• bountygiver [any]@lemmy.ml
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      1 day ago

      China is doing that. It does make sense as mining operations tend to also are far out so not needing to send fuel in would allow the less dense battery to pay itself off if the operation goes long enough.

      Electrification of the operation also could benefit if we get better technique to process nuclear to convert some of them to energy on site

      • zloubida@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        Oh yes of course, a mine only use fuel for their vehicles. You know a whole lot about mining, obviously.

        Edit: and I never said that it was technically impossible. It is. But it’s impractical and far too costly in a lot of places, the vehicies need far too much down time so you need more vehicles, the surplus of electricity needed would be a problem in a lot of places, and it would still need fuel for a lot of adjacent needs. And I didn’t even took into account the other destructive “externalities” to mining not strictly related to air pollution, like the destruction of ecosystems, that we still don’t know how to ecologically treat the electric vehicles after they stopped working, or that it would mean more mining to find the ressources to electrify mining… it’s not green. Not at all. An electrified mine is better than an other, but all mines are catastrophes.

        And ironically, electrification is better suited for underground mines. You know which mines are mostly underground? Coal mines. Others are mainly surface mines, and electrification is harder for surface mines.