Category: MINING

By Chip Somodevilla

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden may be against the further proliferation of fossil fuels, but observers have said a different part of the natural resource economy could get a lift if he bests President Donald Trump in the U.S. election in November: the metals and mining sector.

Trump ran for president in 2016 on a populist economic message that promised the return of a diminished U.S. industrial workforce, including the mining sector. While his government slashed environmental rules in the name of saving U.S. jobs, it was not a saving grace for the mining industry. U.S. coal mining jobs sunk to record lows, and the mining sector in general has hemorrhaged jobs since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, Trump administration policy objectives that could fuel domestic demand for metals, such as an infrastructure program, have yet to manifest.

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By MINING.com

The € 8.9 million Horizon 2020 project “illuMINEation” is set to kick-off in September with a vision to tap the full potential a “digital mine” offers by embedding digital thinking into the heart of the mining business, by improving digital skills of mining personnel and by enhancing cooperation along the entire digital mining value chain.

Europe needs to reduce its import dependency in respect to a multitude of raw materials. To do so, Europe’s mining industry must completely redesign the process of traditional mining via the adoption of pioneering innovations, accompanied by extensive use of data analytics and new types of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

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By Heidi Vella

India is energy hungry. The country, and its roughly 1.3 billion inhabitants, is the third largest energy consumer in the world and it is estimated to have the fastest growing power needs of any nation.

Around three-quarters of India’s electricity supply comes from coal-fired power stations, a number of which are fed by pricey imports. To boost domestic supply, the government is opening up the country’s vast coal reserves to commercial development.

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By Yoana Cholteeva

The mining industry has seen an increasing interest in the mineral potential of oceans with rock formations on the seafloor, including ferromanganese crusts, manganese nodules, marine phosphorites, and seafloor massive sulphides, among others.

Since the 1970s, the US Geological Survey (USGS) has been investigating marine mineral potential,  focused on the US’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which extends 200 miles from the country’s shoreline and allows control over the exploration and exploitation of marine resources in the area.

While the USGS’s main focus has changed over the years, in 2018, President Trump’s Federal Strategy on Critical Minerals issued a list of 35 mineral commoditiesdeemed critical to the economy and security of the country.

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By JILL LANGLOIS

SÃO PAULO, BRAZILThe mosquitoes come in swarms not long after the forest burns.

As they scorch one patch of trees after another, the miners carve deep pits into the cleared land to extract gold. Many of these excavations encroach on protected land near the clearings, destroying even more of the forest cover the people who live there depend on. The cavernous craters fill with water, which becomes even more stagnant once the mines are abandoned. It is there that mosquito-borne illnesses, like malaria, begin to spread more easily.

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By Henry Lazenby

Northern Dynasty Minerals’ Pebble Limited Partnership said last week it was confident the US Army Corps of Engineers’ final environmental impact statement for the controversial Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project in southwest Alaska was the last word on a 15-year saga, after President Donald Trump said the White House would review the decision in an effort to hear “both sides of the issue”.

Earlier last week, his son Trump Jr came out on social media signalling his opposition to the mega-project.

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By Taran Volckhausen

• New research looking at Amazon artisanal gold mining in Guyana has found that the destroyed Amazon forest at mining sites shows no sign of recovery three to four years after a mine pit and tailings pond are abandoned, likely largely due to soil nutrient depletion.
• In addition, mercury contamination at the sites drops after a mine is abandoned; mercury is used to process gold. Mercury being a chemical element, it does not break down but can bioaccumulate, so its onsite disappearance means the toxin is possibly leaching into local waters, entering fish, and poisoning riverine people who eat them.

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By James Dacey

Advocates of deep-sea mining claim the process is important for providing metals for renewable energy technologies. One of the strongest arguments against offshore mining is that the environmental risks are too high, given that deep-sea ecosystems are among the most undiscovered places on Earth.

A less reported issue is the impact that deep-sea mining would have on developing economies that rely on land-based mining of those same metals. That is the subject of a recent report commissioned by the International Seabed Authority (ISA).

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By Gold Plus Mining Inc.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Gold Plus Mining Inc. (“Gold Plus” or the “Company”) (CSE :GPMI) is pleased to announce the it has entered into an agreement to acquire highly prospective mineral claims (the “Property”) in BC’s famous “Golden Horseshoe” region contiguous to Benchmark Metal’s (BNCH – TSX.V) “Lawyers” Gold and Silver project that recently reported drilling intercepts of 2,360 g/t silver and 11.30 g/t gold over a 1 meter interval as well as 1.44 g/t gold equivalent over 102 meters.

Gold Plus’s mineral claims cover approximately 8,650 acres and are on trend with several mines found in the region, located at the south-eastern side of Benchmarks’ “Lawyers” property, below TDG Gold Corp’s “Baker” Mine and “Shasta” Mine and in line with the “Kemess” Mine further South East that hosts 2.7Moz of gold equivalent. Mineralization hosted on adjacent and/or nearby properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization hosted on the Properties.

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By Cecilia Jamasmie

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) boss Elon Musk is calling miners to produce more nickel, a key ingredient in the batteries that power his company’s electric cars, and has offered a “giant contract for a long period of time” to any firm able to extracted it in an efficient, environmentally sustainable manner.

Musk noted on a second-quarter earnings call that the high price of batteries continues to be one of the main hurdles for Tesla’s expansion.

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