Critical Minerals | Why Do You Study That?

Do you know what your phone is made of – and where this material comes from?

In this episode of Why Do You Study That?, Duke environmental scientist Avner Vengosh takes us on a journey around the world to track critical minerals. Metals like lithium and cobalt are crucial to keep the modern electrified world humming along, but we rarely think about where they come from.

Vengosh and his lab at Duke University use “chemical fingerprinting” to distinguish where critical minerals originate, especially trying to flag sources with reported dangerous working conditions. On the positive side, understanding these different sources opens the possibility for finding new geology – including in the United States – to expand the resources available domestically.

Collaborating with researchers across Duke, Vengosh is exploring the supply chain and use of critical minerals as part of Duke Critical Minerals Hub.

Learn more:
• Vengosh Lab: https://sites.nicholas.duke.edu/avnervengosh/
• Critical Minerals Hub: https://criticalminerals.duke.edu/

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Transcript:

00:00:01:06 - 00:00:04:16
Without critical
mineral, we won't have electric car,

00:00:04:16 - 00:00:08:17
we won't have cell phones,
and we won't have major developing

00:00:08:18 - 00:00:10:21
technology that we need today.

00:00:10:21 - 00:00:13:21
My name is Avner Vengosh, and I study

00:00:13:21 - 00:00:16:21
critical mineral.

00:00:22:06 - 00:00:23:07
Critical minerals

00:00:23:07 - 00:00:28:06
are a list of elements
that exist in nature.

00:00:28:06 - 00:00:31:07
And they are critical for the future

00:00:31:07 - 00:00:34:19
economic development of our society.

00:00:35:01 - 00:00:38:13
This is a rock coming
all the way from California

00:00:38:13 - 00:00:41:13
that contain high level of rare earth.

00:00:41:13 - 00:00:46:04
In fact, this is the only source of rare
earth in the United States today.

00:00:46:04 - 00:00:50:22
And when they processing critical mineral,
they generate this powder.

00:00:51:14 - 00:00:55:06
However, this powder can come
from different parts of the world.

00:00:55:06 - 00:00:59:02
And the question is how to identify
such powder

00:00:59:05 - 00:01:01:22
where they're coming from in the supply
chain.

00:01:01:22 - 00:01:07:14
The isotope technique that we develop
can be compared to DNA we do with human.

00:01:07:14 - 00:01:10:16
So we're basically looking
at the fingerprint of rocks.

00:01:10:17 - 00:01:12:16
Many of the critical mineral mining,

00:01:12:16 - 00:01:15:19
of course,
the world in some countries are illegal

00:01:16:02 - 00:01:20:09
and they're using a child
labor, environmental injustice

00:01:20:10 - 00:01:26:00
So being able to trace where
those critical minerals are coming from,

00:01:26:01 - 00:01:29:20
we see it as really important
for protection, people

00:01:29:20 - 00:01:31:09
protection, communities,

00:01:31:09 - 00:01:35:19
and to make sure that those areas
are not being used by companies, as well.

00:01:36:00 - 00:01:38:19
A group of faculty here at Duke

00:01:38:19 - 00:01:42:21
gathered together
to build the Critical Mineral Hub at Duke.

00:01:42:22 - 00:01:46:17
And the idea is to bring faculty
and their students

00:01:46:17 - 00:01:51:15
from different disciplines
to work together in an interdisciplinary

00:01:51:15 - 00:01:56:11
manner to better understand the different
component of critical mineral

00:01:56:20 - 00:02:02:00
Federal funding is essential to be able
to conduct research on critical mineral.

00:02:02:00 - 00:02:06:00
given that now there is a major rush

00:02:06:13 - 00:02:10:06
for critical mineral,
it's really important that we should not

00:02:10:07 - 00:02:14:09
go back to the mistakes
we have done for fossil fuel,

00:02:14:09 - 00:02:18:21
and the critical mineral exploration
and processing

00:02:19:00 - 00:02:23:03
would be conducted
in a very sustainable way.




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