Could volcanoes be the next gambit in the push for cleaner energy?

Could harvesting metals from volcanic magma improve green energy efforts? Some scientists think so.

As the global demand for green energy erupts, the renewable industry faced serious concerns and criticism about the environmental impact of mining minerals for EV batteries, which has leaders eyeing a shift toward a new "green mining."

The process involves harvesting metals from volcanic magma.

Volcanoes have long been considered an abundant source of geothermal energy, through the conversion of underground heat.

Such countries as Canada have been exploring ways to utilize the fiery ruptures for their net-zero emissions goal. 

More recently, the Biden administration, in February, announced a $74 million investment in geothermal systems. And now scientists think they can extract key metals such as nickel, copper, lithium, and zinc from volcanic magma for green energy  operations.

Volcanic magma releases plumes of gas that rise to the surface. That gas, from volcanoes like Mount Etna in Italy, is rich in metals. 

Though effectively extracting metals from the gas seems unlikely, findings published by the University of Oxford suggest getting them from the volcanoes’ hot brines may be within reach.

The findings are from a research team led by author Jon Blundy, who says "active volcanoes around the world" discharge valuable metal that become trapped as fluids in hot rocks, from which metal can be withdrawn from wells deep beneath the surface.

"The prospect of extracting metals in solution form from wells," Oxford’s website reads, can bring about results that "vastly [reduce] environmental impact of metal production."

Conventional mining emits a high volume of carbon emitted in the process. MIT’s Climate Portal states that mining one metric ton of lithium results in emitting 15 times that same volume of CO2. 

Other concerns include water pollution as a result of conventional mining, greenhouse gas emissions from the gasoline-burning machinery, and the respiratory issues for people in the area, according to Earth.org.

Much of the lithium now mined is used in electric car batteries, of which only a reported 5% are recyclable.

The Oxford study also concludes millions of tons of copper are in the volcano brine, along with an abundance of other elements, including lithium and zinc.

Blundy says the so-called green mining "represents a novel way to extract both the metal-bearing fluids and geothermal power, in a way that dramatically reduces the environmental impact of conventional mining."

However, researching and evolving volcanic energy harvesting will require significant investments, which Larry Behrens of energy group Power the Future points out is often on the taxpayer dime.

"When you consider that supporters of this idea say they will need a ’substantial investment,’ the picture becomes a lot more clear," Behrens told Just the News. "Out-of-the-box thinking and innovation are great, but they should be able to move forward without our money."

"While the green movement looks to Lex Luthor for answers, America’s energy workers will continue to provide the power we need here in reality."

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