Video: Robert Friedland warns we’re ‘on the verge of destroying ourselves as a species’ 

Northern Miner Group Publisher Anthony Vaccaro, left, speaks with Ivanhoe Mines executive co-chair Robert Friedland. Credit: The Northern Miner

Robert Friedland arrived fresh off a flight from Mongolia just in time to be the last keynote speaker of The Northern Miner’s Canadian Mining Symposium in London, U.K., Oct. 12-13. 

In no-holds-barred remarks that covered everything from climate change and the role of miners in the green energy transition to the recent outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the famed mining financier and founder of Ivanhoe Mines pledged to be completely honest with the audience of mining investors. 

“Since I’m old and I’m cranky, I might as well be a truth teller,” he said. “The first thing I want to tell you is that the current generation of batteries is gonna be toast. It’s good for another three or four years, but there’s a whole new generation of batteries coming, so if you can’t look forward in technology and figure out what these things are going to be made out of, you don’t know what to start mining now.” 

Friedland also discussed the dangers of an increasingly polarized and divided world – economically, philosophically and otherwise as half of humanity is bent on war and the other half on fighting climate change. 

“We’re right on the verge of destroying ourselves as a species,” he said. “We really need to calm down this dialogue because we’re balkanizing the world economy into two very apparent opposing camps.” 

Watch the full video:

Print

7 Comments on "Video: Robert Friedland warns we’re ‘on the verge of destroying ourselves as a species’ "

  1. seyedmousa pishvaei | October 19, 2023 at 2:26 am | Reply

    I think it is real

  2. all issues for the Greta Thunberg’s of the world to deal with

  3. Refreshing article on the realities of rare earth minerals & the disasrrous batteries for EV’s

  4. World has just over 500 years left of oil for fuel. In 50 years, we will have Fusion power with unlimited electric power and the process to make unlimited synthetic fuel. Cheap fuel, food, electric only if we don’t nuke ourselves. In 50 years, robots will be doing the heavy labor. What is the resale value of any electric car after the battery dies in 10 years. How about close to 0.

  5. Weak American equals a weak world. Weakness empowers evil. Russia, China and the Middle East. Not rocket science.

  6. Brian Lennan | July 7, 2024 at 10:44 pm | Reply

    Humans are the only species on earth that will voluntarily extinct themselves. Thank you for saying it Mr. Friedland.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.


*


By continuing to browse you agree to our use of cookies. To learn more, click more information

Dear user, please be aware that we use cookies to help users navigate our website content and to help us understand how we can improve the user experience. If you have ideas for how we can improve our services, we’d love to hear from you. Click here to email us. By continuing to browse you agree to our use of cookies. Please see our Privacy & Cookie Usage Policy to learn more.

Close