The emergence of green energy markets is threatening to redefine what is it to be a miner. The world’s biggest mining corporations still operate in the familiar sense and do so on a grand global scale. BHP Billiton, Vale, Rio Tinto - the world’s big three - turn increasingly handsome profits from lower value, high bulk minerals like iron ore, coal and bauxite.
But niche mineral suppliers targeting green markets face different challenges entirely - they have to be experts in mining and chemical processing.
Lithium is dominated by chemical companies such as SQM, Chemetall and FMC Lithium. All three players extract lithium from landlocked brine in South America using complex phase chemistry. When SQM commercialised this technology in 1996, it put most miners out of business.
Emerging rare earths producers are less concerned with mining than processing technology to separate the...