TENDUA
12 kg of rocks for one smartphone ...Mobile phones, smartphones: impacts of their production?
Here is an object that did not exist a few decades ago. Now almost indispensable, it is everywhere: the mobile phone, which allows you to make calls and send texts. In its «smart» version, it has become intelligent and now allows you to call, take photos, access your emails and more and more applications. Rich countries, poor countries, from megacities to the smallest hamlets, from the powerful P.- D.G. to the most humble peasant, everyone has a smartphone, or several. More than 10 billion devices in the world for 8 billion people. But at what cost to the planet?
A bit of history
In April 1973 - 50 years ago - a Motorola employee made the first cellular phone call in NYC. While wireless technology already exists, the «laptops» of the time were reserved for luxury cars. It takes 10 hours to recharge the battery allowing 30 minutes of conversation.
Ten years later, in 1983, the prototype was replaced by a commercial model. The device is still expensive, costing almost US$10,000 today. The phone is heavy, imposing, each call is expensive ... but the technological revolution is on.
In 1992, the first GSM (Global System for Mobile) phone, the Nokia 1011, was produced on a large scale. This technology is the ancestor of 3G (and subsequent ones) that we use now.
The first SMS - Short Message System, a mobile phone message sent from a computer – came in the same year.
For more than 20 years, our phones have almost all been smartphones and the landline phone has virtually disappeared.
12 kg of rocks and 52 chemicals for ONE smartphone
A mineral is a rock extracted from the lithosphere that contains a quantity of mineral large enough to justify its exploitation. When enough ore is found, mines are built to mine the vein at its maximum capacity. The minerals contain the chemical elements used in our smartphones. They are used in particular for the manufacture of the hull, battery, electrical circuits and screens.
Did you know that it takes 52 chemical substances from minerals, or 12 kg of rocks, to produce only ONE smartphone?
Native elements that cost a lot
Some ores are classified as “native elements”. Native element minerals are those elements that occur in nature, "either in uncombined form consisting essentially of a single chemical element or an alloy, characterized by a few associated sufficiently pure chemical elements.
Today we know in the strict sense 34 native elements including copper, gold or silver... Many of these chemicals, more or less “rare” have become essential to the operation of new technologies. And they cost a lot because their natural availability is decreasing.
The so-called «rare» earths
Rare earths are 17 chemical elements – of the 118 chemical elements currently known from Mendeleev’s periodic table – used in various industries such as electronics and renewable energy.
They have many common properties – such as high electrical conductivity – that make them difficult to distinguish from each other. And contrary to what their name suggests, rare earths are not so “rare”, but they are not found in the native state.
Rare due to their concentration
In fact, their rarity is not in their quantity but in their concentration: it takes an average of 8 tons of rocks to dig to obtain 1 kg of raw material.
Sphalerite, the main mineral in zinc, can be used as a rare metal ore with a significant content of cadmium, indium, gallium and germanium. Very common, huge quantities of sphalerite are mined worldwide and this mineral has become for several decades the main ore of these rare metals. Remarkable deposits are found in France, Peru, Russia and Switzerland.
Another mineral characterized by its rare earth richness, bastnaesite. But the extraction processes are polluting due to its radioactivity.
Yttrium
L’yttrium, used to produce red luminophores [1] for CRT TVs is 400 times more abundant in the Earth’s crust than silver.
But rare earths are widely dispersed and come in the form of hard to exploit minerals. They can be mined in copper, zinc or uranium mines. Some of them are on the moon... Anyway, the extraction process is very expensive and highly polluting. That is why it is almost only China that is taking the initiative, with a monopoly of almost 100% on the processing of rare earths from other metals. Europe prefers to leave these polluting operations to others.
Japan has declared that its national waters contain significant reserves of several rare earths. And we know that our abysses are very rich in metals. Canada has envisioned a massive vacuum that could... perhaps? – withstand the pressure of the deep. Everyone’s looking for it, but the cost of underwater mining is still too expensive. Is it necessary to explain the tragic impact that such exploitation would have on the metal deposits at the bottom of the oceans?
Special case of lithium
Lithium and its compounds promote energy production and battery performance. They are essential ingredients for the manufacture of low-melting glasses and lubricants. The manufacture of rechargeable batteries for electronics, electric vehicles, and energy storage networks represents the world’s largest use of lithium, representing 74% of total demand. Lithium-ion allows for both fast charging for convenience and slow charging for durability. The International Energy Agency predicts that lithium needs will increase by 42 times in the next 20 years.
Australia is the world’s largest lithium producer, accounting for nearly half of global production in 2021. Bolivia, Chile and Argentina (the “lithium triangle”) are said to have the largest combined lithium resources, estimated at nearly 50 million tonnes. Indeed, there are gigantic salt pans in South America. Decanting the salt is the necessary way to obtain the necessary lithium, which is a very water-demanding exploitation.
There are also lithium reserves in France (reopening of mines in Alsace and Brittany?), but the quantities are smaller. Moreover, the former minister of ecological transition, Barbara Pompili, declared exclusively in Les Echos on 17/02/2022: «France must extract lithium on its territory». However, the precious metal is more difficult to isolate than in South American brine.
In nature, lithium is never present in its native form but always in the form of salts or oxides in minerals. In addition, metallic lithium can only be stored in oil and under protective atmosphere because it is too reactive to be stored in water or air. Which makes it dangerous to manipulate.
In Europe, the Donbass also has lithium reserves. The UNO is talking about adding lithium to the list of conflict elements.
The Canadian government has designated lithium as a critical mineral because it is an essential material in the transition to renewable energy. And Canada has the potential to be a main supplier. Canada does not currently produce lithium, but has significant solid spodumene deposits and saline lakes from which lithium can be extracted.
Geopolitics and high technology
This is where the notion of globalization takes its full force. Let’s list the different countries involved in the production of the elements necessary to manufacture these little wonders of technology:
- South Africa has the monopoly of platinum : great advantage for this ore because it is the one that recycles best. It acts as an anti-corrosive to the battery of our smartphone.
- Cadmium is known to be a carcinogen and is used for rechargeable batteries, television or computer screens, tablets, consoles, etc. The main producing countries are South Korea, Japan, China, Canada, Mexico.
- Gallium is mainly produced by China and is used for liquid crystals in ever-improving displays.
- Indium is used for LEDs and touch screens of any size (better brightness of smartphones, watches, tablets, car dashboards, etc.), as well as on some glazing and solar panels. The producing countries are China (oh yes! again!), South Korea, Japan. There are no indium mines. You have to look for it, often in zinc mines. So it’s expensive.
- The cobalt is very important in all batteries: phones and cars. It allows to absorb heat so that «it does not burn». Currently, it is estimated that cobalt will be unavailable in 50 years.
- The quartz is used to stiffen screens. It’s a common mineral. Quartz is the basis of all electronic systems. It is used directly as a sensor that can measure a frequency with very high precision, making it essential in applications such as inertial power plants or radar transmitters and receivers or radio communications.
- Gold and silver have valuable qualities: they are very good conductors allowing a fast transmission of information. Silver comes mainly from South America: Chile, Peru, Bolivia. The main producers of gold are Russia and China.
The so-called «conflict» mineral elements
The UNO monitors these four so-called «conflict» mineral elements - or «blood minerals». These are gold, tin, tungsten and tantalum.
If gold is a good conductor, tungsten is one of the world’s hardest metals used in the manufacture of ballistic missiles and drilling rigs. The properties of tungsten, found particularly in wolframite, improve the conductivity of gold and silver. There is little information on the mines exploited in western China (perhaps on the side of the country of the Uighurs...), which still ensure more than 80% of world production.
As for tantalum, extracted from columbite and tantalite or coltan, it is a superconductor, resistant to heat and corrosion. It makes it possible to lighten and miniaturize our smartphones, cameras, computers, flat screens, etc. It is also used in the manufacture of superalloys in aeronautics and its biocompatibility makes it interesting in the manufacture of medical implants.
The main producing countries are Australia, Brazil, China, Canada, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda.
Motherboard solders are made with tin and three countries mine the main tin ore, cassiterite. China is responsible for 2/3 of the world’s production. Indonesia and Malaysia have dug entire areas and sacrificed islands for this production. Coastlines have been emptied of their fish; populations starved and impoverished; one worker per week dies on these yards.
The production of these «blood minerals» is mainly controlled by armed groups that operate these mines in inhumane conditions. They sell the minerals to the highest bidders to finance their movements. In the 2000s, the international community discovered these ties particularly strong in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the region of the Great African Lakes, in Zimbabwe, the Central African Republic, Burma and Colombia. Twenty years later, has there been any change – for the better? Tens of thousands of miners, adults and children, are still working in the mines of coltan, cassiterite and gold.
This is true for coltan because it is found at shallow levels, which has generated real rushes. The flip side of the coin: agriculture was replaced by mining, which led to famines. These famines have in turn generated an overexploitation of tropical forests, with particularly the poaching of fragile species such as okapi or gorilla («bush meat»).
But at the end of the chain, companies that manufacture mobile phones are protected by the many intermediaries who are involved in these trades.
It should be noted that Russia and the Donbass hold large reserves of nickel, cobalt, and lithium, which are necessary for the manufacture of smartphones, consoles, electric vehicles, wind turbines, and other solar panels. There is a chance that the current conflict is not as philanthropic as the media portrays it to be.
Collection and recycling
In France, only 15% of the 25 million phones sold each year are collected for repair, reuse, or recycling. That’s clearly not enough.
In fact, right now, only lithium and platinum are recyclable.
One of the first barriers to lithium recycling is that lithium-ion batteries (BLI) are a hazardous materials, and must be handled with care. The residual electrical power in the battery can cause fires or explosions.
Do we really need to change our smartphone every year if we can’t live without it? Do we need to have more than one ? It is an opportunity to reflect on our role as consumers, and to become truly a player in our consumption.
One company that stands out for its approach in this highly profitable technological environment is FAIRPHONE. Indeed, this Dutch company creates smartphones whose design and production of the devices have been designed to integrate environmental and fair trade constraints throughout the production chain.
FAIRPHONE increases the rate of recycled materials in its devices: copper and plastic recycled for the FAIRPHONE 3; plastic, indium, copper, aluminum for the FAIRPHONE 4, which also has traceability for the gold and silver components of their device. The phones’ modularity also enhances their ability to be recycled at the end of their lifespan because some modules contain specific metals, like gold, for instance.
Not necessarily exemplary – but are we as consumers? The approach has the merit of existing and going further than the competition. Why not develop a smartphone that utilizes recycled elements?
Conclusion
With more than 10 billion mobile phones in the world, the smartphone is both a democratic and technological object. Could we do without it?.... Not sure. Unless we have to.
We have seen the “mineralogical” cost of a single smartphone. Not to mention the mining waste that sometimes serves as fill, but is also a deposit loaded with lead, arsenic, cadmium ...
In France, an open-air farm is filled up, but underground mining is left in the state, without any more attention to groundwater or neighboring agricultural lands.
In addition to pollution related to production, there is also pollution related to use: the cyberspace is saturated by our data, all more important than each other. And this is done at a speed close to the speed of light. All of this data also generates a lot of pollution...
New jobs to invent
So, back all the way? It won’t work. However, there are still at least two areas to explore.
The first is undoubtedly a reflection to be carried out by each on his/her own way of consuming and the consequences induced.
A second way is to think about the present of tomorrow: what are the new jobs to invent to protect life on our planet and preserve what we call resources. Let us train engineers to demanufacture and deconstruct, learn how to systematically reuse the elements still not recycled today.
Let’s ask ourselves about the consequences at every stage of our consumption.
Let’s become more aware of our environment and how we act on our reality.
In the end, it is our planet that invented recycling, so let us draw inspiration from this wisdom if we want humanity to have a proper place on this Earth.
Reminder of some definitions
A rock is an assemblage of minerals.
The study of minerals is called mineralogy, while the study of rocks is called petrology.
Geology is the study of the lithosphere, through the formation of rocks, their origin, their nature and their evolution. It includes several disciplines including mineralogy, petrology, paleontology and geomorphology.
A mineral is defined as being solid, inorganic, natural (i.e. without human intervention) and crystalline, that is to say that the atoms arrange themselves among them in a certain way. This affects its appearance and qualities.
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