UK that aims to address the missing link’s the UK supply chain.
Rebecca in action sampling spring waters in the South West.
Currently the UK and Europe are dependent on materials for batteries coming from China, with the lithium having been mined in Australia or Chile. This means that the lithium in a new electric vehicle in the UK has travelled through several countries and up to 50,000 km before the car has travel a single mile. There are huge carbon emissions associated with the mining, processing and transport within this current supply chain. As part of our project we want to understand if it is possible to mine lithium, process the materials and build the batteries all in the UK so they can be utilised by UK car manufacturers. Having a supply chain based in a single country – using the latest technologies, sustainable mining practices and powered by renewable energies – could reduce the carbon emissions by up to 90%. Geologists and engineers are at the forefront of projects such as these. Yet the public still often associates geologists with environmentally damaging practices in mining and oil and gas.
Mining will be the foundation for our low carbon future, and gas is needed to fuel our societies as we transition to fully renewable energy technologies. Our supply of materials will currently not reach the increasing demands by 2050. We need geoscientists to explore regions of the world for new resources to meet the demands of new technologies. Geologists, and engineers, are key to ensuring this happens sustainably. We understand environmental processes and how to monitor them, and how our actions affect the land and water supplies. We ensure remediation is done correctly. It is the duty of geologists to inform the public of their projects, and to show how vital they are. It is also essential that we hold ourselves to the highest of social and environmental standards. We must engage with a diverse audience who are keen to build a sustainable future and encourage them to take up geology careers in the mining, energy and environmental industries.
To the students deciding which subjects to do at school or university, I encourage you to take geology! To understand how the planet works is the first step to a range of careers, from sustainable mining of vital resources to the study of geological hazards to keep the public safer. For more information I encourage you to interact with scientists online and ask the difficult questions. I also direct you to this TEDx talk on how we need to change the conversation about mining as we transition to a decarbonised economy.
The research and exploration that geologists undertake into the Earth’s energy and mineral resources will be the foundation for a decarbonised future. It is an exciting time to be a geologist!