Here’s an example of everything that’s forgotten, as the...

Here’s an example of everything that’s forgotten, as the GreatGreen Wave comes sweeping over the horizon.

Grist for the mill....

ATesla lithium EV battery weighs more than 1,000 pounds. While there are dozens of variations, suchan EV battery typically containsabout:

• 25 pounds of lithium,

• 30 pounds of cobalt,

• 60 pounds of nickel,

• 110 pounds of graphite,

• 90 pounds of copper,

Looking upstream at the oregrades, one can estimate the typical quantity of rock that must be extractedfrom the earth and processed to yield the pure minerals needed to fabricatethat single battery:

• Lithium brines typically contain less than 0.1% lithium, so that entails some 25,000 pounds of brines to get the 25 pounds of pure lithium.

• Cobalt ore grades average about 0.1%, thus nearly 30,000 pounds of ore to get 30 pounds of cobalt.

• Nickel ore grades average about 1%, thus about 6,000 pounds of ore to get 60 pounds of nickel.

• Graphite ore is typically 10%, thus about 1,000 pounds per battery to get 100 pounds of graphite.

• Copper at about 0.6% in the ore, thus about 25,000 pounds of ore per battery to get 90 pounds of copper.

In total then, acquiring justthese five elements to produce the 1,000-pound EV battery requires mining about90,000 pounds of ore. To properly account for all the earth moved though—whichis relevant to the overall environmental footprint, and mining machinery energyuse—one needs to estimate the overburden, or the materials first dug up to getto the ore. Depending on ore type and location, overburden ranges from about 3to 20 tons of earth removed to access each ton of ore.

This means that accessing about90,000 pounds of ore requires digging and moving between 200,000 and over1,500,000 pounds of earth—a rough average ofmore than 500,000 pounds of ore per battery.

According to Cambridge UniversityEmeritus Professor of Technology Michael Kelly, replacing all the UnitedKingdom’s 32 million light duty vehicles with next-generation EVs would requirehugequantities of materials to manufacture 32 million EV batteries:

• more than 50 percent of the world’s annual production of copper.

• 200 percent ofthe annual production of cobalt.

• 75 percent yearly lithium carbonate output; and

• nearly 100 percent of its entire annual production of neodymium.

One can easily see that the worldmay not have enough minerals and metals for the EV batteries to support the EVgrowth projections roadmap when you consider that today:

• Combinedworldwide car sales in 2019 were more than 65 million vehiclesannually.

• There are1.2 billion vehicles on the world’s roads with projections of 2 billion by 2035.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/15/weakest-link-to-ev-growth-is-the-material-supply-chain/

		Virus-free. www.avast.com