Episode 058 | May 29, 2023 | 41:54
Guest: Skage Hem
Published: May 29, 2023
Duration: 41:54
Description
Joachim Almdal and Skage Hem, Geologist at Alumichem, discuss the process of mining metals and minerals used in healthcare products. They explore environmental impact of mining, efficient energy storage, CO2 emissions in healthcare, traceability through the supply chain, conscious consumption and recycling.
Full transcript
About this transcript
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The elements we are looking for are everywhere. It is just a matter of concentration. Rule of thumb: every time you double the price of a metal, you more or less quadruple the number of deposits.
Hello and welcome to the Sustainable Healthcare Podcast. Most CO2 emissions in healthcare come from Scope 3. Today Skage joins us — PhD in geology, head of R&D at FLSmidth. We take a deep dive into mining: metals and minerals we use every day, where the CO2 comes from, and what the environmental factors are.
Skage’s path: master’s on gold mines in southern Spain. PhD on cobalt and nickel phase relationships. Worked three years in Sudbury, Canada — the biggest nickel mining town in the world. Then FLSmidth, sometimes cement, sometimes mining materials.
The copper in your smartphone, journey from a mountain in Chile: industrious geologists map the area, drill samples deep down, build a model — “we believe we have 50,000 tons of copper here.” Then build a project plan: surface mining (a big cone-shaped hole — the “strip ratio” is how much waste per ton of ore) or underground tunnel mining for deeper, higher-concentration deposits. Big trucks drive in the tunnels. In Kiruna, Sweden, they’re moving the town because the ore underneath is so valuable that mining underneath threatens collapse.
Then crushing — huge crushers weighing maybe 800 tons, like very-high-quality pepper grinders for rocks one metre across. Then a mill — a “drying tumbler” with steel balls inside that further crushes. Then flotation: chemicals (hydrophilic on one end, sulfophilic on the other) attach to air bubbles and to sulfides/metals, so valuable material floats to the surface as foam, which is then raked off. Then dewatering, then smelting. In smelting, non-valuable slag rises and metal sinks — you tap off the valuable layer. Then oxidize sulfur out and you have metal.
Scale: a modern copper ore is maybe half a percent copper. For every gram of copper you extract 200 grams of rock. Big mines: 250,000 tons of waste a year. Of waste rock there is more or less a linear relationship with ore output. For every ton of material processed you use 2-4 cubic metres of water. Tailings dams are huge environmental hazards — Brazil dam collapse five years ago poured enormous mud over towns. Mining companies have become more careful after such catastrophes.
Chemicals: gold production used to use cyanide (carbon and nitrogen — biodegradable). Mercury was used because it sticks to gold and makes it easy to process — but it’s environmental poison. Industry has moved away from mercury.
The companies: 95%+ of what we consume comes from huge multinational mining companies. 40 years ago some had a very bad reputation — “states within states” in some places. Today many are environmentally conscious with strict CSR policies. Rio Tinto (Danish CEO), Anglo-American work hard on lowering environmental impact. But it’s a complex, long journey. Investor pressure and the workforce want it — “nobody in a mining company wants to be bad.”
From project start to first production is on average about 15 years. Investments are massive — risk dominates decisions. Once a mine is operating, they won’t shut it. But they do test new technologies, work with junior companies and startups. Promising: early waste rejection — sort the ore before processing. Selective mining — find ore in the deposit precisely.
Energy: roughly 40% for crushing/comminution, 60% for material transport. Trucks use diesel. Large electrification programs going on. Anglo-American’s innovation mindset is similar to Green Innovation Group’s — same mindset, just at a different challenge scale. Electrify trucks, replace drivers with automated systems that optimise braking and acceleration. Future scenarios assume solar plus a way to store energy 24/7 — like a dam where you pump water up and let it run through turbines. Crushing and milling are increasingly electrified.
Most consumer products you buy in a hospital or factory have these emissions baked into Scope 3 — Skage’s view: don’t worry about running out of materials, worry that they become financially unattractive. Consume less. Recycling and conscious consumption matters.
Gold ring example — diamonds and rocks have to be crushed somewhere in Africa for one diamond. A cubic zirconia is environmentally far better and few can tell the difference. But the romance.
Asking questions about health and safety for workers in the supply chain is perfectly valid — most multinational producers are well-regulated; small unregulated artisanal mining still exists in some places. Two copper bars have exactly the same properties regardless of environmental impact — but the “good” bar can cost twice as much as the “evil” bar. How do we discern? Most producers are self-regulating under investor, customer and workforce pressure.
Summary: mining is about finding high concentrations of a metal (still maybe 0.5%), crushing big rocks, refining. Iron ore is 40-60%, gold is much less. We are not running out — the price will go up, slow decline. That means it is urgent for procurement departments dependent on electronics to think now about a future where supply becomes very expensive. Thank you Skage. Thanks for listening — please share and subscribe.