Overview on the Mining Environmental Impact of Electric Vehicles Batteries Production

The Electric Vehicles (EVs) have evolved to become an important transport mean with an electric battery that contribute to the fuel gas emissions elimination, despite this colossal advantage, the double-edged effect has been observed. The dominant EVs Batteries in the market are the Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) that made of combined set of elements which differ in weight from each LIB type to another. Different LIB types are NCA, LMO, NMC, LCO, and LFP, the common elements that are utilized in all LIB battery’s types are Cobalt, Copper, Lithium, Manganese, Nickel, and Graphite. The current study explores the approximate tonnes of rock that should be mined in order to extract the required amount of minerals for a typical LIB production. The study shows that production of single NCA, LMO, NMC, LCO, and LFP battery types require an average mining of 55-369 tonnes, 18-120 tonnes, 91-607 tonnes, 115-773 tonnes, 12-83 tonnes respectively. The estimated tonnes of mined rocks needed to cover the LIBs production in 2023 were 7484 megatonnes, considering the number of EVs sold in this year along with LIBs used for these vehicles manufacturing. The mining of these minerals has a negative impact on the environment, this study delineates the social and environmental impact of recent extensive mining activities that have been implemented in the last few years to cover the growing market demand of the Electric Batteries minerals, including an overview of the mining effect on the water and air pollution, increased greenhouse gas emissions and associated human right abuses.