“it is clear that higher productions can only be realized with a greater energy expenditure”
ought to tell us that our decarbonisation plans are inadequate
https://mastodon.green/@gerrymcgovern/116906073535158922
…The principle that depleting ore quality requires higher energy inputs for processing has been clear since Hukki’s Conjecture in 1962.
And the electrification of mining has huuuuuge challenges.
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Electric mine dumper trucking:
“in a coal mine with a power plant nearby or, perhaps, in a clay or limestone mine located near the surface, up on a hillside…
…“You see electric dumper trucks are best utilized if they are loaded on the top of a hill, then driven down to the valley where these materials are used in making cement or get burned for power. The weight difference between the light ascent and heavy descent is enough to charge the batteries, and make the climb back to the mine a freebee…
…“In an open pit, however, you have to drive down to a man-made canyon empty and climb back loaded with heavy ores — exactly the opposite what is needed to charge the batteries on the way.
Besides, you are likely hundreds of miles away from the nearest power plant…
…“This means that you would need to install huge solar panel and wind turbine arrays near the pit where the trucks would spend at least half of their useful time charging.
Swapping batteries might be an option here, but since the battery itself is a huge cost factor, buying 2, 3, or perhaps 4 of them per vehicle increases investment cost considerably—turning an already thin margin deeply negative…
…“As long as we mine using diesel machines mostly built from abundant steel, and burning fossil fuels, there is little to no copper, lithium, cobalt etc. needed to *be invested into the extraction of the metals much needed for the ‘transition’*…
…“However, if we were to switch to mining goods with electric trucks powered by ‘renewables’ (were that even technically feasible), we would need to build tons of these precious ‘transition’ metals into the very equipment we use to obtain them (then replace them several times over the mine’s life cycle as they age).
Mining would then actively compete for the very metals they are going after.”
https://thehonestsorcerer.substack.com/p/we-are-not-mining-with-renewable-104
