The energy transition as promoted by companies, institutions and governments around the world relies on the extraction of an abysmal quantity of metals. It is this paradox that the journalist and philosopher Celia Izoard dissects in her essay entitled The mining rush in the 21st centurye centurywhich appears this week in Quebec by Éditions de la rue Dorion.
“To resolve the most important ecological problem of all time, we are resorting to the most polluting industry we know,” summarizes the author in a videoconference with The duty from his home, located in the countryside in the southwest of France.
The latter has been examining the social and ecological impacts of new technologies for several years. She notably published a book on the lives of workers at the Chinese company Foxconn, the largest manufacturer of electronic products in the world. Ironically, our digital tools fail during the interview, so we have to continue the discussion over a good old home phone line.
Metals may be more and more present in the objects around us, including multiple screens, but the mining industry is very little part of the current collective imagination, explains Mme Izoard in a calm and thoughtful tone. “I meet people every day who tell me: “Oh well, I didn’t know that our system was still based on mining.” This reinforces my idea that it was useful to do this investigation. Our system has never relied more on mining than it does today. »
Metal extraction has already doubled in twenty years and it is not in the process of diminishing, since so-called renewable energies, from batteries for electric cars to solar panels and wind turbines, depend on it. It is likely to increase five to ten times by 2050, according to an assessment by the International Energy Agency.
“Electrifying the French automobile fleet would require the entire annual production of cobalt in the world and twice as much as the annual production of lithium in the world. So either this transition will take far too long and will not slow down global warming, or it will take place with the greatest violence and incredible destruction,” reports the author.
We are switching from one form of extraction, oil, to another, metals. “It makes no more sense than trying to overcome drug addiction by replacing one addiction with another,” she judges.
An official justification
The public authorities do not seem to see a problem there. They widely promote this mining rush, promising the development of “responsible mines”. Transition is the new excuse to justify virtually all mining projects. “A copper mine has miraculously become a mine for the transition,” underlines Mme Izoard. However, copper serves multiple uses beyond electrification, such as electronics, aerospace and weapons.
It is in this context that the journalist went in search of responsible mines. She documented herself, she visited operating sites, she consulted experts in this sector of activity and she met workers, all in France, Morocco, Suriname and Spain.
Despite the public commitments and certifications of several mining companies towards sustainable practices and human rights, Celia Izoard did not find what she was looking for. During this quest, she published an investigation for the media Reporterre about a Moroccan mine highlighted by car manufacturers BMW and Renault as “responsible cobalt”. However, it turned out that this mine poisoned the soil with arsenic, dried out the water table and caused illness among workers.
“The industrial mine is a model that is destined to have catastrophic impacts in the medium and long term. This is not because these companies are mean and dishonest, but because there are physical constraints in this activity. It requires a lot of water and energy, it takes up a lot of space and it deforests. »
Toxic sludge and rain of wild geese
In his book, Mme Izoard describes numerous devastations and environmental risks which are enough to send shivers down your spine. The first pages are notably devoted to the phenomenon of the Berkeley Pit, a former copper mine that became an acidic lake causing the death of thousands of wild geese.
“Let us remember the breach of the tailings dam at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine in 2014, during which 17 million cubic meters of water laden with toxic metals irreversibly contaminated very large areas and resources of invaluable water, she stressed about this Canadian disaster. However, there are 172 tailings ponds of the same type in British Columbia alone, and the toxic sludge stored there represents the equivalent of a million Olympic swimming pools. Unfortunately, with climate chaos, the risks of accidental rupture of these dams are increased tenfold. » She also considers that Canada is “at the heart of the extractivist turmoil”.
The governments of Quebec and Canada generally maintain that mining development on their territory will meet stricter environmental standards, in addition to using cleaner energy. Would this argument justify the establishment of new mines? No, says Mme Izoard.
“No industrially powerful state is relocating its mining production or committing to stop importing metals. What is happening is that the need for metals is exploding in all areas and mining companies and states have agreed to create mines wherever it is possible to create them. It is not because we accept a mine in our region that there will not be a mine for the same substance on the other side of the world. » It is unlikely, for example, that batteries produced in Quebec will be completely free of imported metals.
For mineral decay
Celia Izoard believes instead that a large part of the world’s mines should close, since they are located in areas threatened by drought. We would then have no other choice but to engage in a de-escalation of metal consumption, “a radical questioning of the way we live”. According to this vision, the entire industrial sector should be forced to limit itself, just as it is asked to reduce its GHG emissions. Metals should be reserved for uses then determined to be essential. Are huge data centers, airplanes, electric SUVs and aluminum cans necessary for human life?
“We must stop letting ourselves be intimidated by technological determinism, the idea that progress follows this direction and that we cannot change anything. These are very specific ideological and political choices with very significant public funding. We must stop thinking that technologies are inevitably deployed and that we cannot go back. »