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

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.

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.

Highly recommend. In-depth, interesting, and entertaining read.

An interesting topic, and author obviously knows a lot about the subject matter.....but I think readers want to know a bit more about how this battle between the miners and the environmentalists is going to end.....are we going to hit the wall in five years if miners are stopped, then what happens, etc...

I found this to be a very informative book, although it is not as technically oriented as much as I would have liked. Maybe that is a virtue for it. The author, Ernest Scheyder, is a journalist, not a metallurgist or a scientist. Essentially, Scheyder argues that the U.S. is in a huge economic quandary:* American climate change technology requires much more use of electrically powered vehicles and other items of equipment in order to reduce carbon emissions. In addition, the batteries and computer systems required for those things use large amounts copper, lithium, and rare earths. Cellphones and many other products such as television screens, computer monitors, and so forth also require those rare earth elements.* Currently, China produces approximately 80% of the world’s lithium, rare earths, and lithium batteries. The U.S. desires to become less dependent on China for these items.* That means producing such raw materials in the US, which requires extensive mining. Mining, in turn, is environmentally damaging. Historically, the U.S. has avoided such environmental unpleasantries by importing its raw materials from Third World countries. In effect, the US solved its environmental problems by exporting them to other countries. These Third World countries are now resisting such policies.So: to summarize, we want less carbon emissions, more domestic materials sources, and a pristine environment. Pick any two.Each chapter in the book discusses an example of some copper, lithium, or rare earths mining project proposed in some location in the US and the environmental or society objections to it. It has so far proven impossible to square the circle of an independent material source and simultaneously not be damaging to the environment.In telling these vignettes, the author presents much statistical and economic information on the issues.

I've been in mining for more than 40 years and this book is incredibly balanced in explaining the miner's, government's and environmental viewpoints and does it without providing.his personal opinion or bias. The issues are complicated but the author dug deep and did a wonderful job in describing the challenges each group faces. Well done Ernest!

I really enjoyed that this book was able to tell the human story behind why the green energy transition is so complicated - where all the materials can (and are) coming from and leaves us with some ideas of where things are going in the future. Learned a lot!

He’s enjoying the read.

The book, whilst also looking at copper, provides an interesting overview of the way in which the US, and mining companies, have sought to counter Chinese domination of the lithium supply chain. A quote from one of the characters in the book; "are we really going to choose electric cars over nature itself" takes us to the heart of the matter, as mining companies stumble awkwardly in their attempts to monotise lithium resources. Since the book was written the EV/Lithium dream story has become upended and many of the players in the book have seen their share prices and their prospects considerably diminished. Essential reading for the leaders of the CCP, who have effectively utilised Mao's philosophy of the Long March to achieve almost total domination of the lithium supply chain.

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