Explosives and propellants: Impact and additionality
Mining the transition's metals, and the risk to neighbours
Mining the transition's metals, and the risk to neighbours What this tab covers The impact and additionality lens: what it displaces on the grid, who gains and who bears the burden along the supply chain, and what happens at end of life.Explosives are needed to mine the metals for the energy transition; their climate footprint sits mainly in ammonium nitrate production.
Grid decarbonisation versus fossil displacement
MixedThese stores play no role in grid storage. Their transition relevance is indirect: mining copper, lithium and nickel needs blasting, and ammonium nitrate is made from ammonia, so low-carbon ammonia could cut its emissions. Orica reports gross Scope 1 and 2 emissions 51% below 2019, and net emissions of 1,331 kt CO2e, 41% below 2019, after Australian carbon credits (company figures).8
Orica gross Scope 1+2 vs 2019 51% lower (FY2025)8 Orica net Scope 1+2 (FY2025) 1,331 kt CO2e, 41% below 20198Just transition and local community impact
MixedCommunities near storage sites carry the catastrophic risk, as Beirut showed: more than 300,000 people were displaced and about 77,000 flats damaged, and the warehouse sat about 480 m from the nearest homes. Worker safety in blasting has improved, with Orica reporting zero fatalities in FY2025 against one in FY2024.48
Beirut displaced more than 300,000 people4 Orica fatalities 0 (FY2025); 1 (FY2024)8Circular economy and end of life
MixedMaterial is consumed on use; the end-of-life issues are disposing of expired or degraded stock safely and cleaning up toxic propellant residues. Moving away from hydrazine would reduce handling and disposal hazards.5
Sources
- "They Killed Us from the Inside": an investigation into the August 4 Beirut blast Human Rights Watch, 2021
- Considering hydrazine-free satellite propulsion European Space Agency, 2013
- Orica Annual Report 2025 Orica Limited, 2025