Mining for a climate solution: Why going renewable means getting our hands dirty | Four Corners

this is what the future looks like [Music] fully electric car that's cheap to recharge and Promises to Omit zero carbon emissions powering this Tesla requires more than electricity you need a hefty 200 kilograms of minerals like copper Cobalt lithium and nickel and those minerals have to come from somewhere it's absolutely ironic but to save the planet we are going to need more mines top of the list are 35 so-called critical minerals which will help power the clean energy Revolution ideally we'd have a battery in every house and big panels of batteries everywhere which means Cobalt nickel rarest lithium they're immensely needed for the Future these are all critical to a green economy so these are called green green metals the world is scrambling to secure supply of these Metals which are mostly controlled by China it's always known the value of critical minerals we're moving into a period now of geopolitical competition everybody is looking for leverage the Chinese are quite explicit about that mineral-rich Australia is in the driver's seat to challenge China's dominance [Applause] rare Earth's critical minerals everything you use for electric vehicles for transport for manufacturing we're really at the start of what could be a new mining boom not everyone is convinced [Music] environmentalists fear some of Australia's most pristine Wilderness is facing a major new threat and we will not stop do you accept that we might need a short spike in mining in the next 10 or 15 years to allow us to save the planet no it's not saving the planet that's ridiculous that is greenspin green extractivism coming out of the mining industry [Music] there's no question we have some tough decisions to make and this view that the green view is anti-mining is naive because if we're going to go green we're going to have to get all of a bunch of these critical metals and we're going to have to do it smartly and we're going to have to produce a lot of them [Music] broken Hill is the birthplace of BHP just like the world's biggest minor this historic town is making the shift to the minerals needed for green energy behind me here they're building a new mine not for coal but for Cobalt to take on an industry dominated by China tonight on four corners we examine how cutting carbon emissions will require one of the biggest increases in mining the world has ever seen and how going green means getting our hands dirty on the outskirts of Canberra is a futuristic building dedicated to Australia's natural resources in these Isles are thousands of samples of minerals found all over the country you can think of it half of all the geological material that we've collected over decades things like rocks and drill core and the interesting thing is that many of these drill cores and rocks that we've got in here could actually contain critical minerals or information about them that will help set us up for the future Allison Britt is a geologist at the government agency geoscience Australia right now she's focused on what are known as critical minerals so characteristics one is absolutely essential for modern Technologies our economies or even our national security and two there's a risk either real or perceived that its Supply chains could be disrupted control of these minerals will determine who leads the next Industrial Revolution dominated by the switch to green power so generally speaking in today's world you can't make a modern wooden turbine without rare Earths you can't make a solar panel without high Purity quartz and you can't make an electric vehicle battery without Vanadium manganese graphite Cobalt and lithium how much is demand set to grow over the coming decades for these critical minerals you look at the numbers they're predicting you think oh that can't be right these are staggering numbers so the International Energy agencies report looks at the stated policy scenario you know what countries have said they're going to do and they're predicting that our Cobalt use use will be up six times our graphite eight times and lithium an amazing 13 times and that is just the conservative numbers this is not just some abstract concept every piece of technology you own your iPhone and Apple computer your TV relies on these minerals and that demand is only going to grow if we would like to continue and have a familiar lifestyle cars houses Etc really there's only one answer and that's to Electrify pretty much all of the end use things we do let's try the cooking Electrify the water heating Electrify the vehicles and we've got to power that with a huge amount of Renewables it's absolutely ironic but to save the planet we are going to need more mines you wouldn't think it possible you wouldn't think that's sensible or reasonable but that's actually the fact of the matter we will need more Minds to save the planet [Music] foreign island off the northern coast of Tasmania is a favorite of Foodies and golfers it has a global reputation for its cheese and beef oysters kelp and crayfish [Music] foreign it's remote rugged and going green [Music] the wind turbine behind me helps to Power King Island to build one of these turbines requires eight and a half tons of critical minerals like copper zinc a nickel that's three times more minerals than a coal-fired power station needs to generate the same amount of energy it just shows the sheer volume of minerals we need to dig up and one of the most valuable minerals is found right here on the island this tungsten mine shuttered 30 years ago is about to reopen [Music] in February politicians and shareholders flew in for the reopening and the compulsory turning of the sword come here distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen this is an auspicious event for our company for King Island and for Tasmania [Music] it was an unlikely setting for a tutorial in strategic affairs but that's just what guests received from their local member recently in you know Europe Russia Ukraine in China our navigation rights in the South China Sea has bought a geopolitical increase in tensions around the world we need it as a country as a government we need to have a very good grip on where our minerals our resources and our Vital pieces of equipment are because we don't want them held by a particular regime or used against us I I now hand over to group six Metals as executive chairman Mr Johan Jacobs thanks Jose Johan Jacobs is the head of the Australian company group six Metals which owns the mine critical to the Western world certainly the geopolitical situation that has emerged over the last couple of years is certainly very important for the way that we have Finance the mind and been able to get it to the point where we are now under construction once back in production the mine will produce tungsten classified by the US and Australia as a critical mineral it's one of the 35 minerals now seen as vital for economic and National Security [Music] and it's also very good at conducting electricity and so we put it in our computer chips and our electronic components because it will not overheat China currently controls 80 percent of the world's tungsten this pit will provide an alternative source and fearing beijing's dominance the U.S is taking a keen interest in the mind [Music] how many meetings would you say you've had with representatives from the U.S embassy here probably three over the last 12 months and those discussions are continuing at this stage they don't have any financial interest but they certainly are very keen to see us progress and develop the mind because it's another supply chain uh that from a friendly Nation for locals on King Island the mine is less about great power rivalry and more about jobs I've been here all my life so I was here when the mine was at its Heyday and we had a few thousand people on the island it was a really Vibrant Community and yeah I'm all for it people come they want to see the cows they want to taste the cheese and they want to see a little Community doing well even out of mining I think [Music] the nearby town of grassy was hit hard by the mine's closure in the 1990s come on Rosie what can I get you Matt cold dry stubby yeah back in the day the grassy Club was a favorite of thirsty miners now even on a Friday afternoon it's hardly packed so the people went the infrastructure went and then the housing gradually uh fell apart as well so it became a ghost town Julie Arnold is the mayor of King Island and like many locals is eager to see the mine get started we really think that we're probably on the cusp of a bit of a boom so the club will get a boost hopefully our football team will get a boost and we'll have more people to to play football but the social life will change quite immensely the economic life so we have vacant shops hopefully some of those will reopen because it's secure now 60 extra jobs when we have 1600 people that is a big boost for us and it just it just gives a bounce to the whole economy and the whole feel of the island so we're really pleased the mines opened [Music] around Australia mineral deposits lie buried there's now a race on to find them one of the biggest opportunities that we have at to meet Net Zero by 2050 at a global level is for Australia to be producing as much as many minerals as we can to help with that that Global effort to do that we need to make sure that exploration is occurring in Australia we're going into a mining boom right now so exploration is at an all-time high if you look at the labs that analyze the samples for exploration geologists they're backed up for six months using technology invented at the Australian National University professor John mavraginas and his students are analyzing Rock samples to see what critical minerals they containers we're really having a red hot go all over the country and finding these things and we're doing it better than we used to do so it's smarter more focused and it's including all the critical models things that we didn't look for 10 years ago like 10 and tungsten and lithium not everyone is so enthusiastic about Australia's latest mining boom in Northwestern Tasmania it's fueling new conflicts on Old battlegrounds in the Tarkan rainforest there is open hostility from conservationists towards two new mining projects foreign [Music] Park this should be world heritage part of the Great Tasmanian wilderness world heritage area the veteran campaigner Bob Brown is leading efforts to stop Australian company Venture minerals from building a tin mine at Mount Lindsay this is part of the exploration license for Venture minerals have already put more than 100 drill holes into this catchment and so the whole of it is available for them to put more drill holes in and in future mine what's so special about the tar coin the takan's one of the Great last unprotected wild areas on the planet and here we have in Australia a hundred thousand hectares of the largest temperate rainforest of this type left on the planet and it's facing death by a Thousand Cuts the attack iron is facing threats like it never did before now ninety percent of it is under mineral prospecting licenses [Music] and obviously Bob's very focused on his area in Tasmania which is which is which is fine but this is a global problem and what we're trying to we're trying to have a global solution so so what we're saying is that even though we'll have a small temporary impact of where we are we'll have a much longer lasting Global impact having to produce responsibly sourced tin Ventures managing director Andrew rajonjik says the benefits of the small underground mine they are proposing will far outweigh the costs tin is essential for electric cars solar panels and wind turbines if you want to help achieve that and battle climate change then building mines like Mount Lindsay in areas like ours which are old mining areas minimals footprint using electric green power and in putting techniques there then I think there will be a better place for it and we can achieve those tasks we're trying to achieve Australia's emission targets of what we're doing here at Mount Lindsay foreign there's plenty of tin in the world but about 90 percent of it comes from countries like Indonesia where tin deposits on land have been so heavily exploited that workers have started strip mining the ocean floor [Music] it's not the mining practices it's no Rehabilitation no modern mining techniques like like we employ in Australia so so that's that's the issue is that the tennis sourced from areas which uh you know archaic mining practices are still employed today Adventures say that they'll have a small footprint they say that they have compromised in Going Underground rather than having an open pit doesn't that show that they're prepared to compromise and have a low impact mine Venture is not here to give us electric cars or computers Venture is here to get that publicly owned tin from under that Forest to make money that's that's what runs it and uh you know I'm I I'm aware they'll come up with all sorts of green arguments but they don't wash foreign [Music] there's no question we have some tough decisions to make and you know this view that that the green view is anti-mining is naive because if we're gonna go green we're going to have to get all of a bunch of these critical medals and we're going to have to do it smartly and we're gonna have to produce a lot of them we have to decide as a country how valuable is a place and is it worth risking for mining [Music] half an hour from the proposed Tin Mine protesters have set up camp whilst we get turfed out we will just regroup and reorganize and we will come back in again and we will not stop [Applause] they're fighting to stop another mine expanding Into the tarkhein Wilderness [Music] thank you we're just you know I guess always surprised at how many people will come here and stand up in the forest knowing that this will mean a criminal record a main front in court it will mean the name in the papers but but they're willing to stand up for the Wilderness this is incredibly important thing to do for Tasmania this is ancient rainforest it's not a place for a toxic waste dump thank you the move towards Renewables has increased demand for the lead zinc and copper produced by the 85 year old mine in the town of Roseberry we mine and produce zinc lead and copper concentrate and that contributes to the to the to the electric vehicles and and other areas such as solar panels wind turbines those sorts of things that support obviously renewable energies the mine was bought by Chinese resources giant MMG 13 years ago it was part of a global buying spree by China's state-owned Enterprises to secure supply of critical minerals from Africa to South America and here in Tasmania we're moving into a period now of you know you know geopolitical uh competition everybody is looking for The Leverage the Chinese are quite explicit about that it informs their policies on technology uh it informs their policies uh on Military competition and of course it totally underwrites their policies on critical minerals when the Rosemary mine was purchased few people outside the industry took note of the sale if you look at the gradually sort of a tightening supervision of just about any Chinese investment into Australia in recent years you know we won't even let a Chinese Dairy company buy a Japanese drinks company in Australia the idea that a state-owned Chinese mining giant would be allowed to come to Tasmania to buy a mine like that these days I just think would not pass muster under the labor party or the liberal party to stay in the game MMG wants to clear 280 hectares of Forest for a pipeline and new tailings dam the general manager Stephen Scott says the mine and its 500 jobs would cease to exist without a new dam we can't run without it essentially if you don't have anywhere to put that material then you can't mine we're working in a sustainable mine that's been here coexisting in this same place for 85 years with a really good environmental performance record and we improve on that all the time but documents obtained by Four Corners show one of mmg's existing tailings dams has been leaking contaminated water for almost five years in a letter to tasmania's environment protection authority following several complaints The Mining Company conceded there was a pressing need to rectify the problem [Music] that was more than two years ago and the dam continues to leak EPA records show that on 18 occasions since 2018 contaminated water has discharged into the river MMG says these are Legacy issues and they have significantly improved management of the dam the Tarkan is really a global test case if we can't protect this in wealthy modern nature loving Australia how can we ask the people in the Amazon or the jungle zabornio or the Congo to look after their Forest when they're in much more Dire Straits than us we should protect this not just for the future of humanity but for the Wildlife that's in it [Music] so this is a mineral called alanite and it's a rare Earth mineral there's a group of critical minerals you may never have heard of but they're essential for the technology of Modern Life 17 Metals known as rare Earth elements rarests are used in an enormous range of modern Technologies your mobile phone your laptop your flat screen TV almost every modern technology that you can think of one of their most important uses is they make the strongest permanent magnets that we know of and so these are very very important for renewable energy you can have a magnet that's quite small and light and yet it's powerful enough to run the motor in an electric vehicle or the turbine of a giant windmill that's the beauty of rare Earths you only need a small amount of them to make Technologies more effective so just like adding a bit of salt and pepper to your meal may make to really bring the flavor out a small amount of rare Earths can do the same thing for technology this business was so dominated by China for so many decades that nobody really paid attention um about 10 12 years ago they restricted Supply and the prices went up and everybody started looking around and we found that we have at least three or four major deposits of rare Earths in Australia foreign company Linus is the only major Rare Earth producer outside China it mines at this site at Mount weld in Western Australia and sends the raw product to Malaysia for processing rare Earths are dirty to process and the waste often contains low levels of radiation one of the problems that people see is that the high temperature roasting of rare earth minerals to get the Rare Earth elements out is rather dangerous because it's high temperature and is rather messy because in parts of Asia we've we've left all kinds of Remnant material around Linus has been the target of massive protests in Malaysia with the local community worried about toxic waste from the processing plant s [Applause] the establishment of the processing facilities in Malaysia was really controversial there was huge public opposition in Malaysia to that oh there were previous Rare Earth processing facilities in that area that had not gone well and the proposal for another foreign company to come and do it here again did not go down well at all and I don't I think the opportunity that was lost was it could have been done in Australia and if we'd started 10 years ago to really get serious about processing some of these critical minerals in Australia and we'd started with Linus then imagine where we could have been today one of the biggest challenges the world has is to address climate change but we're ready for that challenge two of the world's biggest miners BHP and Rio Tinto have spent the last decade getting out of coal and promoting their investments in the minerals required for green energy why the critical minerals of the world [Music] both have struggled to get major projects approved as local communities have taken to the streets in the U.S and Europe [Applause] I think a particularly interesting case is what's happening in Serbia at the moment where Rio Tinto are proposing a big lithium mine and from my understanding it's a specific type of lithium that's particularly valuable for a productive farming area in in Serbia and that's encountered huge public opposition it's influenced local politics there and my understanding is the government has has canceled the project [Music] the U.S has declared securing access to critical minerals a major national priority Gia President Joe Biden announced new projects that would compete with China's control of cobalt lithium rare Earths and other critical minerals China controls most of the global market in these minerals and the fact that we can't build a future that's made in America if we ourselves are dependent on China for the materials the power of the products of today and tomorrow the U.S is now looking to Australia to fill the supply Gap if you talk to people in Washington and Tokyo they're really comforted and in fact quite thrilled to have a mineral-rich country like Australia and a friendly country like Australia able to ramp up production in these areas because if you're looking for alternatives to China you know you can't do that in any other many countries around the world so for Australia it's absolutely a fantastic opportunity economically and frankly strategically as well Australia is still the luckiest country last century we were the luckiest because we had all the coal and a huge amount of natural gas and not only could we Supply our own economy we built giant export Industries selling those things to the world so Angus this is what we're talking about this is a modern battery pack Saul Griffith's company rewiring America advised the U.S government on its electrification policy what we know the future needs is is things that Australia also has in Spade so we need copper we need aluminum we need steel to make the wind turbines we need lithium we need nickel we need Cobalt and Australia is first second third or fourth in the world in terms of reserves and production of all of the critical things for this Century this is about one kilowatt hour he says it could be an economic Bonanza for Australia there's an incredible news story here for Australia which is we will be the provider of clean metals to the world and uh and we'll make money doing it if we are aggressive about that for all of the critical materials our export industry could be 10 20 30 40 times larger than our current fossil fuel exports in terms of net revenue to Australia the opportunity really is that large we just need to embrace it Australia has rapidly become the world's largest producer of lithium currently the most sought after of the critical minerals the International Energy agency projects demand could Rise by up to four thousand percent over the next two decades lithium is it's almost flavor of the month but it's going to be flavor of the decade flavor of the next two decades because it's such a fundamental component of the battery the batteries that we're using in our electric vehicles or for storing electricity in general I mean they're even called lithium ion batteries for a reason Australian Miner core lithium is the newest player building its mine on a floodplain 80 kilometers outside Darwin after signing a supply deal with Tesla the stock has almost doubled the company is now worth more than two billion dollars and that's before it's mined a single ton of lithium the water is very very milky and murky it's meant to be clear flowing Pauline Cass is an environmental scientist and community advocate the mine is only in the very very early stages and we're already seeing this consequence it's pollution and contaminating the fresh waterways as well as the harbor with this sediment unfortunately already what appears to be happening is that the topsoil and gravel from that mining site is already discharging into a creek and then into Darwin Harbor there are troubling signs that that's already occurring we're concerned about that because technically we believe that may constitute an offense under the water actually there's a Prohibition on pollution of any waterway in the Northern Territory the company plans to mine here for seven years and has promised to partly rehabilitate the site locals are skeptical the territory government will hold core lithium to account there's a gold rush mentality from government as there often is for new resources projects it raises a lot of questions for me about the the nature of the kinds of deals that are being done in the rush to feed the Boom for electric vehicles and the Renewables industry more broadly our government has absolutely rolled out the red carpet you can just feel the excitement vibrating off them that you know like we're going to get rich but we've seen so many boom and bust things happen here there's always the next big thing we're going to get rich on this and then no one gets Rich except for the clever people that grab the Money and Run and leave us with the mess to clean up they want Global Tech companies to take responsibility for how the minerals they use are mined in my view Tesla should know what's happening on the ground that would be good corporate practice it's extremely important that companies such as Tesla ensure that all of these credentials are ticked off on to the high standard Global Supply chains are very complicated things and I think you could probably make a statement that no company really knows where all of its source materials are coming from today that's how complicated it is I don't believe that Apple Tesla Samsung Panasonic are yet demanding enough of the providers um they certainly will tell good stories but I don't think anyone can claim a clean supply chain in 2022 as the boom gathers Pace the minerals Council of Australia has successfully lobbied the federal government to speed up development approvals for new minds the changes would cut back on the need for environmental approvals at both the state and federal level the faster we can get environmental approvals secured the better it is for Mining and that means that we will bring the minds of the future forward that means that we will have be able to supply the critical minerals that are necessary at a global level and here in Australia Australia is one of the highest regulated countries in the world for mining what we need to do better in Australia is make sure that that regulation makes sense for the Commonwealth and the states to work together not so that we don't have more regulation we have better regulation and that means streamlined regulation Our concern is that what the Morrison government is proposing to do is to actually diminish what protections are actually available under Federal Environmental law rather than enhancing protections for the environment [Music] no place is more synonymous with mining than broken Hill the birthplace of the Australian resources industry now this historic town is looking to reinvent itself as a center for critical minerals and Battery making [Music] we're influencing to see the sins that are being made in Europe in Washington DC in London all those spaces are looking at this project as one part of solving that geopolitical risk for electric vehicles Australian company cobalt blue is setting up a Cobalt mine and processing plant at this open day it's selling its Vision to curious locals and shareholders as they tuck into a sausage sizzle Joe kataravic is the CEO to promote this project we've met with heads of state senior cabinet officials and Global businesses they all want broken Hill to win they all want to break this Stranglehold on the Cobalt Market that currently exists and we're a big part of that win they are promising to deliver ethically sourced low emissions Cobalt within the battery material sector and in particular Cobalt the majority of that Cobalt is produced by one country which is the Democratic Republic of Congo and is processed by China approximately 90 of that product is processed through China mine is unregulated or self-regulated if you like in conditions that frankly wouldn't meet any the bearish minimums of Western Safety standards Australia has a long history of digging up minerals and shipping them offshore this will be the first time Cobalt is processed locally so this is the final step in converting Cobalt rock into a commercial battery ready Cobalt product so what does Cobalt do for a battery Cobalt provides stability and promotes a better performing longer life battery the company says it will produce enough Cobalt to power 5 million electric vehicles so we will effectively double Australian domestic production once we're in uh in operation we'll be making a battery ready material and that's not done anywhere in the southern hemisphere so that's a unique change it'll also allow us domestically to step um both Cuba and Russia and become the number two Global producer of cobalt [Music] as construction begins at the mine site cobalt blue is in talks with big European car makers it's been given major project status by the federal government and granted 15 million dollars I think that the focus on critical minerals from the Commonwealth government is embedded now in their foreign policy I think certainly what we're seeing is that both Commonwealth's Commonwealth and state governments are helping us find commercial Partners helping us make those introductions and I think at a federal level they're removing the barriers that we otherwise would have had to get into production and then incentivizing through grants and through loans to get into production I think it's a very exciting time as the world seeks to speed up action on climate change Australia has the opportunity to provide the minerals needed for green power we could underwrite Decades of future Prosperity but the trade-offs between the environment local communities and miners require some tough decisions this is an opportunity for Australia because we have very strong laws in this country around the environment both at federal and state level we're very very good at mining you could call us a mining superpower and if Australia doesn't step up and provide some of this material to the world is going to be done by other countries who might not take their mining responsibilities as seriously as we do it's a confounding issue for the environmental movement there's absolutely no doubt that we have to move to mining of critical minerals if we are going to address the climate crisis and therefore the environmental movement has to of course support these kinds of minds and Mining of critical minerals at the same time we need to be absolutely sure that we're not repeating the mistakes of the past and that best practice is adopted in every single mind [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 527,303

Keywords: abc news, australian news, abc news indepth, documentaries, long-form journalism, mining, renewable, renewableenergy, energy, power, electric, car, solar, copper, nickel, cobalt, lithium

Id: ZXA2ae46nWY

Length: 42min 28sec (2548 seconds)

Published: Mon May 09 2022