How sustainable mining is training for profitable harvesting of metals in space
A man might sit in silence for some time after reading the book “Small is Beautiful” by E.F. Schumacher and then ask a friend, show the difficulty in understanding, how humans can convince themselves that living beyond natural boundaries may end up well. Not that the friend can reply with anything other than that we need our stuff and it won’t run out any day soon. The paradox of our time is not easy. These are my favourite issues. Our divorce from nature was ugly and the scares may never heal. Once we had a good relationship.
Yet in one invasive practice, mining, that deepens the wound in the side of Mother Earth daily, there is emerging technology, that could stop the pain. A minimal approach, a small is beautiful approach. Such cleverness can amplify satisfaction. Schumacher’s thesis was written fifty years ago, he was ahead of its time and he is worth reading now, especially if you are a student of sustainability.
The challenge in small and efficient solutions is theory of economy of scale. However, those economics are changing, electricity is not cheap anymore. Because of the enormous energy demand and inefficiency of large scale mining and the increasing hardness of ore, smaller operations may soon work. Bigger is now not better.
While mining sustainably is an oxymoron. There is a finite supply, metal does not grow, there is a limited amount, once it is gone it is gone. Only if we must go into space can we find more. No sustainable mining can occur on this planet, that is ridiculous. Not when economic copper reserves will last forty years. Then, when the virgin stock is gone, we must rely on recycling and that does not give us enough for our grand plans to flourish.
Robots and learning machines are our devices for smart small scale solutions vital to survival. Robots like ants excavating, processing and transporting without destroying what is precious. That is the art of removing ore from the earth without disruption, drawing energy from the sun. Holding the environment without waste to drain into wetlands with the flood. Nor sucking dry rivers, depleting groundwater the vital elixir. Beautiful pink flamingos are vanishing in South America from lithium mining and similar in other habitat of animals that live in waterways.
Now when we researchers write papers we tell a story. To justify the work and explain the need and amplifying the dilemma of today, unlimited thinking in a limited space. The abundance delusion.
We simply explain what to do. Yes we have the technology today, this is not science fiction. But obviously not the will or understanding to use it. Certainly not in mining. Renewable power is cheap and reliable and the technology well developed but little used. Robots do many tasks in manufacturing today. Machine learning is the most successful software development and when combined with renewables and robotics will enable mining here on earth that does no harm.
But we know the score. Too many people depend on the way things are. Change is meant to be slow our inner self confides. That is the good thing about space. Like a far distance land it holds untold treasure, there are virtually unlimited valuable metals on other planets and no entrenched industries to disrupt.
That space mining must be small scale and highly efficient is obvious. It must be energy effective only processing value ore, leaving waste as backfill and require little or no water and be done underground to keep miners safe from cosmic radiation. That is also the description of a sustainable method for building a mine, a solution for environmental protection and the miners on earth.
This idea, if embraced is not only a green option, but good policy and business practice, opens investment pathways that does benefit the planet today, drawing on that available green pool of money and brings to the shrewd investor a bounty in the future, it is capitalism at its best.
Small scale systems bring greater stability, sustainability, and justice to the economy as Schumacher believed and as he said economics must be a means, not an end, and put people and communities first, over profit. While I am not saying we should remove profit as a motive for projects and I suggest neither was he, instead we should make economics work for us, and put wellbeing not wealth as a goal, while this is humanitarian, it is also rather sensible, if we wish to survive.
Our wellbeing is important, for who will be able to spend the money when we are gone. Our survival opportunity as a society is enhanced when we become a successful multi planetary species. Mining businesses it is the time to broaden the project scope. The small scale efficient and clean mine will be difficult to make profitable without a life of mine horizon in the stars. Be the first out in space, with the best technology and the most innovative solutions.
The “Small is Beautiful” theory remains significant today, influencing movements for a greener and fairer economy. It does not however provide a solution. No clear picture, however with further research and exploiting progress towards a carbon-free future for space exploration then in a decade or so we might have something that works.
There is a green premium which means metals made with renewable energy and that recycle waste for building and use no water, fouls nothing are not cheaper. That is a goal and people should not pay more to live well. But the right technology opens, for all of us, a sustainable economy and bright future, but is unlikely to happen without the investment having an alternative purpose. Developing space technology.
In the future, to mine metal we might deploy small autonomous mining agents which follow ore of optimal grade and hardness. Optimum processing is realised by matching hard ore with high solar irradiation, this is energy efficient mining on a small scale with out environmentally damaging operations.
We wish to trigger a circular economy but our progress to date indicates that without a broader economic base we will consume the earth.
It is time to face this truth. There is no way to make products cheaper than fossil fuel make them. When we produce metal by processing ore with the sun, efficient energy consumption without emissions it will cost more. By using an intelligent microgrid control with solar tracking capability, exploiting electric vehicles and sorting ore to reduce battery and solar array is an investment. We are learning how to mine in space. The investment can be sold, because the opportunities are near, by 2050 we will be harvesting resources off planet.
Of course there are obstacles, innovation is never easy and changing things can be difficult but the prospects and economic feasibility of sustainable mining along with intelligent photovoltaic battery microgrids and autonomous mining agents, hold promise for revolutionizing the mining industry. By expanding mining capability into the remotest location, and outer space.
Why should we accept our limited options. Environmentally friendly harvesting of resources across the entire universe, why not, that will allow humankind to sustain itself and become a multi-planetary species.