Energy Shift
The Carbon Emissions of Producing Energy Transition Metals: Charted
Visualizing the Carbon Footprint of Metals Mining
Metals are the backbone of clean energy infrastructure and technologies, but the mining and processing of energy transition metals also generates significant carbon emissions.
From the lithium and cobalt needed for electric vehicle batteries to the rare earth metals which power wind turbines, procuring all of these metals comes at a cost to the environment.
This graphic uses data from a KU Leuven report to visualize the carbon emissions from the mining and processing of various energy transition metals.
The Carbon Cost of Mining Clean Energy Metals
Metals mining and processing are highly energy-intensive operations, with the sector accounting for approximately 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. While steel production makes up a large part of mining and metal emissions on the global scale (7%), other metals also generate millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent each year.
Nickel, dysprosium, and cobalt are the three metals which generate the most CO2, with nickel having a high variability depending on the deposit type and end product.
Dysprosium is an essential rare earth metal that is used in neodymium-based magnets found in wind turbines and electric vehicles. Nickel is primarily used in the production of stainless steel, but it is also essential alongside cobalt for the production of nickel-cobalt-aluminum and nickel-manganese=cobalt cathodes for EV batteries.
As a result, the demand for these metals is expected to increase significantly over the next three decades:
Metal | Energy Transition Demand by 2030 | Energy Transition Demand by 2050 |
---|---|---|
Aluminum | 15-22 Mt | 25-42 Mt |
Copper | 5.5-8 Mt | 9-15 Mt |
Zinc | 0.7-1.5 Mt | 1.5-2.7 Mt |
Lithium | 1,900-3,000 kt | 3,700-8,000 kt |
Nickel | 1,000-1,800 kt | 1,800-4,000 kt |
Silicon | 650-1,250 kt | 1,000-1,700 kt |
Cobalt | 130-210 kt | 270-600 kt |
Neodymium | 65-75 kt | 140-170 kt |
Praseodymium | 20-22 kt | 45-55 kt |
Dysprosium | 2.3-4 kt | 3.5-7 kt |
Source: KU Leuven
Amounts in metric tonnes
Mt = million metric tonnes, kt = thousand metric tonnes
While electric vehicles decarbonize automotive emissions, producing the low estimates of the nickel and cobalt needed for the global energy transition (one million tonnes of nickel and 130,000 tonnes of cobalt) would result in almost 25 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Understanding Nickel and Lithium’s Variability in CO2 Emissions
Mining is a highly energy and carbon-intensive process due to the large amounts of heavy machinery and equipment required to extract ore from the ground. However, it’s the processing stages of smelting and refining that typically generate the most carbon emissions.
As seen with lithium and nickel on the chart, these emissions can vary greatly depending on the deposit type and processing methods used to make different end products.
- Compared to nickel sulfide projects, nickel laterite projects can require between 2.5-6x more energy.
- Along with this, producing high-purity class 1 nickel metal emits around 13 kg of CO2 per kg of nickel, while ferronickel (class 2 nickel) emits about 45 kg of CO2 per kilogram of nickel content.
Similarly, lithium production emissions also vary depending on their deposit type and end product.
- Generally, lithium brine projects generate about one-third of the CO2 emissions of a spodumene project.
- Along with this, whether brine or spodumene, producing lithium hydroxide as the end product rather than lithium carbonate produces almost double the emissions.
While there’s plenty of variability, even the lower end of the ranges for nickel and lithium production results in large amounts of carbon emissions.
Mining’s Additional Environmental Costs
Along with carbon emissions from mining and processing operations, these projects have additional tolls on the environment.
Open pit mines dig up vast areas of land spanning multiple kilometers, releasing large amounts of dust and asbestos-like minerals. Along with this, mineral processing operations consume large amounts of water, and resulting mine tailings pose various risks if not stored and disposed of properly.
Simply put, the energy transition will require large amounts of land, energy, and water for the carbon-intensive process of metals mining and refining.
Energy Shift
How Much Does the U.S. Depend on Russian Uranium?
Despite a new uranium ban being discussed in Congress, the U.S. is still heavily dependent on Russian uranium.
How Much Does the U.S. Depend on Russian Uranium?
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a ban on imports of Russian uranium. The bill must pass the Senate before becoming law.
In this graphic, we visualize how much the U.S. relies on Russian uranium, based on data from the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA).
U.S. Suppliers of Enriched Uranium
After Russia invaded Ukraine, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Russian-produced oil and gas—yet Russian-enriched uranium is still being imported.
Currently, Russia is the largest foreign supplier of nuclear power fuel to the United States. In 2022, Russia supplied almost a quarter of the enriched uranium used to fuel America’s fleet of more than 90 commercial reactors.
Country of enrichment service | SWU* | % |
---|---|---|
🇺🇸 United States | 3,876 | 27.34% |
🇷🇺 Russia | 3,409 | 24.04% |
🇩🇪 Germany | 1,763 | 12.40% |
🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 1,593 | 11.23% |
🇳🇱 Netherlands | 1,303 | 9.20% |
Other | 2,232 | 15.79% |
Total | 14,176 | 100% |
SWU stands for “Separative Work Unit” in the uranium industry. It is a measure of the amount of work required to separate isotopes of uranium during the enrichment process. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration
Most of the remaining uranium is imported from European countries, while another portion is produced by a British-Dutch-German consortium operating in the United States called Urenco.
Similarly, nearly a dozen countries around the world depend on Russia for more than half of their enriched uranium—and many of them are NATO-allied members and allies of Ukraine.
In 2023 alone, the U.S. nuclear industry paid over $800 million to Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy corporation, Rosatom, and its fuel subsidiaries.
It is important to note that 19% of electricity in the U.S. is powered by nuclear plants.
The dependency on Russian fuels dates back to the 1990s when the United States turned away from its own enrichment capabilities in favor of using down-blended stocks of Soviet-era weapons-grade uranium.
As part of the new uranium-ban bill, the Biden administration plans to allocate $2.2 billion for the expansion of uranium enrichment facilities in the United States.
Energy Shift
Visualizing the Rise of the U.S. as Top Crude Oil Producer
Over the last decade, the U.S. has surpassed Saudi Arabia and Russia as the world’s top producer of crude oil.
Visualizing the Rise of the U.S. as Top Crude Oil Producer
Over the last decade, the United States has established itself as the world’s top producer of crude oil, surpassing Saudi Arabia and Russia.
This infographic illustrates the rise of the U.S. as the biggest oil producer, based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
U.S. Takes Lead in 2018
Over the last three decades, the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Russia have alternated as the top crude producers, but always by small margins.
During the 1990s, Saudi Arabia dominated crude production, taking advantage of its extensive oil reserves. The petroleum sector accounts for roughly 42% of the country’s GDP, 87% of its budget revenues, and 90% of export earnings.
However, during the 2000s, Russia surpassed Saudi Arabia in production during some years, following strategic investments in expanding its oil infrastructure. The majority of Russia’s oil goes to OECD Europe (60%), with around 20% going to China.
Crude Oil Production | United States | Saudi Arabia | Russia |
---|---|---|---|
1992 | 11.93% | 13.97% | 12.74% |
1993 | 11.50% | 13.68% | 11.35% |
1994 | 10.96% | 13.32% | 10.50% |
1995 | 10.60% | 13.17% | 9.96% |
1996 | 10.21% | 12.87% | 9.49% |
1997 | 9.84% | 12.73% | 9.29% |
1998 | 9.39% | 12.58% | 9.05% |
1999 | 9.06% | 11.99% | 9.33% |
2000 | 8.67% | 12.33% | 9.64% |
2001 | 8.65% | 11.89% | 10.45% |
2002 | 8.63% | 11.49% | 11.53% |
2003 | 8.05% | 12.92% | 12.10% |
2004 | 7.46% | 12.74% | 12.67% |
2005 | 7.00% | 13.21% | 12.82% |
2006 | 6.85% | 13.00% | 12.90% |
2007 | 6.84% | 12.38% | 13.29% |
2008 | 6.71% | 12.44% | 12.56% |
2009 | 7.32% | 11.28% | 12.98% |
2010 | 7.37% | 11.31% | 13.03% |
2011 | 7.55% | 12.81% | 13.02% |
2012 | 8.50% | 13.04% | 12.94% |
2013 | 9.76% | 12.86% | 13.10% |
2014 | 11.18% | 12.60% | 12.86% |
2015 | 11.67% | 12.77% | 12.66% |
2016 | 10.92% | 13.12% | 13.02% |
2017 | 11.53% | 12.68% | 13.05% |
2018 | 13.21% | 12.77% | 12.96% |
2019 | 14.90% | 12.15% | 13.20% |
2020 | 14.87% | 12.37% | 12.97% |
2021 | 14.59% | 12.06% | 13.10% |
2022 | 14.73% | 13.17% | 12.76% |
Over the 2010s, the U.S. witnessed an increase in domestic production, much of it attributable to hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in the shale formations ranging from Texas to North Dakota. It became the world’s largest oil producer in 2018, outproducing Russia and Saudi Arabia.
The U.S. accounted for 14.7% of crude oil production worldwide in 2022, compared to 13.1% for Saudi Arabia and 12.7% for Russia.
Despite leading petroleum production, the U.S. still trails seven countries in remaining proven reserves underground, with 55,251 million barrels.
Venezuela has the biggest reserves with 303,221 million barrels. Saudi Arabia, with 267,192 million barrels, occupies the second spot, while Russia is seventh with 80,000 million barrels.
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