Time for earnest conversations is now, says author
- 20 December 2024
The War Below author Ernest Scheyder says key themes in his book about minerals replacing oil in the world’s energy mix are “community and choice”. But in a conversation with experienced company executive Elaine Dorward-King at Resourcing Tomorrow 2024 in London he pointed to the importance of two topics not really canvassed in the book.
Scheyder alluded to the influence of education and general ignorance in the context of mining’s battle to get traction, first, with a public that apparently dislikes it and, secondly, with policymakers and regulators – principally in the US – to get projects developed faster.
The book asks the reader what they would do if put in a position to compare the intrinsic value of, for example, a large copper deposit somewhere in the USA, with a religious site, or a unique floral habitat, or even a modern town or village.
Laws and even new industry mandates preclude World Heritage Sites from being mined in most places. “The costs outweigh the benefits,” says the International Council on Mining and Metals.
However, in The War Below, Scheyder focuses on more prosaic choices being presented to communities on new mines.
A Reuters journalist who had The War Below published in mid-2024, he spent months examining the stories around significant mining projects caught up in a multi-jurisdiction, multi-layered battle between proponents and development opponents, generally local landowners and other interest groups who don’t want mining near their homes, schools, communities and sites of historical importance.
Destruction of natural, and unnatural, amenities is seen as too high a price vis-à-vis returns from what’s under the ground.
Even if the products from the mine are used in most of the things they can’t live without: food, homes, cars and smart phones.
Even if the products from the mine are being used to help address anthropogenic global warming and its effects on climate.
Scheyder said in London: “I was talking at Climate Week NYC [New York City] about the book a month or two ago with someone in a similar presentation as this one and I said to this person, did you know that the fight against climate change is linked to mining?
“And he was shocked. He had no clue.
“And it was an earnest shock.
“Like, he said, are you pulling my leg? I said, no. All of these products [solar, wind, batteries, etc] need to be built with stuff that comes out of the ground. For him that was a mind-blowing experience. And this is a very educated person who's out publicly in the world.
“To me that was telling.”
Scheyder, who’s been extensively promoting the book through various channels for months, said children in schools were also not getting an understanding of mining’s significance.
“For those of us who remember grade school you might have had a teacher who said we’re going to grow a little plant – maybe a corn stalk – in the back corner of your classroom. And that was designed to encourage kids to understand agriculture and food chains.
“We don't do the same thing for mining.”
While miners themselves can be blamed – and frequently blame themselves – for major communication failures, they can’t accept full credit for this level of ignorance.
Scheyder’s anecdotes underscore unvoiced messages in his book about wars over relative values being fought on emotions and traditions rather than science and facts.
It’s just the way we are. For better or worse.
“There are tough choices to be made,” the author said.
“One [case study] that was particularly important that I wanted to bring to audiences was the fight over the Resolution copper project in Arizona in the United States, one of the largest copper deposits in North America.
“It’s an underground deposit, and Rio Tinto and BHP are working to develop it.
“They face strong opposition from indigenous groups on a nearby Indian reservation that say that if this mine deposit is developed it will cause a giant crater that will essentially swallow this holy site in time.
“And so the tension right from the very beginning is, does copper for the energy transition override the Native Americans religious rights here? What matters more?
“The Resolution example [also] busts one of these myths that we have of resource extraction opposition – that it's just one side versus another.
“For instance, the town mayor for about 10 years in Superior, Arizona, Mila Besich … is a Democrat and generally the [US political] stereotype is Republicans favour extractive industries and Democrats oppose them. She wants the mine and she wants it for purely economic reasons and she strongly opposes, in her perspective and her view, that the site is considered sacred to Native Americans.
“She’s from a primarily Hispanic background. And so this adds another layer of complexity to the mix.
“Here is a mayor who vociferously supported president Biden and vice president Harris and helped them get elected and help them win the state of Arizona and she wants the mine.
“The average income in this town is less than US$30,000 per year. The mine is promising to pay salaries north of $100,000. You can clearly see why she wants this mine to open.”
Asked specifically about signs of greater pragmatism in public decision making, Scheyder said he noted efforts by some governments to try to streamline permitting processes.
“The United States, of course, is going through a presidential transition so we'll see what incoming president Trump does,” he said.
“Other countries are taking some steps.
“But in general I would say what I heard from folks in industry and also, I will say, in conservation circles, regardless of the country, but just in general in the West, was that the permitting process can be very confusing and opaque and it's very hard to know how you actually get to a final answer, whether that's in the affirmative or in the negative, when it comes to a mine.
“Whereas other countries, maybe China, given it has more of a command-control economy, might be able to basically take a more direct, top-down approach to mine permitting.
“And that’s just a different way we approach everything in our societies. So I don’t think that’s an issue that we’re going to be able to solve here on this stage.
“But in general what I heard time and time again is that there is a confusion with the permitting process in the West.
“In the United States the law that governs hard rock mining in much of the country has been around since 1872.
“I think we can confidently say the law which was signed by president Ulysses S Grant, the Civil War general, did not imagine cell phones, laptops, the giant screen behind us, electric cars, etcetera.
“It’s not a law that’s fit for purpose.
“There are many other countries around the world that have laws that are old, frankly speaking, that are not designed for this new way of how we're going to be living our lives.
“Time and time again I did hear that. And for me, it gets back to this issue of conversation. What do we as a society value?
“I do argue in the book that indecision is a decision. By us choosing to put our heads in the sand like an ostrich we are actually making a decision.
“I just don't think we're having those conversations broadly, especially among average, everyday persons.
“We didn't really have these conversations 100, 150 years ago when the oil-based economy was taking off. [But] I do argue in the narrative that we need to be having these conversations as materials increasingly underpin our global economy.
“Whoever controls the production of lithium and copper and nickel and other critical minerals will control the 21st century economy the way the control of oil defined the 20th century economy.”
