Essay by Eric Worrall
“Everything is now an emergency” – How can governments which declare climate emergencies refuse applications to extract Lithium and other vital minerals from sensitive wilderness areas?
The rush to renewable energy means a new mining boom. But first, Australia needs to make some tough choices
Four Corners / By Angus Grigg, Jeanavive McGregor and Lucy Carter
Electric cars, solar panels, large batteries and wind turbines — the technology needed to go green relies on what can be a dirty industry.
“It’s absolutely ironic, but to save the planet we are going to need more mines,” says Allison Britt, director of mineral resources at government agency Geoscience Australia.
The need for one of the biggest increases in mining the world has ever seen is forcing some tough choices and redrawing old battlelines between environmentalists and miners.
In Tasmania, a mine that’s been leaking contaminated water for the past five years wants permission to expand into a wilderness area because the lead, zinc and copper it produces are vital for solar panels, electric cars and wind turbines.
King Island, famed for its high-end produce and rugged beauty, will soon be home to one of the world’s largest tungsten mines.
Outside Darwin, an open-cut mine that will produce lithium vital for electric car batteries looks to be already impacting local waterways.
…
“Everything is now an emergency,” says entrepreneur and inventor Saul Griffith, whose advocacy organisation Re-wiring America has advised US politicians and businesses.
“We need to be making wind turbines 10 times as fast as we do. We need to be making solar cells 10 times as fast as we do. We need to be making batteries and electric vehicles 10 times as fast as we do today.”
…
Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-09/renewable-energy-may-require-australian-mining-boom/101034914
The main beneficiaries of this free for all are mining entrepreneurs, who are rushing to ram through their mine expansion plans and environmental permits with minimal oversight, under the guise of addressing the alleged climate emergency.
Once die hard Environmentalists are now supporting or at least passively accepting new mines and the wholesale destruction of pristine wilderness, to maintain the flow of minerals required to supply their green energy delusions.
How did we get to this point?
In my opinion, it was wind turbines which opened the floodgates. When everyone saw environmentalists passively accepting wind turbines slaughtering thousands of endangered birds, it was obvious that the key to getting environmentalists to roll over for wilderness destruction was their belief in a climate crisis. Now every imaginable act of environmental destruction for profit is being tagged as a vital stepping stone on the path to net zero.
A few net zero supporters have woken up that something is not right, and are demanding a pause, but the majority have yet to notice they have all been owned by the mining industry.
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“It’s absolutely ironic, but to save the planet we are going to need more mines,” says Allison Britt, director of mineral resources at government agency Geoscience Australia.
It is ironic, but not in the way she thinks. The irony is that the planet needs saving from people who think the planet needs saving.
I think the last sentence should read
“but the majority have yet to notice they have all been pwned by the mining industry.”
After all, climate models are really just computer games…..
King Island in the Bass Strait between Victoria and Tasmania used to be one of the World’s premier tungsten mines one that my company operated there in the 1950-90 era. I used to go there a few times a year. There was an open pit and an underground mine that extended out east below the sea. We closed the mine in the late 1990s because the ore price had fallen and mining costs increased. After that, we rehabilitated it rather well, so your average Joe could not tell today where the mines used to be.
I just hate it when along come johnny come latelys who know bugger all, but pontificate tell fibs and make outrageous demands.
We did not cause any significant harm to any man nor beast that I know of.
We DID provide resources that the World demanded.
That is how markets work. Geoff S
Great to hear how well you rehabilitated that important mine given its coastal location Geoff, was there in the 60’s on a field trip.
We Aussies know how to treat the environment properly and have exported our capability world wide, so Australia should be proud of what we can do in the exploration-mining scene.
Cheers,
Same goes for a number of mineral sands mines in the south-west of Western Australia, the general public has no idea many of these operations ever existed
And all of this to fix an imaginary non problem.
And, I might add, any new miner at King Island who attempts to run it on renewables should be put in jail. When you are hundreds of metres down an incline under the sea, you have plenty of hazards without the fear of electricity blackouts. It is really dark, dank,vwet and cold without electricity. Even walking out in the dark is hazardous. We triedbit once there, just to see. Horrible. There will be big diesel main generators in a future competent design. Geoff S
no such thing as “minimal oversight” in aus for any damned thing!!! always a govvy dept or council with permits charges and hands out. as for the tungsten mine? its an OLD mine being rebooted.
and the king island dairy etc appears to have folded as products NOT been available for 3yrs plus where i am n Vic.
greenies got the woodcutters halted as well
Still have King Island cheeses being sold in my local supermarket. Have always enjoyed their cheeses.
We must destroy the planet to save it.
Whoa Eric, its not yet the mad rush you claim.
The world wide average for bringing a new mine into production after you have made the initial discovery is over 16 years. And this has been increasing significantly because of legal issues.
The legal challenges to increasing mining on the sorts of scale required this will be gigantic, not the least because of water supply problems and ownership issues.
I am friends with some very ardent supporters of renewables and have been having this exact discussion with them for over 6 months – understanding that all this stuff needs to be made from mineral products and where is it going to come from. Until about a month ago they thought I was crazy and dismissed those points out of hand but not any more.
How many different ways does a person need to be told Renewable are a Scam propagated by the Climate Change Scam before they discover it is worse than a Scam it is a disaster?
King Island, mentioned for its tungsten deposits, has a couple of other interesting features. The authors say it is ‘rugged” when it is nearly as flat as a pancake. But many visitors would not know that because there are few good roads to taken them exploring.
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There are, however, big snakes to study. Let me introduce the King Island Tiger Snake.
Description
The King Island Tiger Snake has black or very dark brown head and body, sometimes with lighter cross bands. Belly light to dark grey.
Size
1.5m long
Food
Feeds on mutton bird chicks. It also eats frogs, small mammals, fish and other reptiles.
Breeding
Females usually give birth to 20 – 30 live young
Range
The King Island Tiger Snake is found only on Bass Strait islands of Tasmania (King Island and nearby islands).
Notes
Highly venomous – one of Australia’s most dangerous.
I can add that they are quite aggressive towards people, often wanting to engage while people are trying to walk away.
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Few people know, but our local exploration geologists walked me between the dense ti-trees and tiger snakes to several sites where trees had been cut down quite close to the ground. I paced out one of the because they were larger than any trees I could recall This was about 20 feet (6 metres) diameter. My friends did not know what species they were. These days, I cannot find any reference to them.
This was just for interest about King Island by someone who has actually been there and studied it. Geoff S
Next we’ll have Dr’s telling patients that to cure their illness they’re going to have to kill them!
Absolute lunacy.
James Bull