One of the most devastating reason for the decline of the mining industry has to be the cost of oil to run the operations which had sky-rocketed during the last ten years.

If Tesla or others can create a long life battery to fulfill most of the energy demands to run all future mining operations,it will not only be beneficial to the environment but will also cut down and stabilise the costs in a big way for years to come.And why not demand that all mining vehicles to be run by fuel cell baterries when they become available.

May be the problem of the long running strangle hold on ccost of mining will finally be over.