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

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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.