If you’ve ever read a harrowing book about ships like the RV Belgica or the HMS Terror, you know being icebound is no joke. But if Greenland is a rich source of them, why haven’t they been mined there before now? CNN explains that the melting ice pack around Greenland has made it far more practical for ships to access the Greenland coast for a longer period of time each year. So yes, nickel and cobalt are keenly desired in the battery industry. That lowers charge time, something experts say is key to increasing adoption of electric vehicles. In rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, for example, cobalt’s role is to greatly increase how quickly the lithium ions can be passed back and forth. So while 70 percent of Earth’s deposits of cobalt are believed to be in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the industry is interested in finding that other 30 percent for both political and supply chain stability. So far, the industry has been centered in the Democratic Republic of Congo, an underdeveloped and war-torn nation where child labor is often used. Nickel is quite plentiful in nature, but most is still used to make stainless steel an increased demand for batteries could squeeze the existing supply.Ĭobalt is more contested and controversial, with a price that increased more than 50 percent between March 2021 and March 2022. In particular, nickel is a low-cost resource that has high energy density, meaning a particular amount of nickel can store more battery power than the same amount of another material could. Nickel and cobalt are key metals for the battery industry, which is expected to boom as our society decarbonizes everything from fossil fuel-powered cars to generators in favor of electrics. But can both takes be true at once? We spoke to a few experts to find out. But the participating startup, KoBold Metals, says the materials it wants to mine-nickel and cobalt-will actually help us fight climate change more effectively. It inspired a ton of predictable responses about billionaires dancing on Earth’s grave. We'll help you make sense of it all-join Pop Mech Pro.
Nickel and cobalt are key to today’s battery industry and efforts to decarbonize.Įarlier this month, CNN published a piece provocatively titled “ Billionaires are funding a massive treasure hunt in Greenland as ice vanishes.” In the story, reporter René Marsh explains that investors including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos have helped fund an expedition to explore the mineral wealths of Greenland, a feat made easier by the ravages of climate change.Greenland is more accessible today due to climate change causing Arctic melt.Billionaires are investing in exploratory mining for cobalt and nickel on Greenland’s west coast.
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