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📣 Briefly Talk: Mineral Extraction in Energy Transition?
The ongoing Energy Transition towards sustainable and renewable energy relies on electricity as one of the replacements for fossil fuels.
Electric cars embody this transition in the transportation sector and their production requires more minerals than conventional cars in diversity and quantity.
This increase in mineral demand is mainly due to the battery components (eg: lithium, nickel, cobalt) and the conductor cables made with copper.
The growth in demand is supplied by mineral extraction and recycling of used goods. Recycling alone is not expected to meet the increasing demand, implying an increase in mineral extraction.
To go further: IEA (2021), The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions, IEA, Paris