As the global community pivots from fossil fuels to mitigate climate change, renewable energies such as solar, wind, and electric vehicles have become crucial. Yet, these technologies depend on precious metals, with their extraction expected to surge by 60% by 2060, putting immense strain on ecosystems due to their significant role in water scarcity and biodiversity loss. Our modern lifestyle, reliant on everything from smartphones to fertilizers, further amplifies mining's environmental footprint. To mitigate this, we must curb consumption and adopt more sustainable mining practices. This narrative will explore mining's pervasive impact and propose ways to harmonize resource demand with ecological preservation (Nelson, 2024).
From Mine to Farm to Table
Every piece of material we interact with in our daily lives has been mined if it wasn’t farmed. However, with a population of over 8 billion hungry humans, even our farmed goods require minerals. According to Geologist/ROM Technician Veronica Di Cecco, fertilizer contributes to a 30% increase in food production. This boost in production is essential for sustaining our current growing global population. It would not be possible without essential minerals like phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) which are critical elements of fertilizer.
[Pictured: Sylvite containing potassium]
Nevertheless, the current scale at which these elements are extracted from the Earth is unsustainable. One study found that in 2019, roughly 250 million tons of phosphorus rock was being scraped off the Earth annually by phosphorus mines (Egan, 2023).
In addition, the geopolitical landscape has an incredibly significant influence on the availability of these nutrients within the global market. Historically, Russia and Belarus have been the top producers of potassium (Potash) for fertilizers. However, due to war sanctions put in place during the latest conflict, Canada has now become the world's largest producer of potassium.
The Power of Rocks
The unique physical and chemical properties of minerals allows us to transform matter into indispensable tools and infrastructures that allow all of us to improve our lives in a variety of ways. This was already the case 2.6 million years ago when the first tools were invented by early humans.
[Pictured: Lepidolite containing lithium]
Nowadays, minerals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel make up our batteries, bridges, vehicles, or train rails. They are found in our kitchen, whether made of stainless steel, cast iron, or ceramic. Materials such as gypsum and feldspar are used to build, insulate, and heat our homes.
[Pictured: Spodumene containing lithium]
Transitioning to green energy paradoxically increases our reliance on minerals, essential for renewable technologies like solar panels and electric vehicles. This shift aims to reduce fossil fuel dependence but challenges us to find sustainable mining solutions to avoid trading one environmental issue for another.
[Pictured: Spodumene containing lithium]
GRWM (Get Ready With Me)
Mined minerals appear in all the products that we use in our daily lives, including makeup and skincare. For instance, the mineral mica is used in cosmetics for its shimmering properties, adding sparkle to eyeshadows and lipsticks. Both titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are used in foundation, sunscreen, and lip products to provide UV protection and skin soothing properties.
[Pictured: Eye shadow containing mica]
Skincare is also reliant on mined minerals like titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, sulfur, magnesium, and silica. These minerals provide a variety of therapeutic benefits to our skin—Including, antimicrobial properties, oil absorption, UV protection, relaxing muscles, and reflecting light.
[Pictured: Mica]
Despite enhancing products that help us look and feel our best, the use of mined minerals (at our current rate of consumption) raises questions around ethically sourcing ingredients for overall sustainability within the beauty industry.
The Environmental Impacts of Mining
To transform minerals into all these daily products requires a long and delicate process, potentially causing irreversible environmental impacts. Our planet is maintained by natural chemical exchanges among its aquatic, atmospheric, and terrestrial compartments. The sudden and extensive extraction of materials, which took millions of years to form, poses an evident risk of disrupting these global ecosystems.
Each ton of copper extracted generates about 99 tons of waste, including overburden and processing residues, leading to pollution from heavy metals and other contaminants. Processes like grinding and chemical treatment can release fine particles and potentially impact human health due to their widespread dispersion and ability to penetrate living organisms.
[Pictured: Copper]
Moreover, elements resulting from mining, such as phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), are spread on our soils and can create nutrient surpluses once they are drained by watersheds into our aquatic compartments, leading to increased pollution of our water systems and the impoverishment of our soils.
[Pictured: Azurite, ore of copper]
HUMANS AS A GEOLOGICAL INFLUENCE
So much are we altering the planet through extraction and fossil fuel usage, that many scientists and geologists have proposed a new geologic era that we have entered, called the Anthropocene.
[Pictured: Plastiglomerates]
In the Anthropocene era, humans are the primary agents of significant global change. Evidence of this includes the discovery of 'plastiglomerates', a new type of rock formed by melting plastic and sand under beach fires in Hawaii, potentially marking our era in future sedimentary records.
OUR ROLE AS CONSUMERS
There is not enough minerals to sustain our current level of consumption. We cannot all have new cars, an iPhone every year and single-family homes.
People do not like being told what to do and will keep doing what they want. A sin tax is a good way to do this.
A sin tax is imposed on products and services considered detrimental to society.
Veronica Di Cecco, Katherine Dunnell (ROM geology technicians)
As the population expands, so does the demand for resources, creating a challenge for mining companies. With the increased necessity to maintain a consistent supply of minerals, metals, oil, and gas to meet consumer needs, mining firms are also under pressure from environmental groups and governments to minimize mining's environmental footprint and implement ethical, sustainable practices. The balance between fulfilling supply demands and complying with sustainable mining regulations can only be achieved if there is a decrease in the demand for the products produced.
Recycling Minerals
One of the incredibly important facets of mining sustainability is the idea of recycling mined materials infinitely. Many materials like copper can be endlessly recycled and reused as the properties that make them useful don’t degrade over time.
Many mines operate on this assumption and plan for a huge extraction process at the beginning that then dwindles off as more of the material is available for reuse. Currently this process only accounts for ~20% of the demand for mined materials, and it needs to be much higher for it to truly have an impact in reducing the need for new mined materials.
Ethical Mining
In 1972, the Canadian government introduced the Reclamation act, which required all mines to set aside a pool of money that was specifically dedicated to returning the land to its original state. In Australia, Jordan Griffiths, an exploration consultant for Joint Applied Geosciences even noted how often wildlands will grow back lusher than before due to the soil being loosened up, akin to tiling farmland.
Companies can operate with much less regard in countries with less regulation, or by purchasing mined materials from countries where the processes are much more damaging leaving a loophole that any company will take advantage of.
As we navigate the complexities of fulfilling humanity's needs without causing irreversible harm to our planet, the need for a conscientious approach to mining and resource consumption becomes increasingly clear. Balancing the transition to green energy with the preservation of ecosystems and communities requires a collective effort to demand more sustainable practices and reduce our material consumption. Our reflection on these challenges underscores the importance of thoughtful engagement with the resources that sustain our lives, urging us to reconsider what we truly need versus what we desire, in the quest for a more sustainable and equitable future.
SOURCES
Egan, D. (2023). The Devil’s Element, Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance. WW Norton.
Neslen, A. (2024, Jan 31). The Future of Raw Materials Extraction. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/31/raw-materials-extraction-2060-un-report
Katherine Dunnell, Collections Specialist - Earth and Space - Royal Ontario Museum
Veronica Di Cecco, Collections Technician - Earth and Space - Royal Ontario Museum
Jordan Griffiths, an exploration consultant for Joint Applied Geosciences.
All shared credit goes to Monica Paynter, Natasha Chortos, Rajinstan Kamalraj, Charlie Randall, Dorji Phuntsho and Illian Brasselet-Darracq