![]() ![]() Should mining projects be lauded just because they’re mining for components used in electric vehicles or other environmentally friendly technologies? “I think it’s important not to get too caught up in that,” said Josh Johnson, a senior conservation associate at the Idaho Conservation League, an environmental group. “I think it’s very critical that we mine not only cobalt in Idaho, and in America, but the other precious and critical minerals.”īut some believe this framing warrants caution. Mining companies are targeting the West especially because of its wide swaths of public land and history of mining. Anderson worked on the Idaho project’s early feasibility studies for a different company in the 1990s. “The fact that we don’t truly produce the metals we need is a problem,” said Corby Anderson, a professor at the Colorado School of Mines who specializes in extractive metallurgy. In order to be a truly secure supply chain, processing, refining and manufacturing would all have to happen in the U.S. Cobalt is often then shipped to China, where it is put into lithium-ion batteries. Supply chain security, however, is far from complete: The cobalt concentrate pulled from the ground at the Jervois mine, complicated by the presence of arsenic, will be processed in Brazil due to a lack of U.S. The new mine and processing facility is expected to produce enough cobalt concentrate for 400,000 vehicles, according to Jervois’ general manager Matt Lengerich. It is considered a material supply-chain risk by the Department of Energy - the world’s top producers are the Democratic Republic of Congo and Russia. Cobalt is a necessary component in many EV battery packs, which can contain up to 40 pounds of the element. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, told the Idaho Statesman in a recent interview. ![]() “I think it’s very critical that we mine not only cobalt in Idaho, and in America, but the other precious and critical minerals,” U.S. boom is further fueled by the Inflation Reduction Act: Its electric vehicle credit only applies for cars with domestically mined battery materials, like cobalt from the new Idaho facility.Īs a result, mines sprouting up across the West are being billed by politicians as essential to decarbonize the energy grid. That amounts to about 3 billion tons of minerals and metals needed to deploy technologies necessary to keep the planet under 2 degrees Celsius of warming. “Modern life uses more metals and minerals than ever before.” And Idaho’s cobalt development comes amid a surge of interest in minerals used for electric vehicles, solar panels and lithium-ion batteries, in addition to everyday technologies like cellphones and laptops.Ī World Bank report estimates the production of green metals could increase by 500% to meet demand for clean energy. “We’re producing more metal than we ever have done at any other point in human history,” said Simon Jowitt, an economic geologist at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Jervois’ Idaho Cobalt Operations is unique in its focus: cobalt is usually a byproduct of nickel or copper and not a mine’s primary objective.ĭemand for these minerals has ballooned in the last several decades. Projects in the works range from copper and manganese mines in Arizona to a proposed lithium mine in Nevada. These modern prospectors are focused on so-called green metals like cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel and rare earth elements that are used in clean energy applications. The new mine, which will be at full operating capacity in 2023, is part of a burgeoning Western mineral rush. 7, Australia-based Jervois Global opened the only cobalt mine in the U.S. And miners are interested in that cobalt: a hard, brittle metal used in electric vehicle batteries. ![]() Idaho’s Cobalt Belt is a 34-mile-long desirable stretch of ore tucked under the Salmon River Mountains that’s considered “globally significant” by mining companies. ![]()
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