GREEN MINING

There is serious determination around the world to transform to greener economies, and mining, similar to other economic activities, is adjusting its working conditions in order to comply with climatic change. Mining is one of the industries that directly interact with the environment; therefore, it is necessary to rely on new technologies to improve mining efficiency, minimize waste, and reduced its impact on the environment. Governments are the key players in encouraging green mining by focusing on the following key issues:

• Formalizing artisanal and illegal mining activities.
• Encouraging environmentally friendly mining processes for new mining activities.
• Enforcing closure plans for mine sites to prevent environmental problems.
• Support Research and Development of Green Mining Technology.

Transition and energy minerals

Recently, the world is in conflict with time for a major transition to clean energy.  Most countries and companies seek to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by applying a wide range of clean energy technologies. The transition to clean energy technologies may be impossible without transition minerals, because most of the technologies rely on such critical minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, manganese, graphite, chromium, molybdenum, zinc, silicon, cobalt and rare earth elements.

The shift to a clean energy system is set to drive a huge increase in the requirements for these minerals; World Bank Group reported that the production of minerals, such as graphite, lithium and cobalt, could increase by nearly 500% by 2050, to meet the growing demand for clean energy technologies.

There is good potential in Egypt for occurrences of these critical minerals especially for Lithium, Manganese, and Silicon. What is the way forward for Egypt to become among the transition minerals producers?