“We could get most metals for clean energy without opening new mines” – Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

“… most mines don’t know exactly what they are tossing out …”

We could get most metals for clean energy without opening new mines

An analysis of active US mines finds they already collect virtually all of the minerals the country needs for batteries, solar panels and wind turbines – but these critical minerals mostly go to waste

By James Dinneen

21 August 2025

The leftover ore discarded by US mines is packed with key minerals – enough to provide virtually all of the raw material needed to build clean energy technologies. Recovering just a fraction of these minerals could meet the country’s growing demand for green energy without requiring imports or environmentally-damaging new mines – but getting them is easier said than done.

“We have to get better at using the material that we mine,” says Elizabeth Holley at the Colorado School of Mines.

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These leftovers often contain other useful materials, including dozens of critical mineralsthe US government has identified as essential to military and energy technologies, such as solar panels, wind turbines and batteries. But the supply chains for some of these minerals are controlled by China, sparking urgent concern among the US and its allies they could be wielded for geopolitical leverage. That has spurred a search for alternative mineral sources, including mining byproducts and tailings.

However, most mines don’t know exactly what they are tossing out. “Many of the elements we currently consider critical were not in much use in the past, so no one was analysing for them,” says Holley.

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Just knowing where these minerals exist is hardly the only barrier. Current refining technology isn’t well-suited for these small, complicated waste streams, and deploying the necessary tech is too expensive for most US mines, says Megan O’Connor at Nth Cycle, a start-up focused on extracting critical minerals from unconventional sources.

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Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2493449-we-could-get-most-metals-for-clean-energy-without-opening-new-mines/

This seems a strange claim, or at least an odd take on the issue. Most mining engineers I’ve met could recite from memory exactly what is in the waste product of the last mine they worked on. And reprocessing waste from past mining operations is big business, in cases where the waste is valuable.

Those minerals will be extracted when the time is right. But until the value of extraction makes it profitable, a significant strategic need arises, or technological advances bring down the cost, why would anyone bother?

As for the claim such extraction could cover the entire needs of battery, solar panel, wind turbine manufacture, most of the estimates for the required minerals I’ve seen are so gigantic, lets just say expert or not, I’d like to see Elizabeth Holley’s calculations.