Collaborative Research: GCR: Responsible Critical Elements: Transforming Earth Resource Development for a Carbon-Neutral Future

这个日益融合的研究项目解决了能源转型所必需的“关键矿物”需求不断增长的巨大挑战。美国和世界各地的政策制定者呼吁到2050年实现净零碳排放，以减缓全球变暖的速度，但向可再生能源和零碳的过渡将是金属和矿物密集型的。可再生能源和储能所需的一些元素，如钴、镓、锗、铟、碲和钒的需求预计将增长近500%。虽然产生关键矿物供应的新方法有可能确保资源和经济利益，但它们也有可能产生重大的环境和社会影响，而且在各地和社区的分布不均匀。该项目旨在通过确定负责任地确保国内关键元素供应的方法，打破地球资源开发期间边缘化社区遭受环境不公正的历史模式。这项工作汇集了文化人类学，环境社会学，矿产经济学，自然资源和能源政策，经济地质学，采矿工程，土木和地质工程，矿物加工和提炼冶金、环境工程以及环境保护和管理。通过资源效率、可持续发展和环境正义范式的融合，该团队将评估三种情况：1）以关键元素为主要商品的新矿山; 2）从现有采矿作业中回收关键元素的副产品; 3）从历史矿山废物中回收关键元素。对于每一种情况，研究人员将阐明关键元素的特征和物质流，所需的采矿和冶金回收过程，以及生产的环境，社会和经济影响。他们将在课堂上运用他们的融合方法来培养新一代领导人，并将利用这种方法将社区利益相关者，采掘业，政府机构和政策制定者聚集在一起，以改变地球资源的开发。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Growing Convergence Research project addresses the grand challenge of rising demand for “critical minerals” essential to the energy transition. Policymakers in the United States and worldwide have called for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 to slow the rate of global warming, but the transition to renewable energy and zero-carbon will be metal and mineral intensive. Demand is forecasted to increase by nearly 500% for some of the elements required for renewable energy and energy storage, such as cobalt, gallium, germanium, indium, tellurium, and vanadium. Although new approaches to generate supply of critical minerals are likely to secure resources and economic benefits, they also carry potential for significant environmental and social impacts, unevenly distributed across landscapes and communities. This project seeks ways to disrupt the historical pattern of environmental injustices inflicted on marginalized communities during earth resource development, by identifying approaches to responsibly secure the domestic supply of critical elements.This work brings together cultural anthropology, environmental sociology, mineral economics, natural resources and energy policy, economic geology, mining engineering, civil and geological engineering, mineral processing and extractive metallurgy, environmental engineering, and environmental conservation and management. Through convergence among the paradigms of resource efficiency, sustainable development, and environmental justice, the team will evaluate three scenarios: 1) new mines targeting a critical element as the main commodity; 2) byproduct recovery of critical elements from existing mining operations; and 3) critical element recovery from historic mine wastes. For each scenario, researchers will elucidate the characteristics and material flows of critical elements, the required mining and metallurgical recovery processes, and the environmental, social, and economic implications of production. They will apply their convergent approach in the classroom to prepare a new generation of leaders, and will use this approach to bring together community stakeholders, the extractive industries, governmental agencies, and policymakers to transform earth resource development. This proposal is co-funded by the division of Earth Sciences, Petrology & Geochemistry Program and Geobiology & Low-Temperature Geochemistry Program.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.