LITHIUM MINING AS A CASE STUDY IN RECKLESS CREATIVITY

Mining has traditionally been an ultra-conservative industry, simply because the consequences of making mistakes are so severe and there are no compensating rewards. By contrast, the present climate for exploitation of critical minerals has more in common with a wartime emergency, in which there is much greater tolerance for risk-taking and less concern about consequences. Excessively risky innovation is referred to as Reckless Creativity (sometimes called Design Euphoria) and has some or all of the following characteristics:

1. There is no scaffolding, meaning that the new innovation does not build upon previous innovations through a series of intermediate steps with proper testing and verification of each step.
2. One or more of the technologies required to carry out the innovation does not currently exist.
3. Predictions are based upon single input values or best-case scenarios without considering the range of possible inputs.
4. Although potential problems are recognized, they are quickly dismissed as irrelevant without justification.
5. Basic precautions are not taken that would be routine for previous innovations.
6. There is no consideration of the consequences of being wrong, that is, of the consequences of failure.

Each one of the above characteristics is shared by three recently-permitted high-profile lithium projects, which are the Lithium Nevada Thacker Pass mine in Nevada, the Ioneer Rhyolite Ridge mine in Nevada, and the Savannah Resources Barroso mine in Portugal. For all three mines, the consideration of the consequences of failure of the dams that will permanently confine the mine waste is avoided by never using the word “dam,” although cross-sections of the mine waste storage facilities clearly show a dam. In a filing with the Nevada State Environmental Commission, Lithium Nevada wrote, “[Prof. Emerman] calculates soil saturation numbers [based on data from Lithium Nevada] that exceed 100% for moisture contents of 52% or higher ... [The tailings] would resemble more of a slurry and could not possibly be used for CTFS [Clay Tailings Filter Stack] construction.” In other words, Lithium Nevada requested and received a permit for a mine waste storage facility that they admitted would collapse if the design were followed, which is the best illustration of all of Reckless Creativity.