Mining has big role in creating cleaner supply chain for EVs

According to the EPA, transportation contributes the largest portion of greenhouse gases (29 percent), and of those emissions, 58 percent are from light-duty vehicles and 24 percent are from medium- and heavy-duty trucks.

The good news — on the heels of the hottest summer on record and severe storms across the United States — is that automakers have made bold commitments to zero-emission electric vehicles. But can they keep them when their supply chains are dirty and unsound?

General Motors plans to be a fully carbon-neutral company by 2040. This plan includes selling only zero-carbon light-duty vehicles by 2035, and plans for 30 battery-powered vehicles available globally by 2025. Similarly, Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen Group have pledged to be carbon-neutral by 2050, and Toyota has set a goal of 90 percent reduction in emissions by 2050. For their part, BMW has pledged to cut its vehicle emissions by one-third by 2030, and Honda Motor Co. has plans for EVs and fuel-cell vehicles to make up two-thirds of its sales by the end of the decade.

These efforts, however noble, will fall short of meeting the crisis unless we address problems in the supply chain. As demand for electric vehicles increases, so will demand for copper. According to the International Copper Association, EVs and hybrid vehicles use substantially more copper: Internal combustion engine vehicles use approximately 50 pounds of copper; hybrid-electric vehicles use about 90 pounds; plug-in hybrids use 130 pounds; and battery-electric vehicles use about 180 pounds.

The role that copper plays in the EV transformation cannot be underestimated. However, there is a cruel paradox that comes with society's worldwide transformation to EVs. Not only do we recharge zero-emission vehicles via polluting, coal-powered electrical grids, but the metals such as copper needed to build the batteries and other components of EVs must be mined from the Earth in practices that are too often unsafe, unclean and deeply unsettling to established communities.

Fortunately, the world is clearly trending away from coal-powered grids and toward renewable power. Last year, renewables made up 20 percent of electricity generation — an increase from 17 percent in 2018. That figure will continue to rise to 24 percent by 2030.

Mining, on the other hand, has stubbornly remained a "necessary evil."

Mining currently accounts for 4 to 7 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, primarily because there has been no transformational moment for mining practices that have been in place for centuries, short of painfully slow retrofitting and updates.

But this is about to change.

What we are witnessing today is the beginning of a transition to "green mining," which involves committing to zero-emission practices as soon as a new deposit is identified. In fact, early this year, Canada-based Foran announced the world's first zero-emission mining project in McIlvenna Bay, Saskatchewan.

Powered by hydro, the McIlvenna Bay Project will embrace the use of remote technologies, renewable energy and fleets of electric vehicles and equipment in the industry.

And it will use environmentally friendly construction materials such as hempcrete instead of concrete.

In doing so, Foran will create a "greenprint" for the mining industry, making the business of mining more sustainable and circular.

Carmakers and renewable-technology innovators, as well as their customers, will finally have peace of mind knowing that the metals and minerals from the beginning of the supply chain — and used to build their zero-emission vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines — have been extracted in a way that has caused the least possible harm to the environment, to people and to communities.

Foran has already offset all the carbon emitted in the exploration phase to make sure that it accounts for the entire impact of the project from development, through to operations, to eventual closure.

The mining industry's ability to achieve carbon-neutral mining is integral to addressing the climate crisis.

By addressing the industrial interdependencies and supply-chain weaknesses embedded in centuries of commerce, zero-emission mining can have a disproportionate impact on the world's ability to clean up its act. Mining is necessary. But it need not be evil.