Most raw material processing involves some separation process which requires energy. First, there's gathering something that contains some of what you want. Then there's a phase that often involves breaking big stuff into little stuff and some mechanical separation of easily removed crud. Then there's some chemical step, such as smelting, leaching or distillation, which takes energy and feedstocks to pull the good stuff out of the bad stuff. Then there's getting rid of the bad stuff, which is the source of most industrial pollution. Now you finally have something that's mostly what you want, and go on from there. From desalinization to iron making to fertilizer to oil production, the front end looks like that.
All of those processes are energetically uphill, and all are routinely done on huge scales.
Most raw material processing involves some separation process which requires energy. First, there's gathering something that contains some of what you want. Then there's a phase that often involves breaking big stuff into little stuff and some mechanical separation of easily removed crud. Then there's some chemical step, such as smelting, leaching or distillation, which takes energy and feedstocks to pull the good stuff out of the bad stuff. Then there's getting rid of the bad stuff, which is the source of most industrial pollution. Now you finally have something that's mostly what you want, and go on from there. From desalinization to iron making to fertilizer to oil production, the front end looks like that.
All of those processes are energetically uphill, and all are routinely done on huge scales.