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Hardrock mining is seeing a resurgence of interest in the West as society seeks sources of materials important to electric vehicles, renewable energy production and storage, and other technologies key to combating the climate crisis. But extracting these materials is not without challenges and risks, many of which threaten to repeat mistakes of the past.
On land sacred to the San Carlos Apache Tribe in southern Arizona, the proposed Resolution mine would produce significant amounts of copper — a necessary component of many renewable energy technologies — and serve as an important source of jobs and associated economic activity for the surrounding community. But the mine faces opposition from the Tribe and from environmental groups who contend that the costs to endangered species and their habitats, and the impacts to water sources, outweigh the benefits of the project. As the project has progressed, the Save Oak Flat Act, which would prevent the land exchange necessary to move forward with the project, has languished in Congress since it was first introduced in 2015.
Meanwhile, in Utah, Canada-based Western Uranium and Vanadium Corp. has announced that it has acquired property and plans to build a mill in Emery County, Utah that will recover uranium and vanadium from ore mined in Colorado and elsewhere. The company stated that "the uranium market is in the early stages of a sustained upswing" and that demand is projected to exceed supply. The company also believes that its new uranium milling process will enable it to profitably mill uranium ore that would have been uneconomical to mill at current uranium prices with traditional milling technology. The mill is also being designed to recover cobalt, an important component of batteries for electric vehicles and other technologies, as part of its ore-processing operations, according to the company's press release.
As the country strives to meet the climate goals set by the Inflation Reduction Act and by the Paris Climate Agreement, responsible mining can and should be a part of the solution. But unless mining laws and regulations are updated, the West will be bringing 19th-century tools to a 21st-century fight, and Western communities will see history repeated even as they are still working to address the mistakes of the past.
New report finds 99 percent of coal plants more expensive than renewables
Despite the renewed interest in mining, there's one resource that's unlikely to see a sustained upswing in demand: coal. A new report from Energy Innovation finds that in 99 percent of cases, continuing to operate a coal-fired power plant is more expensive than building and operating a new wind or solar facility. This is an increase from an earlier analysis in 2019 that found that 62 percent of coal plants were more expensive than renewables. The study also finds that replacing coal-fired facilities with renewable energy facilities could generate up to $589 billion in investment, in part by leveraging tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Building new renewable generation and storage facilities at or near the sites of existing coal plants can keep costs even lower while taking advantage of already-disturbed land. Xcel Energy recently announced a plan to do just that: the company is building a battery facility, intended to store energy generated from wind and solar, at the site of a coal-fired power plant that is set to retire by 2030.
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I genuinely believe that we are at an impasse, and we’re all headed to a very dark place.”
