The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential building blocks for the world's electronics and a host of developing energy transition technologies. Found in smartphones, computers, screens, and batteries, they are essential in everything from smartwatches to wind turbines. This suite of 15 elements, however, are notoriously challenging to separate. Conventional processes are often chemical-heavy and energy-intensive, requiring multiple extraction and purification steps, which are sl...
Low Earth orbit satellites connect modern remote mining operations, especially in the northern hemisphere. A revolutionary connectivity solution by SpaceX is gaining popularity with remote mining and exploration operations from North America to the UK and beyond. The Starlink satellite constellation is a highly anticipated update to today's modern mine connectivity, offering an effective alternative to fiberoptic or satellite broadband when you're out in the middle of...
The ongoing war is running out of bullets, provoking worldwide munitions manufacturers to ramp up production. Russia's war with Ukraine, ongoing since 2022, is driving an increased demand for copper. Most munitions contain copper in some way, with bullet cartridges also being made of brass, a copper-zinc alloy. "War is good for the metals business," Fastmarkets analyst Andy Farida said. "And part of the reason copper prices have been resilient, while the other base metals...
Decades-long clash continues over Colorado's uranium mines with implications for economy and national security. Mining near the Grand Canyon has been an embattled topic for decades, with an outcome that has implications for American jobs, the future of green energy, the economy, and national security. Uranium fuels nuclear power, a sustainable, efficient, plentiful and practically carbon-free energy. Miners like Colorado-based Energy Fuels Resources Inc. and the current...
A few investors have been buying up cobalt amid battery metal slump. While sustainable domestic mines like Jervois Idaho Cobalt Operations in the U.S. fight to stick to opening targets and investors struggle with problematic environmental and social costs of battery metals from overseas, a glut of overproduced cobalt has driven prices down, and savvy investors are buying up physical material for when demand surges or geopolitical issues come to a head. Anchorage Capital...
BASF withdraws investment plans for Chile amid global slowdown of EV sales. A worldwide slowdown in electric vehicle sales has left lithium prices languishing at pre-2020 levels, quashing investments in bringing new supplies of the battery metal to market. The oversupply of lithium, in particular, is stifling new investment in the Lithium Triangle, a region of the Andes spanning parts of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. The triangle's lithium is concentrated in arid salt pans...
Scientists eye dormant volcanoes to extract energy and battery metals. Researchers at Oxford University in the UK are looking into volcanic geofluids, which could help the green energy transition with a wealth of free energy and minerals. A dormant volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat has piqued researchers' interest in the geofluids that flow beneath it. Oxford's ReSET program project lead, Jonathan Blundy, a Royal Society Research Professor, is confident in his...
Countries combine interests in security, defense, and the growing need for raw materials and processing for the oncoming energy transition. Australia is expanding its cooperation with India on critical minerals, batteries, and electric vehicles, batteries. Critical minerals such as copper, cobalt, lithium, nickel, and rare earth elements are essential components in today's rapidly growing clean energy technologies, from adapting power grids to powering EVs. Both countries have...
American Battery Technology Company (ABTC), headquartered in Reno, Nevada, has pioneered a first-of-its-kind technology to commercially produce lithium hydroxide – a key element in energy transition batteries – from lithium-bearing claystone deposits in Nevada. Lithium products are generally manufactured from conventional feedstock resources like hard rock spodumene materials out of Australia or lithium-rich South American brines. While the hunt for local lithium has bor...
High concentrations of REEs occurring near coal could improve domestic supply. "The model is if you're already moving rock, could you move a little more rock for resources towards energy transition?" said co-author Lauren Birgenheier regarding a study of rare earth elements (REEs) found in conjunction with coal-producing regional mines across the Uinta coal belt of Colorado and Utah. This research seeking out alternative sources of rare earths was conducted in partnership...
PowerMaster President Haiku York talks with Metal Tech News about the company's Revolution grinding technology for mining. PowerMaster has launched Revolution, a promising environmentally-friendly crushing technology designed to increase efficiency, lower costs, reduce the carbon footprint, and improve safety at mining operations. The PowerMaster Revolution is a gyroscopic grinder designed to efficiently process various materials, from large ore chunks to fine tailings, all...
U.S. Department of Energy plans a Low-Carbon Cement and Concrete Center of Excellence to reduce industrial emissions. In its continued mission to help the U.S. reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, the U.S. Department of Energy's Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO) is creating a Cement and Concrete Center of Excellence to accelerate the development and adoption of novel low-carbon cement and concrete technologies. Up to $9 million for national labs to...
Canadian locals leery of U.S. military investment in Lomiko Metals graphite project in Quebec. Initially, when Lomiko Metals Inc., a mining company based in Surrey, British Columbia announced plans to build a graphite mine in Quebec's Laurentides region, there were fears regarding potential environmental harm, especially to nearby lakes, but objections increased after locals found out the Pentagon was also involved in the project. In May, Lomiko Metals received a grant of...
Leading testing and certification company speaks with officials in support of critical mineral processing and recycling projects. At the Building a Sustainable U.S. Battery Supply Chain meeting cohosted by the American Battery Materials Initiative at the White House earlier this month, David Anonychuk, Global Vice President, Metallurgy and Consulting at SGS and Niels Verbaan, SGS Director, Hydrometallurgy, were invited to speak to an assembly of U.S. officials and industry...
Enhancing the North American supply chain with DRC artisanal mining cooperatives promoting responsible sourcing. Canada Rare Earth Corp. announced a pivotal supply agreement with Congolese state-owned mining company SAKIMA SA, via its subsidiary Simba Essential Minerals, establishing rare earth mining operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Executives from both companies have expressed strong commitment to responsible mining practices. The agreement is one step...
Reports demonstrate how growing demand, international cooperation, and social change are shaping the mining sector for the better. The continuing surge in critical minerals demand, anticipated to easily double by 2040, has significantly impacted the global mining sector while several world powers struggle to slip out from under geopolitical pressures on the battery industry and develop domestic supply chains. Propelled by technological expansion, the rate of demand growth for...
Steady demand and Cyclone Megan supply disruptions are giving the metal market its day. The recent uptick in manganese prices resulting from Tropical Cyclone Megan causing significant damage to South32's Groote Eylandt Mining Company (GEMCO) manganese mine in Australia has prompted Jupiter Mines to release an update on the manganese market landscape, preempting its usual quarterly update. "We are expecting manganese prices to be higher than the historical average for the...
Partnership with Pyxera successfully tested a "circular logistics" model to upcycle critical minerals from electronic waste. Following a successful pilot program at the end of last year in Tennessee, FedEx, Pyxera Global, and several other companies have launched the Circular Supply Chain Coalition (CSCC) to boost the domestic supply of critical minerals for new tech hardware in the United States by "mining" discarded consumer electronics. CSCC's vision is to strengthen and ex...
Offshore stockpiles offer material company's feed-first strategy for Re-20X hydrometallurgical process in Quebec. Coniagas Battery Metals Inc. has identified promising offshore stockpiles rich in copper and cobalt that could provide a source of feed for the evaluation and processing using the company's Re-2Ox, a proprietary closed-loop, zero-discharge hydrometallurgical process for the extraction of metals from mined material and black mass battery recycling material....
Engineers link lower graphene quality to oxygen levels during the processing stage and develop new techniques to make less flawed carbon nanomaterial at scale. Engineers at Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science, the University of Montreal, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed an oxygen-free chemical vapor deposition (OF-CVD) method for producing high-quality graphene that can create samples at scale. Their work, publishe...
The trend towards increased sustainability within the steelmaking process, "green steel" practices are catching on around the world. Under a pioneering memorandum of understanding, Lhyfe will install a green hydrogen production unit at Ugitech's plant in Ugine, France, capable of generating around 13 tons of hydrogen per day. This comes at a time when "green steel" practices are making headlines around the world, from Boston Metal's molten electrolysis to Rio Tinto's latest...
Japan's exclusive economic zone sports polymetallic nodules, which would support domestic battery mineral requirements for decades. While the worldwide debate for and against harvesting critical minerals from international waters rages on, Japanese researchers have discovered their own massive mineral resource in the Pacific and are free to do as they please with it. "Polymetallic nodules" (also known as manganese nodules) are essentially concentric layers of iron and...
Increasing responsible sourcing demand puts a spotlight on mining sector. Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is a term that describes the subsistence mining sector, where locals work independently using low-tech methods of manual extraction, physical labor, and basic tools. Many rural communities are historically reliant on artisanal mining for their livelihoods. However, that same history also involves poor working conditions, human rights violations, predatory land...
Auto manufacturers take sides on the question facing the industry – are deep sea resources necessary to compete in the global EV race? A proposal to limit the use of minerals pulled from the seabed has been making its rounds in boardrooms from Tesla to GM, asking big names in the electric vehicle game to commit to a moratorium on minerals sourced from the deep sea. It lost in a landslide, with 78% of Tesla shareholders voting against the proposal and 6% in favor. While c...
Changing how the West approaches globalism will be the key to a circular economy the whole world can get behind. The Western world has found itself in a unique crisis that has brought systemic vulnerabilities into sharp relief. An overreliance on problematic imports has been exposed (especially post-COVID) as a rat's nest of potential supply chain disruptions, global inequality, deregulation and competition-killing corporate consolidation – all while leaving the power of marke...
