Cornish mining revival will require vigilance
Environmental writer Mario du Preez welcomes the move to electric vehicles, but warns lithium mining needs to be environmentally-friendly too
PETROL-HEADS take note: electromobility is the future. Miners take note: Cornwall’s renaissance as a mining giant is afoot. Strangely, these two events are linked. How, you may ask? Well, most carmakers have announced ambitious timelines for phasing out petrol and diesel-powered vehicles from their product offerings and replacing them with battery-powered vehicles. For example, BMW predicts that half of its sales will be fully electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030. Across the Atlantic, the Biden administration’s US$2 trillion infrastructure programme includes an allocation of US$174 billion for the development of EVs.
But crucially, EV batteries, which require lithium as a key material input, are the pivot upon which a conversion to EVs succeeds or fails. The concern, however, is that worldwide lithium supplies will battle to keep pace with growing global EV demand. China mines about 10 per cent of annual global lithium production, and processes about twothirds of global mining output, making most countries dependent on it.
Rising diplomatic tensions with China, global supply chain disruptions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the temporary blockage of the Suez Canal, and growing geopolitical uncertainties in other parts of the world have all added credence to the idea and importance of countries developing their own, reliable, domestic EV battery metal supplies.
Luckily for us here in Old Blighty, Cornwall happens to be handsomely endowed with the key EV battery mineral input. Two firms, namely British Lithium and Cornish Lithium, have been exploring the county, which led to the discovery of highpurity lithium deposits. Preliminary drilling tests by British Lithium have revealed a potential supply of 21,000 tonnes per annum, enough to produce more than 30 per cent of the UK’s EV batteries by 2030 (that is, 500,000 EV batteries per year). In addition, early estimates indicate that Cornish Lithium’s efforts may yield a similar yearly tonnage. A 4,500-yearold mining heritage, the availability of the required infrastructure, such as rail, road, and port facilities, and in-situ renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, also bodes well for Cornwall’s mining revolution.
But as an environmentalist, it would be remiss of me not to mention that the lithium industry, like the much-reviled oil and gas industry, is also an extractive endeavour. Lithium is either extracted from hard rocks via open pit mining or from underground brine reservoirs via boreholes or from underground geothermal water sources (i.e. hot springs), such as the one found deep inside Redruth’s Wheal Clifford copper mine. Hard rock mining uses 170m3 of water and releases 15 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of lithium mined, whereas brine extraction from underground reservoirs uses 469m3 of water and releases five tonnes of CO2 per tonne of lithium mined. Extraction of lithium from geothermal waters, on the other hand, produces no CO2 and uses only 3m3 of water per tonne mined.
But we must avoid the temptation of becoming too bold and rigid in our renunciation of anything that temporarily causes the slightest environmental offence, especially if that very thing will benefit the green revolution in the long run. After all, the lithium industry is not the same as the fossil fuel industry since the products of the latter, when used, leaves nothing but polluting and harmful residues behind, whereas the product of the former can be recycled and re-used. In the end, it is up to us, as ordinary, environmentally-aware citizens, to remain vigilant; to monitor the lithium miners in the same way we did, and still do, the oil and gas extractors; and most importantly, to prevent those politicians, who regulate miners, from straying from their remit.