Featured Image Credit: Wikipedia Commons
Planet Earth has been good to us, and while you might tend to associate mining with the gold rush of the Old West or industries like coal mining, today's mining industry is alive and well.
Even as we move away from fossil fuels, people are digging deep in the Earth and using its many rare minerals to power the industry of the 21st century.
Australia has become the unexpected lithium capital of the world, and just a three-hour drive from Perth, you find a massive hole in the ground that's responsible for that.
The Greenbushes mine has the potential to provide 1.38 million tons of raw material a year, with lithium batteries being used in everything from our electric vehicles to our smartphones.
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While the McDermitt Caldera is one of the largest lithium deposits ever found in the United States and is worth over $1.5 trillion, Australia has its own lithium motherlode.
Once upon a time, the Greenbushes mine was known for the Cornwall Pit, which was an old tin mine that put the area on the map.
Lithium was discovered there back in 1980, but with no one nearly knowing what to do with it, niche uses of lithium included glass making, metal alloys, and lubricants.
It was only when the world started making a push for electric vehicles, the Greenbushes mine suddenly became more valuable in a whole new way.
In 2025, the Greenbushes mine is the world's largest hard rock lithium mine in terms of reserves, resources, production, and capacity.
Importantly, it offers a third of the world's lithium needs at its current capacity.
As reported by ABC News, there are continued concerns about what the Greenbushes mine is doing to the local area and the planet at large.
Talison Lithium is the majority owner of the Greenbushes mine and admits it 'regrets' the impact of the operation.
Dust emission from the mine exceeded licence limits at least eight times in 2024, with that trend continuing to at least four times in the first quarter of 2025.
Residents are plagued by a recent expansion, with Glenn Collier saying: "Plants have a white layer of dust over them. The orange trees [have] got constant dust on them, the children's play equipment … the primary school.”
Similar to how the 'illegal' generators at Elon Musk's xAI facility are causing havoc, residents near Greenbushes are feeling the side effects of the industry.
A report from the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) has recorded high concentrations of dust levels on 'numerous' occasions, with it marking the public health risk as 'high'.
This is unfortunately unlikely to make much of a difference as global demand for lithium is expected to climb at a rate of 33.3% annually. This is what spurred the mine's expansion, as well as the nearby construction of two lithium processing facilities. There's plenty of money to be made here, especially as the lithium industry revenue is increasing at a rate of 8.6% from 2019–2020, to an expected total of total of $9.01 billion in 2025.
As for the continued impact of Greenbushes, Talison chief executive Rob Telford said: "While we cannot undo them, we will work hard to rebuild trust and create a transparent path forward."
