Governments seek an expansion of global mining as part of the transition away from oil and coal. It’s a disruptive undertaking

See ‘The War Below’ Review: Digging for Minerals by Mark P. Mills. He is a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He reviewed the book The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives by Ernest Scheyder. Excerpts:

"it’s consequential when the governments of Europe and the U.S. implement policies requiring that global mining expand, and soon, by 400% to 7,000%."

"The last time global mining production expanded at this scale it took place across eight decades—from 1940 to the present—not the one or two decades the transitionists imagine."

"Global mining today involves excavating and moving a quantity of rock each year equivalent to the tonnage of 7,000 Great Pyramids. Transition aspirations would require a tonnage north of 50,000 pyramids annually."

"China has become the dominant global supplier of energy minerals and controls roughly 80% of the world’s electric-vehicle battery market."

"in 2023 a major copper-mine expansion project in Arizona failed not because of regulations or protests but “because the company didn’t have enough workers.” Much of the existing workforce is aging out. Meanwhile, the number of students pursuing mining engineering in America has collapsed. Last year the U.S. saw 600 such enrollments, while China had more than one million."

"The rise in American privately funded oil-and-gas shale production has added 150% as much energy supply as the combined output from all the world’s subsidized wind and solar sources."