{"id":264478,"date":"2024-11-14T14:52:30","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T14:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/14\/power-metal-review-the-dilemma-of-mining-more-metals-so-we-can-ditch-fossil-fuels\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:10:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:10:30","slug":"power-metal-review-the-dilemma-of-mining-more-metals-so-we-can-ditch-fossil-fuels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/14\/power-metal-review-the-dilemma-of-mining-more-metals-so-we-can-ditch-fossil-fuels\/","title":{"rendered":"Power Metal review: The dilemma of mining more metals so we can ditch fossil fuels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<figure class=\"ArticleImage\">\n<div class=\"Image__Wrapper\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" width=\"1350\" height=\"900\" alt=\"SALAR DE ATACAMA, CHILE - AUGUST 24: A lithium mine supervisor inspects an evaporation pond of lithium-rich brine in the Atacama Desert on August 24, 2022 in Salar de Atacama, Chile. Albemarle Corporation, based in Charlotte, N.C. is expanding mining operations at their Salar Plant to meet the rising global demand for lithium carbonate, a main component in the manufacture of batteries, increasingly for electric vehicles. To extract the lithium, natural brine is pumped from under the salt flats to a series of evaporation ponds. During an 18-month process, the liquid s moved through 15 ponds, eventually turning from blue to yellow with a lithium concentration of 6 percent. It is then trucked to an Albemarle chemical plant in Antofagasta, where it is processed into battery grade lithium carbonate powder and shipped out internationally. The evaporation process produces large quantities of salt byproduct, much of which is then reprocessed and sold. Chile is the second largest global producer of lithium, after Australia. (Photo by John Moore\/Getty Images)\" src=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1288px) 837px, (min-width: 1024px) calc(57.5vw + 55px), (min-width: 415px) calc(100vw - 40px), calc(70vw + 74px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=300 300w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=400 400w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=500 500w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=600 600w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=700 700w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=800 800w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=837 837w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=900 900w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=1003 1003w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=1100 1100w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=1200 1200w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=1300 1300w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=1400 1400w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=1500 1500w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=1600 1600w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=1674 1674w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=1700 1700w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=1800 1800w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=1900 1900w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/12115823\/SEI_228618654.jpg?width=2006 2006w\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-image-context=\"Article\" data-image-id=\"2455840\" data-caption=\"Lithium for batteries being extracted in the Atacama desert, Chile\" data-credit=\"John Moore\/Getty Images\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"ArticleImageCaption\">\n<div class=\"ArticleImageCaption__CaptionWrapper\">\n<p class=\"ArticleImageCaption__Title\">Lithium for batteries being extracted in the Atacama desert, Chile<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleImageCaption__Credit\">John Moore\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Power Metal<\/strong><\/em><br \/><strong>Vince Beiser <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hachette.co.uk\/titles\/vince-beiser\/power-metal\/9781035425310\/\">(Wildfire Books<\/a> (UK, 20 November); <a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/709947\/power-metal-by-vince-beiser\/\">Riverhead Books<\/a>, (US, 19 November))<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The smartphone on which you are probably reading this article takes a heavy toll on the planet. If it is an iPhone, over 30 kilograms of ore had to be mined to harvest the metals within it, from the nickel and cobalt in its battery to the rare earths in its touch screen.<\/p>\n<p>Even larger volumes of such \u201ccritical metals\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/mg26435170-300-the-dilemma-of-mining-more-metals-so-we-can-ditch-fossil-fuels\/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&#038;utm_source=NSNS&#038;utm_medium=RSS&#038;utm_content=home\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Lithium for batteries being extracted in the Atacama desert, Chile John Moore\/Getty Images Power MetalVince Beiser (Wildfire Books (UK, 20 November); Riverhead Books, (US,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":264479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264478"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}