As we progress toward the future of energy, certain minerals and metals will become much more critical to the nation’s defense sector and overall economic competitiveness. Inactive, orphaned and abandoned mines will play an increasingly important role in meeting our shared projected future demands for these critical minerals.
There are currently more than 140,000 abandoned hard rock mines in the U.S. that were originally excavated for metals like gold, silver, copper, lead or zinc, among others. In the past, these mining companies did not consider producing the minerals that we now deem “critical,” as the economic incentives to do so did not yet exist. Many of these “critical minerals” are often found in the tailings or waste rock storage facilities near old mines.
Waste No Longer
Historically, many mining companies did not recover or process these ancillary minerals because there was no market for them. One example is cobalt, a byproduct of nickel and copper mining and an important mineral needed for EV battery cathodes. Germanium is another byproduct commonly found in lead and zinc mines, now in demand as an important element needed for manufacturing military night-vision goggles, solar panel photovoltaic cells and other products. More than a century ago, no one thought these minerals would have value.
We now have the opportunity to revisit these old mines to test for what minerals might be present in their existing tailings or waste facilities. From a capital expenditure standpoint this makes a lot of sense because it’s cheaper to reprocess existing mine waste than it generally is to open a new mine and extract virgin minerals.
Unfortunate Legal Barriers
There are a number of players — both established mining companies and new players — looking to clean up these old sites and interested in jumping into this market. For example, Rio Tinto is mining battery-grade lithium from its historical boron mine in California, and Perpetua Resources is working to clean up an old gold mine in Idaho to produce antimony, a critical mineral for defense needs. Regeneration Enterprises is another interesting remining company that received an investment in 2021 from Rio Tinto.
Under current law, these companies would be legally liable for cleaning up any contamination found at these mining sites, even if they historically had no involvement in creating the hazardous waste. Of the many abandoned mines in the U.S., the Government Accountability Office estimates that about 22,500 pose environmental hazards. This presents a double incentive to revisit these sites, as third-party operators are now presented with an economic incentive to clean and remediate abandoned mines that did not operate under current closure/remediation regulations while also reprocessing the waste for valuable minerals.
These groups, commonly called Good Samaritans, have good intentions but are being effectively deterred from reclaiming and reprocessing mine waste because they potentially would be on the hook for remediating the sites in perpetuity, which could be enormously expensive.
There is a positive spin to this dilemma, however. There have been multiple rounds of bicameral, bipartisan legislative proposals floating through Congress that would address the problem by limiting liability for Good Samaritan operators. It’s difficult to predict, but if these bills become law, we would likely see this start as a pilot program administered by the EPA and targeting only a certain number of projects. Many industries are supportive, and with the rising need for critical minerals we may see some movement on this in the near future.
Addressing Regulatory Complexity
Opening access to old mines may bring critical minerals to market sooner, as permitting new mines can often be a 20-year cycle. A convoluted and often opaque permitting process is common — and there are many reasons, but it starts with the fact that there are multiple federal, state and local government agencies involved in the permitting process, with each having to communicate and interact in some fashion to complete different steps. These issues are among those that also may lead to communities fighting projects through often-lengthy litigation.
Recently, there has been recognition by both the legislative and executive branches of federal government that the process must be streamlined to benefit all clean energy projects — and most recently, mining. A variety of solutions have been proposed. These range from officially designating a lead federal permitting agency to coordinate permitting across the entire government to requiring completion of a community impact report early in the NEPA process. These steps will address the need for more comprehensive, codified community engagement requirements among other things.
These efforts could be modeled on the FAST Act, which provides accountability, transparency and predictability in the permitting process. Title 41 of the FAST Act created a centralized online dashboard to catalog and track projects — now officially including mining projects — to facilitate coordinated, multiagency reviews of complex high-priority projects. Permitting time lines will decrease if FAST-41 is effectively used for all federally regulated energy and minerals projects, and if combined with a focus on early and ongoing community engagement throughout the life cycle of a mine.
Coordinating federal agencies should work to develop a clear and accessible grievance process for local communities throughout the life cycle of the mine. This step is crucial for improving permitting time lines.
Because we do not produce many minerals in the U.S., we are beholden to other countries for these much-needed imports. This essentially puts the fate of our minerals supply chain in jeopardy if there are supply chain vulnerabilities or geopolitical issues. Still, there are encouraging signs at various levels of government that lead to some optimism that these scenarios will be addressed.
Our transition to a minerals-based energy infrastructure will foster development of a circular economy in which many materials are recycled and repurposed.
