Why Extracting Metals For Your Smartphones Is A Dangerous Job | The Earth's Riches | Spark
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- From spaceships to mobile phones, metals are an integral part of the objects that make up the world around us and that we use in everyday life. The metal industry is a major component of the world economy, and mining takes place all over the world. Yet their extraction and refinement is still an arduous and dangerous process, not only for the workers but for the surrounding environment.
Subscribe to Spark for more amazing science, tech and engineering videos - goo.gl/LIrlur
Follow us on Facebook: / sparkdocs
Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram....
Content licensed from TVF International to Little Dot Studios. Any queries, please contact us at: owned-enquiries@littledotstudios.com
#Nickel #NewCaledonia #NickelMining #spark #sparkdocumentary #sciencedocumentary
Planting native grasses on the massive mounds of mining tailings would greatly reduce runoff into the ocean.
That would be too smart to do that. These guys are almost better off to run around with sticks and stones for equipments. That's how old and out dated the equipment. They have now is
that would require extra employees and that would hurt the mining company's profit. no cant do that..profits over saving the planet.
They wont grow on that soil..
@@henryrollins9177 lick and stick grass or aka spray grass grows pretty good on nickel tailings
@@andrewg8759 Really? I work in mining and always see that in altered soil the plants that the companies seed tend to prosper for some time and later die...but thats my experience in gold/silver and copper mines.
35:01 well, we see what John Wick does in the off-season.
lol yes!
That man is cruising. Steering with his foot like a boss.
This might be a glitch in the Matrix...
Good to see locals empleyed and managing not being exploited.
oh no im almost crying
Hmmm...We've only seen one side here. Almost seems like a classic PR job, you don't get this access if you're not nice/do as you're told. Having said that it is good to see the changes they've made, the locals deserve the jobs & some of the profits at the very least. But these are billion $ ventures, tiny investments in locals is nothing to them & has huge impact on lives. Surreal that this is something that has to be fought hard for
They make around 12K euros a year mining (if they're lucky) , if you look at what the cost of living in new caledinia is; the the locals are extremely underpaid and still raise families in abject poverty while the immediate resources they depend on to survive are being poisoned
@@desathy5257 they aren’t paying with euros in NC
Are you serious?
Why do they riot and set fire to the plants?
Research VALE nickel operations in New Calidonia
Having sailed these waters in my Yacht, the islands and reefs are stunning however I never saw the mines. You took me there, a fantastic cinematic adventure! This is a top Procuction!
“Having sailed these waters in my yacht”
You don’t hear that every day 😅 especially because of how remote this place is in the South Pacific, your yacht must be beautiful and big if it has the capacity for long voyages like this one.
Blessings to you and I hope to see those colorful waters myself one day!!
So you just wanted to brag? Lmfao fuck off
Enjoyed your video and gave it a Thumbs Up
That was interesting. Lot of work for a little Nickel, so to speak.
The Canadian mining co. at Red Dog mine in AK had big estimates of Platinum but are stealing it away to CA .
in a way there is a arc furnace inside the earths core , but its a bit of exeggaration to say a arc furnace is like what happens deep below us to melt things.
Yup. A bit of literary licence at the expense of truth.
Nice documentary, but this one more for the people on the island rather the nickel. Plus it's over 10-15 years old one, many things has change since then.
14:18 You're doing it cause it's your job. Next you'll be scrubbing the toilet saying, "I just happened to have this brush in my hands"
Robert Williams 👌👍👏
😂
He won't clean the toilets, the locals in New Caledonia have lots of families, lots of land and there is lots of work in New Caledonia, I know because I live there, next time you want to make a reproach think with all your brains.
Thank you, very useful information and great knowledge
I'm 45 been traveling there since I was 17 I think the damage to water ways is massively understated, humans are sad creatures.
what do you mean? like pollution runoff or something?
@@flappy7373 yeah when I am sailing after it rains the water is filled with silt at all the river outlets it's all the way around New California it is sad to see and does affect fishing for locals
I'd argue that this is the greatest appreciation for life man has ever had. We live far longer and suffer much less then ever before. Even the poor have amenities that make quality of life far superior then past generations. The downside of such progress is a tragedy but if that's what drives the progress that keeps people healthy and happy, so be it. Try not to forget that environmentalism is in itself, profitable. Regulation drives innovation and creates it's own form of industry. Measures should be taken to preserve the environment but mining is a necessary evil
You realize this runoff is dirty regardless right?
Have you seen the coastal gulf states?
All of our water is "dirty" from Mississippi runoff. All of that natural silt messes with our fishing crabbing oyster beds etc.
Its 100% natural....
We may exacerbate it a bit, but its really not that big a deal.
Unless youre rich enough to worry about the waters color and consistency ruining the hull of your quarter million+ floating house
Used to weld Hastelloy's for wheels that spun at 5,000rpm, they are 50% or more Nickel very corrosion resistant stainless steel alloys also $30,000 a square meter very cool stuff.
Me: Sees title "Nickel Caledonia" Also me: Nickel Caledonia, no Nick Caledonian, no not quite Nickelodeon yes Nickelodeon Illuminati confirmed
Lol.
Nickel is primarily used as a component of stainless steel. Think kitchen sinks, knives, fork, and spoons, buildings, railway cars, medical instruments, anything that has to be strong and not rust. Greta’s sailboat has lots of stainless steel parts.
Greta is not the topic. She assures you that you are the problem and you need to give up driving, flying, eating and everything else. She sailed in million dollar boat to prove that she could give stuff up.
Jim C I don’t need to beat her up. She does a fine job of it on her own.
Anthony Valenti
Or sooner; Covid-19
how dare you! lol
Erica taya pretty much explain the life of a miner 😀 run trucks, separate ore from rock by hands, drive a camper on your own, search for a crab and cook for eating(on celebration day indeed), get some money at end of the day.
The crab didn't want to stay for dinner
Lol.
Seems like there’s some at least low grade gold in there too if they are finding laterite, the drill core looked like they hit a serpentine contact too. Workers at the mill are like “thanks for that ‘nickel ore’ guys, just bought a Lambo and put my kids through college!
Given the host rock from which the nickel ore derived it contains very little gold. If there was gold in recoverable amounts the metallurgist and geologist would have figured out a way to extract it profitably.
Curran Kemp host rocks for nickel are any untramafic rocks and often closely associated with gold especially using the porphyry model. They’ve mined gold there too and I’m sure probably get gold as a bi-product like Chile gets gold from it’s copper. They probably skim off the nickel ore and just run heavies if it’s worthwhile. I know some mills are able to process nickel and copper so I’m sure they have a process for ore they think has gold, maybe just gravity after crushing or something.
France has to give independence to New Caledonia. The colonialism must be swept out! We are free people must support the Canac's struggle against colonialists.
Is anyone else hearing the music from Pirates of the Carribean in the background????
41:45 that's not stainless, they're cutting it with an oxygen torch, you need plasma arc torches to cut stainless
its red hot stainless and the torch is probably blasting extra oxygen.
oh and iron grit is probably added into the flame.
@@maciejsimm2342 or just cheap editing
I've never been able to get even ferritic 409 stainless exhaust tubing to cut with a torch, just melts a little and develops a real thick oxide layer (like when you tig weld it without back gas) and then you gotta break up the red hot mess with a rod to separate the bits
Fun fact: 5 cent nickel coins have 25% nickel and 75% copper
Man the game awards sucked this year but this was a pretty good documentary thx for making it :)
Song name at 1:34?
Nickel back
$1600 euros=$2000 usd=500 a week, assuming a worker works 40 hours a week that's $12.50 an hour..
I always thought operating that kinda of equipment paid more? They discuss pay here: 12:42
they probably work more than 40 hours a week
I always thought a canuk was a canadian. I should have known as we are olso called habitants. It just shows how much western canadians are removed from french canada.
Lmfao fuck Quebec, as a native Canadian I can confidently say they can leave
Leachies and cresties on the Grand Terre!
39:30 this music reminds me of a stargate episode!
heh I belive there was a caladonia on stargate sg1 or atlantis actually.
New caledonia is a unique place with biodiversity worth more than the entire united states, it contains the oldest flowering plant and the only parasitic conifer, I hope that regulations prevent the mines from destroying one of the earths most precious treasures
This isn't a doc about nickel mining, it's a doc about environmental issues and local miners. That's fine, but title it "The Impact of mining in New Caledonia" or similar.
You can't really discuss mining of any type anymore without discussing the environmental impacts.
Very good doc!
Would love to visit sometime.
Эта электо-дуговая печь, конечно, та ещё адовая машина! Что там происходит, мурашки аж идут. Лучше рядом не стоять.
Water contaminated with toxic heavy
Metals, dips mask in, then dives in...
I think these mines are a lot more important for Franc as for New Caledonia..
This is the most energy intensive way to process nickel. The problem is most of the worlds remaining resources are oxide ore like this.
Cheap oil and cheap coal artificially keep these operations running if they paid the price of GHGs this would not be viable.
I did not even bring up the cost of environmental damage from the strip mining process, the tailings, and the acid used in some processes.
Right now the entire island is generating 2,670,000 mega watt hours of electricity and 90% of this is from coal and oil.
How much of this power is used just to operate the furnaces for the oxide reduction process?
The semi refined product is exported, the high value income and jobs of this industry is exported with matt produced on the Island.
How do I know these things ( I work in the nickel industry in a different country using a different process )
Why does the producer of this film not talk about the true cost of this?
We have only one home, and everything in it is connected. Let’s not destroy it for the sake of advancement, an ‘unexplored’ ecosystem is the most productive system in the world. The money you may earn from this will not be able to repair or replace the damage and destruction you’ve left behind. Hopefully this is not too late for the beautiful islands of the Kanaks.
Anyone know the artist and name of the music at 6;45 ? Many thanks in advance for any info.
I already buy nickel stock (Vale Indonesia) 1 week ago! I hope get profit triple!
How
@@jaystonerbud1318 minecraft
Interesting documentary !
There's ALOT of nickel ,gold and other pgm's around here ...
Close by to Sudbury Ontario .
Rjts unbes teso
Yeppers I know I live in the soo
@@waldoc3419 ehh ;) nice man ! A neighbour lol
Right in between .
Blind River
@@typicalrockhound9887 my wife is from blind river
@Redrooster there was recently a couple more found in the Sudbury area . towards temagami Ontario .
One as recently as a couple months ago .found behind blind river Ontario. Another ancient impact identical to Sudbury found by air . and diamond drilled .
Large nickel . chromium and copper deposits ..
Hoping to open into gold :\
Respect to Eric. He looks like a good oke.
South African perhaps?
John P Yes. South African. Trainspotter perhaps?
I thought the Canucks were a Hockey Team
I thought they were the French people living just to the north of me in Canada.
I hate your prof pic
@@alke5668 You're right. It sucks. I changed it. Your profile pic could use some work too though......just sayin'
@@guyski666 lmao yeah
3:46 his vehicle slowly creeping forward makes me nervous...
Not only you. Me also! Waiting it to fall down somewhere!
The miners need to work hard and save all they can for the day the mine closes. I would use what money I could to get the hell out before the region falls back into brutal poverty. Home is the Earth, not what rock you were born under. Leave and go places with opportunity. The Midwest USA is like this in places. Poverty, then a mine opens, people buy big ass expensive everything with great miner pay... mine closes and most things are repossessed. Back to hell with the taste of heaven in your mouth!
Yeah that's what I believe that the mining companies should at least employee the natives to work in the mines to give them insurance for the rest of their lives and all that good stuff that's only right you know
They'll continue to do that too because the locals will work for a fraction of the trained "professional" workers demand
Imo, if the locals are able to do the work, you never needed a trained professional to do the work in the first place. Its all insurance driven
I don't know how long these natural resources will be used but after that my masters wording will be on its truth...... Simple living high thinking... Cuz am a sikh gentlemam , know live like the nature wants
You should begin by reading a little history.
Wish we hat crabs like that over here.
Might incurage more to leave our pipi alone if we did :)
hard work!
Have stocks in canada nickel think this will be the new gold
Shoot it all
Due to mining people of the area was expose to harmful chemical hurting the people - praying for all
Best
everyone would like to protect life from their nickel consumption
And what about the heavy metals that the crabs have ingested
The mines are in the interior of the island, tens of kilometers from the coast, and, unlike gold mining, which involves dumping chemicals in the local bodies of water, nickel mining does not. That is not to say that it is not harmful to the environment, but it does not affect oceanic life.
When you need the best equipment you can't go wrong with Liebherr and Terex...CAT has some great stuff too but; they're in a fight to keep up with those two...
I bet you the natives dont benefit much out of these resources taken from their lands.
Yet you buy things with nickel
@Anthony Valenti youre right. I dont care. Being cheap tho, I bet I use less energy and resources then these people that act like they care like the og commenter
109k Euros per year is as much as a teacher? Heck in most places in the US you won't even get half of that...
These are just basically old documentaries from like the 1990s lol...
What is your point? Have things changed much in New Caledonia in 20 years?
I thought I might learn why nickel is valuable?
Inco will NOT help that community!
I live in Sudbury Ontario, a city practically built upon Inco's promises in the modern age and we supply the world with its nickel requirements, from the Nickel used in artillery to small arms barrels all the way down to supplying smaller chrome plating operations & batteries, theres a good chance the nickel you touch/dont even know you're using right now in your day to day life came from my small city.
we have been rocked by the opioid crisis, billions are made a few tens of kilometres from where I live and am writing this right now, into won't donate any money to build new, better treatment facilities, theres also next to nothing to do in Sudbury, inco doesn't even consider building parks or anything else for entertainment for that matter.
yes, they do some stuff for the community, nowhere near enough though...
and not even close to an eighth of what they could spare to do and still be filthy rich.
but, we have an incredibly blue manmade lake, which is impeccably blue thanks to all the heavy metals and contaminated water they pump into it. however it is true that theyve moved on and Valé (an Australian company) now runs the show, along with the new gold miners in town.
fuck Inco, they could barely pay their own miners here in Sudbury enough to stay on the job, I can only imagine the grief they're causing Caledonians...
Alex, sounds like an awful crisis and I have no doubt that most of it is true. Vale is a Brazilian company (formerly CRVD) of which Inco is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of, not an Australian company. Vale also has a pretty poor environmental record, just look at the failure of their tailings dams in Brazil.
Vale are also in the process of selling their mine and processing plant in New Caledonia, to the Australian company New Century Resources Limited, after significant losses year after year. Perhaps New Century will do a better job.
GREED IS GOOD, sell it all...
Vale just shut down it's nickel mining operation in New Caledonia...too much violence . Not only that...it's the wrong kind of nickel (laterite) for vehicle batteries.
They'll expand their operation in Indonesia
@@PissMenn Perhaps...I did hear that they were focusing on Australia...not sure if that's true. I work for them in Canada.
any idea the usa dollar value in terms of labor and materials it costs to manufacture the end product of a 100 dollar box of usa nickels? 25/75 alloy
@@commonconservative7551 I couldn't tell you that...I don't know what they use for coin ...except it isn't 100% silver.
@@markanthony3275 do research let me know
Canada Nickel Company
I find these documentaries very hard to listen to. There are so many technical errors, which may be poor translation, or poor research. This company who makes these documentaries are obviously doing it on the cheap!
Got to mine a lot more nickel to build all those electric cars the environMENTALists want.
@Helios Sphere i didnt know nickel was a big part of lithium batteries? i know they're huge in nicad or nimh, but electric cars dont use those.. do they?
am i just dumb here? is it used in lithium ferrite or something? i thought that was just iron..
but i agree.. the environmentalists are simple minded. they see exhaust coming from a muffler as the primary pollutant.. theyre ignorant of the ridiculously potent polluting effects of lithium salt pools and rare earth mining operations.. not to mention the waste products once the cars are out of service
@Redrooster whaaaat. I thought they were LiMn or LiFePO4 for sure. That's a huge surprise.
Also in my previous comment, I meant lithium iron phosphate, not lithium ferrite. Oops.
@Redrooster Your very much up your own arse aren't you. Some of the individuals commenting admit to their own ignorance on certain aspects of the topic, this doesn't make one 'stupid' as you say, however, aware of their weak points which leads to questioning the topic they are not admittedly an expert on. I've seen you on other threads on here attempting to show your 'prowess' to others, this shows a person's internal uncertainty about oneself through a display of trying to demean another to make them feel better about themselves. Nobody can be an expert on every topic, there is just to much to understand.There is nothing more annoying than communication with another who is certain they are right (Albert Einstein).
@Redrooster you're embarrassing yourself man, just stop.
Combustion engines are much more catastrophic than electric vehicles and yes mining of metals for electric vehicles does damage but not as lethal as combustion engines which releases carbon dioxide into the air ...it's a price we have to pay to lessen the damage
That looks like some good dirt bike trails
Wow small island with 27 languages
Ada penduduk Indonesia di situ? Uwow
French colony still going
look at this graph
Nature destroyed via few mountains cut more than half yet claiming no environmental damage 🤦🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️
I fucking love science! Keep up the great work!!
Tommy Jensen 🤔
When I think of mangrove swamps in the South Pacific, I also think they are a favorite home for saltwater crocodiles. The man wading among the mangroves fishing for crabs must know better than me whether or not it is safe.
Western Said: Palm Oil Will Destroy the Earth!!!!
But They Want Nickel BTw
@josh otis I live in indonesia We export 27% nickel To Europe
@josh otisEurope ban Our Palm Oil So we ban nickel Too
What the babble?!? You're both missing each other's points.. But, to josh otis, Juliansyah4byte IS right, western environmentalists HAVE been belly aching about palm oil production, not because the oil itself is toxic, but planting the proper palms destroys habitats of certain species, some of which are endangered. It's not as big a problem as Euro hippies claim, and banning it completely is insane! Where are those pampered ninnies going to get the #2 ingredient in their precious nutella? And who NEEDS the EU to buy Indonesian nickel anyway? The US, China, hell all of southeast Asian tech producing countries will buy it, and with the UK leaving the euro zone soon, they'll buy some as well. I support cutting off the EU, the EU is the worst pile of socialist dirtbag governance since Mao's "people's republic" of China.
u see that’s why China has so much money when they mine, they don’t say this stuff is junk, nope they get a scientist to find out what the material is and what it can be used for!!
Where there is development there is pollution . Most of the times . Two sides of the coin .
True but development into farmland or something non polluting would be better, not sure the miners are benefiting all that much from it, mostly just the people who sell it, big oil for example
@@jonnydavison7480 farmlands are HUGE polluters... from phosphates leeching into the ground water all the way to huge lakes of literal shit, modern farming is awful for the planet...
and that isn't even mentioning all the methane created by farming cattle.
And who makes the money and who pays
listen to them talk as the planet dies
Hey kid, the planet will be here 2 billion years after Humaniry is gone.
Get over your self.
I’m a Canadian and I thought I was a Canuck.
............🌘 *Talon Metals*
🔭
40??? He looks 58!!!!
Tough life.
75
Earths mental is 89% nickle.
Every 3 min i get ads. Seriously?
Scroll to the end of the video, play. Then go back to the beginning. Should take care of the ads
I'm allergic to this stuff. gives me rashes....
Vive La France et screw the balance
I guess that's better than pennys
A true genius...22 would be easier. Lol
If there is nickel on land there is nickel under that coral reef
Wanted to watch a video about nickel ,could care less about coral,or pollution or the people who live there,very disapointed.
EL300B u can’t have one without the other
True,but a better title would have saved me some wasted time.
problem is you can't really talk about mining nickel without talking about what you do with the waste, and how that waste poisons the environment...
Bro... Don't eat those Crab ...
since when is dirt a pollutant?
Go make a dust cloud and have it blow over the ocean with the wind and see where it lands.
Since when is Co2 a primary food for life a pollutant?
Jesus H Christ, no I don't see the point. What I see is an idiot. You see, nobody is throwing a mountain of dirt on the great barrier reef.. AND, these mines are under environmental regulations which force them to re-plant the areas once mining has finished. Do you even OWN a book? All this crybaby sissy activism is nothing more than emotional masturbation, and you should be ashamed. Your comment is a waste of perfectly good estrogen.
The dirt is polluted with heavy metals. That’s the pollution. The run off from the water, is polluted. The waste from the people, is pollution. U are a dumbass, and you are pollution.
@@froznanus if you believe the mines are capable of rehabilitating anything once theyve fucked it you are the idiot.
De poss it. not dep po sit.
The French want to fight global warming but increase mining an deformation in African colonies for timber and minerals but yes the care about global warming .
is this about Nickle or the people? WTF?
Absofreakinglutely. Dayum, they really need to improve on the title. I wanted to see big machines moving earth. This is as interesting as watching paint dry.
I was thinking the same myself. I wanted to know more about the actual Nickel and its uses.
Talk about a lack of safety culture, bad blasting, poor processing.
Knuckle = Canadian ?lol
Talk about DESTRUCTIVE HUMANS.
Why you keep reposting 20 years old documentaries without noting this is DATED footage
mmm
Capitalism is lifting the locals from poverty, and giving them a reason "to get involved", love it!
Mine planning software? Nah paper is good
Did you know that 2 years ago rhodium it was at $600 dol per oz, and now price skyrocket to $12,000 doll per oz, just imagine if you invested on 4 oz at 600 hundred, $2,400 doll investment, it will make now $48,000 doll, unbelievable if i just would know