Though emissions deriving from mining these two elements are lower than those deriving from fossil fuels production, the extraction methods for lithium and cobalt can be very energy intensive – leading to air and water pollution, land degradation, and potential for groundwater contamination.
While the hazards of lithium mining can cause significant harm to the environment during its production, it is still more environmentally friendly than fossil fuels.
The process of extracting lithium consumes significant amounts of water and energy, and lithium mining can pollute the air and water with chemicals and heavy metals. In addition, mining lithium can disrupt wildlife habitats and cause soil erosion, leading to long-term ecological damage.
Most of the current large scale mining for lithium is much worse than drilling for oil. However, they are testing drilling for lithium in brine, under oil. Once an oil well is depleted, they can pump out the brine, extract the lithium, and pump the remaining brine back down a different depleted oil well.
As with all mining, there are concerns about lithium mines, but some experts overstate the potential environmental cost while neglecting to mention a big advantage: mining for lithium is much cleaner than mining for coal. Lithium is also much more efficient.
Though emissions deriving from mining these two elements are lower than those deriving from fossil fuels production, the extraction methods for lithium and cobalt can be very energy intensive – leading to air and water pollution, land degradation, and potential for groundwater contamination.
Oil shale mining
Oil shale is a sedimentary rock containing kerogen which hydrocarbons can be produced. Mining oil shale impacts the environment it can damage the biological land and ecosystems. The thermal heating and combustion generate a lot of material and waste that includes carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas.
lithium mining: Which is more dangerous? Based on what is currently known, fracking is a much more dangerous process than lithium mining, but unfortunately, both seem to be essential to the world today. Many countries, companies, industries, and individuals are dependent on oil and natural gas.
Environmental impact
Most lithium mines in Australia are surface mines. The most immediate impact of these mines is the removal of all plants, soil and wildlife on the site of the mine. Australian lithium extraction has a higher carbon footprint than lithium mining elsewhere.
Nature reports that your average car likely takes up about 8 kilograms of lithium (another number that'll likely decrease over time). After some number crunching, courtesy of Ritchie, you get 2.8 billion EVs from that 22 million tonnes of lithium.
Despite being a relatively new industry, lithium extraction has a track record of land and water pollution, ecosystem destruction and violations against Indigenous and rural communities.
“There's emissions associated with the processes of mining like CO2 emissions creating sulfuric acid and other things used in the mining process — the life cycle of all of these things involves some environmental impact.” The disposal of these batteries also poses a threat to the climate.
Electric car batteries are complex components containing many rare earth elements (REE), like lithium, nickel, cobalt, and graphite. As their name suggests, these materials are difficult to find and extract, requiring intensive mining and even some polluting processes to separate them from the soil.
Lithium-ion batteries contain metals such as cobalt, nickel, and manganese, which are toxic and can contaminate water supplies and ecosystems if they leach out of landfills. Additionally, fires in landfills or battery-recycling facilities have been attributed to inappropriate disposal of lithium-ion batteries.
The production process
Particularly in hard rock mining, for every tonne of mined lithium, 15 tonnes of CO2 are emitted into the air.
The ores from the hard-rock mine Tesla uses contain up to 2.1% lithium. It takes less than 10,000 pounds of material to produce 2,000 pounds of spodumene — a mineral filled with lithium aluminum inosilicate. The maximum amount of lithium a Tesla car battery contains is around 165 pounds.
These side effects include: use of large quantities of water and related pollution; potential increase in carbon dioxide emissions; production of large quantities of mineral waste; increased respiratory problems; alteration of the hydrological cycle. Obviously the economic interests at stake are enormous.
Australia, meanwhile, is a more ancient geology. Lithium-bearing pegmatite deposits are found across the county, in chunks of landmass that collided over hundreds of millennia to form the continent of Australia.
Australia is the world's biggest exporter of lithium with most of it going to China, which dominates the lithium-ion battery production market.
“Direct lithium extraction, a new method, uses almost no water. Another method employs naturally occurring underground steam instead of outside supplies of water. And a third immerses reusable ion-exchange beads to extract the dissolved metal from the salty brines below the surface.”
Lithium toxicity signs are obvious and can be identified and managed easily; however, ignoring it can be fatal. Indeed, in some cases, lithium toxicity can lead to coma, brain damage, or even death. Moreover, lithium can induce serotonin syndrome, a potentially fatal and life-threatening condition[31].
The United States Geological Survey revealed that the world's identified lithium resources are estimated to be around 79 million metric tons, with the largest reserves in Chile, Argentina, and Australia. The estimated amount of lithium needed to meet current demand is only between 0.5 – 1.3 million tons.
Open-pit mining
The excavation usually has stepped sides to ensure the safety of the miners and a wide ramp where equipment can travel, allowing the product to be removed efficiently from the site. Open-pit mining is practical when the ore-bodies of the rock are large and located closer to the surface.
Expert-Verified Answer. C. Subsurface mining is likely the least harmful to the environment.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory, metal mining is the nation's #1 toxic polluter. Mine waste contains toxic substances like arsenic, mercury, and cadmium that are harmful to public health and fish and wildlife when released into the environment.