Utah’s Colt Mesa demonstrates how President Biden’s attempts to champion monumental climate and conservation efforts might come head-to-head against one another. The leading concern is that in order to achieve clean energy, it will require the sourcing of valuable minerals and elements.
The disruption to conservation necessitates thoughtful, strategic planning to meet both Biden priorities. Find out more about Colt Mesa and the emerging issue below.
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One such example of the dilemma is southern Utah’s Colt Mesa, which was removed from within the boundaries of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument under the Trump administration and stands to be swept back in under Biden.
Nick Proctor, who with his father owns the Colt Mesa’s mining claims, said the area contains grades of cobalt at higher concentrations than cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which produces more than 60% of the world’s supply via thousands of child laborers.
In fact, some of the world’s largest tech companies like Tesla and Apple are being sued by families of dead or injured children from Congo who worked in the mines. The litigation asserts the companies’ unquenched thirst for cobalt — necessary in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries — is fostering human rights abuses.
Dan Proctor and his son, Nick, survey their mining claim located in the Colt Mesa area of the former Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on Friday, May 14, 2021. The area contains grades of cobalt at higher concentrations than cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Demands of clean energy
But as technology expands to other countries and the electric vehicle market ramps up (Biden wants to deploy more than a half-million new charging stations and get light duty and passenger vehicles to zero emissions) the demand for cobalt is only going to grow.
A World Bank report estimates that by 2050 demand for cobalt will increase by 585% and lithium demand will increase by 965%.
That demand is complicated by what countries control supply and what countries control the subsequent processing of the minerals and elements.
And it is not the United States.
When it comes to cobalt, lithium and rare earth elements, the world’s top three producers control over three-quarters of the global output. China dominates the market globally for rare earth elements and for mineral processing, and according to the International Energy Administration, it has banned exports of rare earth elements.
That puts U.S. defense interests in harm’s way given these elements are used in a variety of manufacturing, including for sophisticated military equipment like jet engines such as F-35 fighter jets housed at Hill Air Force Base near Ogden. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, cobalt-based super alloys are ideal for jet engines because of their stability at high temperatures.
Dan Proctor and his son, Nick, use a compass and GPS to locate their claim posts in the Colt Mesa area of the former Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on Friday, May 14, 2021. The Proctors are required to maintain the active status of their claims and fill out notice of location forms at their claim posts.
The NIMBY syndrome
Although Proctor said there has been some investor interest in his mining claims for copper, nickel and cobalt, the tenuous political status of the area, coupled with pushback from environmental groups, has dampened additional exploration.
“What perplexes me is the NIMBY environmental pushback that Colt Mesa has received, despite it containing high grades of clean energy metals. I would hope that this is mere ignorance regarding clean energy technology,” he said, “otherwise, it would reveal that these folks are less concerned about the environment than they profess. It’s not as though you can will these minerals to be deposited in some other preferable location; they are deposited where they are deposited.”
But Steve Bloch, legal director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said the Proctors knew what they were getting into when they bought the claims right after the monument was downsized with the possibility the monument would be restored.
“Grand Staircase is a world-class outdoor museum and is simply the wrong place for this type of development.”
Proctor has worked with Utah GOP Rep. Chris Stewart’s office to flag the issue for the U.S. Department of Interior as it mulls the fate of the monument.
“If the United States actually intends to have a strong, domestic supply of energy metals for the green revolution, then this deposit ought to be permitted to be studied for its economic and technical feasibility,” Proctor insists.
The Interior Department, coincidentally, has identified a list of 35 critical minerals necessary for the nation’s security and economic prosperity, including cobalt, lithium, tellurium and helium — in which, again, in Utah, an exploratory effort for helium came under intense criticism by conservation groups.”
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The whole story can be found here.