See that row of quarry trucks parked on the lower right? It takes a full load on each of those, together , to make one battery. It takes about 400,000 pounds of ore to make one, yeah, one, battery. Making and recycling batteries of any sort, lead acid, NiCad, lithium, or anything else is the dirtiest business on the planet. Cleaning up the mess is why a battery costs the price of a house down payment.
And look at that pic again. Where do you suppose they’re putting the leftovers which amount to 99% of the dig?
Sounds like a bull market for Caterpillar and Komatsu, right?
I live near lead mining country. They make ponds to hold the toxic crud left over from mining. You can get some real cheap land in areas they used to mine but you might have to bring in water. You can put a well in but the water’s apt to have a lot of lead in it. Even if it doesn’t right off the bat, you have to have it tested every three months. Don’t even think you’re going to have a garden there.
Back in the 1800s, there were more people and less trees here. They used to mine for iron ore and they cut every tree down that was feasible to haul to use for the smelters. Then the iron ore ran out. Now it’s cattle country with a few lead mines which is the only thing left.
Mining is some nasty stuff. You won’t find any old guys that worked in the lead mines. They’re all dead.
There’s a lead recycling plant here and the employees have to get regular blood tests. When their lead levels get too high, they get rotated to a task away from the lead until their blood lead level comes back down. No old people around that have worked there either.
Yup. I’ve said before that the planet will hit a diminishing returns on sourcing components for these batteries. Ten years from now, let’s remember today’s forecasts.