The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives

Well-written and well-researched. Would recommend!!

The recent push to subsidize supply side expansion in the US has made abundant headlines. As national competition picks up and the disruptions during COVID has highlighted the fragilities of depending on complex supply chains the popular push to bring back more manufacturing is in full swing. Associated with this is a desire to broaden the material base as well including copper and lithium. The War Below discusses some of the dynamics at big projects in the US to expand US production of copper and lithium and how they run into a variety of domestic NIMBY issues. It is informative and a reminder at how complex the issues can be. The War Below focuses predominantly on the energy transition and the goals of the US with respect to decarbonization. Electric vehicles and batteries require substantially more copper and depend on lithium for the battery chemistry. The book highlights both the history of these technologies as well as the real world mining that is being considered for extraction including some of the technologies for things like lithium. The current national agendas to rely on one's own resources are riddled with incoherent politics. The reason for outsourcing so much of resource mining is that it is both carbon intensive and polluting and that is not avoidable without adding significant cost. As societies grew richer they were willing to pay for imports vs rely on such commodities domestically when the externalities had grown so much. Given the externalities are both global (in carbon) and local in water/soil degradation the reshoring of mining is causing significant pushback in local communities. There remains conflicting views with the job market benefits competing with the environmental pushback creating different outcomes for different cohorts. This book studies these disagreements through the stories of the people litigating and or the politics being brokered. It is informative as it highlights the practical issues with mining and the concerns that constituents have. The book highlights the false promise of the big directives of government and shows that the real project have positive and negative consequences and we cannot pretend otherwise. As an overall perspective it is much more solid on local politics than it is on production technology but it is a worthwhile read to contextualize the likelihood of success of certain political agendas and the inevitable frictions the system will witness as policies get pushed down to the project level.

First, this is good, easy reading; well written with something new and interesting found at every turn of the journalist author's gaze. He surveys the current metals mining and processing scene by taking snapshots of various mine and processing project "battles" and talking to various major parties. Next, it is balanced and does not take sides. But for those taking a side, the foibles of the other are there to be found, be they investors, miners, land owners, Indigenous peoples, environmentalists, politicians, and so on. It is hard to find winners here, and perhaps that is the point. To better understand all sides and to find compromises so that we can "power our lives". As a bit of disclosure, I have been involved in a couple of the projects discussed and I found the treatment of them fair, while also learning things about them, from different perspectives, that I did not know.

It is an interesting overview of some of the lithium, nickel, cobalt, and copper projects. I wish there had been more detail in some areas. The author points out how much diesel would be used over a mine’s life but doesn’t mention the net CO2 emissions change if the mine’s output went into EV batteries. Plus, electric haul trucks are being tested. There’s discussion on using sulfuric acid to leach metals like that is some sort of existential threat. Sulfuric acid is used daily in a myriad of processes with no issue. It’s like he’s trying to scare people. There was one process he got totally wrong - it might have been gold. Thacker Pass is going to bring sulfur in to produce sulfuric acid. This is mentioned as a scary thing. Elemental sulfur is relatively benign. They need power and sulfuric acid at Thacker Pass, so why not burn sulfur to generate both? He gives plenty of space to people who are against mining of any sort but doesn’t delve into what happens if we do nothing. I also was peeved every time the terms ‘white metal’, ‘red metal’, and ‘green metal’ were used. Just say lithium, copper, and cobalt for hell’s sake! Thacker Pass is proceeding - as of today. Rhyolite Ridge is still on hold. Orocobre was acquired by Livent to become Arcadium Lithium - for 6 months. Arcadium has been acquired by Rio Tinto. Jadar is still going nowhere. Bolivia’s lithium has not been the boon they hoped for. Smackover is being evaluated. They are doing feasibility studies. The Energy Source project hasn’t really gone anywhere. They’ve done loads of testing but haven’t started construction on the plant. CRT-Hell’s Kitchen seems to be a pipe dream. There is a lot of opposition to it and the ES project.

Overhyped title unfortunately. It’s like a collection of corporate mining stories, incidents and deals without h providing enough background on the industry and its history, no clear red threat. I was very excited and looking forward to it to be disappointed.

Y aburrido

Great insights on the mining sector and very helpful for understanding the different points of view. Wide and deep bibliography, many sources useful to know

Probably the most boring book in the topic I've ever read. A few interesting facts, but far too many personal stories. The book could have been a third of the length and still impart the same amount of information.

He’s enjoying the read.