Opinion: Mining lithium at Thacker Pass essential for combating climate change | 

Thomas R. Benson

 

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This opinion column was submitted by Dr. Thomas R. Benson, adjunct research scientist at Columbia University and manager of global exploration for Lithium Americas Corp. The opinions contained herein are his own, and not those of Lithium Americas Corp. or its affiliates or their respective officers, directors or employees, or those of any third party.

As a liberal environmentalist who spent his childhood and career learning about the Earth and the necessity of protecting it, I never thought I would feel compelled to write publicly about the importance of mining — let alone serve as the head geologist at a lithium mining company.

Lithium, widely used in batteries for electric vehicles and power grid storage, is critical to a sustainable energy future for the United States and the world. But as Reuters recently outlined, the industry faces a “talent crunch” because of individuals who, like me at a younger age, had an unequivocally negative view of mining. distinctly remember my 7-year-old self in Yellowstone National Park watching the Old Faithful geyser erupting and being inspired by the fact that I was standing on top of one of the world’s largest volcanoes, watching it breathe! My fascination with the Earth soon transformed into a passion for researching green energy as a solution to the existential climate crisis.

 

It was during my Fulbright research in Iceland when I first learned that no clean energy resource is perfectly “green” or sustainable. For example, the volcanic processes driving geothermal power systems don’t last forever, and reinjecting geothermal fluids back into the earth comes with its own set of environmental risks. The more I learned about different energy resources, the more I came to realize that all the solutions we tout for combating climate change — batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, etc. — require mining.

This poses a significant internal challenge for environmentalists. While movies like "Avatar" bias us to think all mining is evil, the fact is that oceans are rising, hurricanes are getting stronger, forests are burning and species are dying because of human-driven greenhouse gas emissions. We need to reduce our emissions before this global crisis becomes even worse — and we can’t do that without mining the materials necessary for greener energy technologies.

  

This challenge led me to pursue a Ph.D. studying one of the most important energy-critical elements: lithium. Demand for lithium around the world is skyrocketing with the expanding electrification of the automobile industry, especially in the United States where car manufacturers have announced plans to electrify their fleets. The importance of this transition is nearly the only thing Democratic and Republican lawmakers agree on. Because of this, there is a projected lithium supply shortage before mid-decade.

 

As I navigated the several options for a dissertation project, a colleague alerted me to a lithium deposit in muddy sediments near the Nevada-Oregon border. They are located in the cauldron of a dormant supervolcano called the McDermitt Caldera, where a massive eruption over 16 million years ago helped create a bowl of lithium-rich mud sitting directly on the surface of the Earth.

My research was able to catch the attention of Lithium Americas, which was actively working on optimizing the process to extract lithium from the sediments in the McDermitt Caldera with a unique commitment to minimize local environmental impacts. It conducted nearly a decade of environmental surveys, process optimization, and consultation with the local communities and nearby tribes to design its Thacker Pass Project, a 40-year lithium mining and manufacturing operation on public land that was approved by the federal government in December 2020.

Sustainability by design

This 21st-century design includes an extraction process that uses carbon-free steam-powered energy, a plan to reclaim the shallow pit as the mud is mined, extensive water recycling resulting in a freshwater demand lower than most ranching operations, and partnerships to improve sagebrush habitat in the western United States.

 

Inspired by the company’s commitment to sustainability, I now find myself in my dream job as the head of global exploration at Lithium Americas. Our global exploration efforts underscored my conviction that no other sedimentary resource on earth comes close to the size and grade of the lithium-rich volcanic muds of the McDermitt Caldera. Researchers out of the University of Nevada, Reno estimate that as much as 120 million tonnes of lithium are contained in the sediments of the whole McDermitt Caldera, with concentrations as high as 1.2 % (by weight) in Thacker Pass. To put these numbers in context, the Earth contains an average of only about 0.0001 % lithium, and global demand for lithium is expected to rise from about 0.06 million tonnes lithium in 2020 and is forecasted to exceed 1.3 million tonnes lithium by 2040. It doesn’t take a rocket (or volcano) scientist to see that the volcanic mud in the McDermitt Caldera presents a truly unique opportunity to help secure a large, high-grade domestic supply of lithium and combat the climate crisis simultaneously.No matter how much we love Mother Nature, mining critical metals is a necessity for a greener future. At the same time, we have a responsibility to minimize impacts to local environments by mining the highest-grade resources available with sustainable practices. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, Tom Benson —adjunct research scientist at Columbia University and manager of global exploration for Lithium Americas Corporation — and are not those of Lithium Americas Corp. or its affiliates or their respective officers, directors or employees, or those of any third party.