
Rio Tinto to Produce Lithium in California, Joining Electric Car Battery Race - hhs
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-22/rio-to-begin-lithium-output-in-california-eyes-u-s-no-1-slot
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mc32
This is interesting. This not a mine per se, but rather a re-mining of the
tailings from previous mining at a site in Death Valley. They were “sifting”
for precious metals when they realized it had considerable lithium.

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reaperducer
I'm not sure I understand the geography here. The article says this is
happening in Boron, which is 150 miles southwest of Death Valley.

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ijidak
Wake me up when someone solves the cobalt problem.

Cobalt is where the cost threat lies for lithium-ion car batteries.

See: [https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/battery-builders-get-
the...](https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/battery-builders-get-the-cobalt-
blues/3008738.article)

~~~
rmm
it's not a problem, just like lithium is not a problem and Vanadium is not a
problem and (add any other hyped resource) is not a problem.

A lot of this is i believe FUD, and sometimes when i get real pessimistic, i
think it mustclever marketing on the part of some of there resource companies.

There just hasnt been enough demand for cobalt in the past. Trust me, once the
price gets high enough, everyone will be going back to their old nickel mine
core samples and making market announcements.

The amount of cobalt work I did back in 2016 when it first came on the radar
is ridiculous. Kept me busy after lithium started to die. But now its all
Vanadium.... And Zinc also Gold but Vanadium is the sexy one.

Literally happens every. single. time.

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ghostDancer
So it's like the miracle food , but in the case of food they "discover" every
2 years an old almost secret ancient food eaten by a old asian/southamerican
people that will provide you with any buzz word and make you healthier. And
suddenly is all over the blogs and recipe pages. Till the fade passes and
discover a new one

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rmm
HydroMining (which I assume will be the process they use) takes a LOT of
water. Hope they got plenty of it.

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Uhuhreally
There exists a way to convert CO2 into high-capacity batteries but nobody's
looking for it because they think the only way to make batteries is with
Lithium

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wideasleep1
I would also expect other LiIon (LiFePo specifically) cells to similarly
benefit, making powerwalls for homes,both grid-tied and off-grid, much more
affordable.

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kennywinker
Rio Tinto, for the record, has been accused of war crimes and genocide in
Papua New Guinean. Among other horrible and corrupt things.

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roenxi
I have heard a few unique perspectives about Bougainville Copper.

Rio Tinto held an old-fashioned and anglosphere-centric view that the
government represented the people. The idea that negotiating with a government
in Port Moresby was different from negotiating with the locals; and the idea
that the situation would devolve so badly were both foreign to senior
management who were used to stable and representative democratic government.

Bougainville was quite a lawless place. As it turned out Rio Tinto should
never have tried to invest there but it isn't obvious how they could have
known that in advance. Should they not have looked to the PNG government for
law enforcement? Should they have resisted the PNG military? Morally,
possibly. Practically it wasn't obvious.

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qtplatypus
Sure that is one factor. However the environmental impact of the mining as
well as insufficient compensation to the people of Boganville is also
contributed to the conflict.

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roenxi
> The mine was vitally important to the economy of Papua New Guinea. The PNG
> national government received a 20% share of profit from the mine, of which
> the Bougainvilleans received 5% - 1.25% share of the total profit [0]

Present day PNG has a per-capita GDP in the single-digit thousands, and that
mine was a money printing machine.

Did the mine operation contribute to the conflict? Obviously yes, it was a
major contributing cause. Insufficient compensation? Pull the other one, that
sort profit sharing is reasonable and traditionally governments regulate if
the environmental conditions aren't suitable. Besides, the environmental
impact will have done them vastly less damage than them killing each other and
and being dirt poor.

Francis Ona did a great deal of damage to PNG and to Beugainville, as did the
PNG government's obvious mismanagement of the Beugainville region.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougainville_Copper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougainville_Copper)

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qtplatypus
From the wiki you are quoting from the Australian courts found that it was
inadequate.

As to the government environmental regulation was insufficient I completely
agree. However I am of the (perhaps naive) view that a company should be
engaging in best practice with regards to environmental impact rather then
"Only enough to comply with local laws".

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roenxi
That judgement is talking about a specific case of local farmers land plots
damaged by building an access road; not the profit sharing situation of the
mine overall.

I'd be shocked if they offered something that was normal under Australian law;
Australian property is worth an order of magnitude more than PNG property.
Purchasing Power Parity and all that.

You can't find a large project that pleases everyone. Roads, mines,
skyscrapers, etc all upset somebody; such disputes are neither war crimes nor
genocide. They aren't even a reflection of how much money the project is
funnelling in to the local economy.

Also, best practice in the 80s was pretty poor practice. Miners have learned a
lot / been regulated very differently in recent decades.

