The Biden administration's plans to boost manufacturing of electric vehicles may face a big problem. E&E News reported on how the electric vehicle revolution will increase demand for minerals. The part of the battery that releases electrons is called the anode and it is made from graphite. Graphene is the largest mineral component in a battery by weight. You can read more. China is responsible for 80% of the world'sGraphite supply. Only 1.2% of the world's supply is mined in North America with some production in Canada and Mexico. More than 300 new mines are predicted to be added around the world in the next two decades, as electric vehicle production increases, according to analysts.
The Biden administration is trying to get American supply chains involved in the EV revolution. There are tax credits for consumers to buy an electric vehicle, but there are restrictions on the materials that go into those vehicles. Only vehicles made with minerals mined or processed in the U.S. will be eligible for the credits. The U.S. needs to find new sources ofGraphite soon.
It's not easy to create a domestic supply ofGraphite. Two sites in the US are currently being developed for mining. In Alaska, on a peninsula off the coast, locals are concerned about the impact of an open-pit mine. There is a possibility that the mine would sit on sensitive waterways in Alabama.
Synthetic Graphite is one of the other options. Fossil fuels are the main source of synthetic graphite, and the process comes with pollution tradeoffs: There are more air pollutants involved in the process, and the CO2 emissions could be up to eight times higher.
To meet the world's clean energy needs over the next few decades, analysts project that we will need an enormous increase in various minerals and other materials, fromlithium tocobalt tographite. There are a lot of challenges associated with the increase in demand for minerals.
The benefits of the energy transition are more important than the environmental tradeoffs of mining for minerals in sensitive areas. Some say that mining companies need to be careful when working with local communities.
The deputy director of the Breakthrough Institute told E&E that minerals companies should focus on their local interests.
He said that they were in for decades of sorting through conflicts. It's not the skeleton key to unlocked those conflicts.
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