The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Imagine a future where a geologist could slip on a virtual reality headset and descend into a full-color, highly accurate 3D model of a mine abandoned decades earlier and much too unstable to allow for human entry. With Exyn Technologies Inc.'s unveiling of the world's first real-time colorized point cloud visualization on a handheld lidar scanner, the ExynPak, such chromatic visions may be closer than you think. "If you watch any good sci-fi movie or show, colorized 3D...
The ore sorter at Vital Metals Ltd.'s Nechalacho rare earths project in Canada's Northwest Territories is able to upgrade lower-grade ore into concentrates viable for shipping to the company's soon-to-be-completed processing facility in Saskatchewan for further upgrading to a mixed rare earths carbonate ready to be separated into the individual rare earths used in a broad range of high-tech and industrial applications. This means Vital will be able to produce more rare earths...
Toward its goal of reducing carbon emissions from its operations by 33% by 2030 and being a completely carbon-neutral mining company by 2050, Teck Resources Ltd. has entered into an agreement with Caterpillar Inc. to develop, pilot, and ultimately deploy 30 zero-emissions large haul trucks to its mines. "Teck is already one of the world's lowest carbon intensity producers of copper, zinc and steelmaking coal, and now we are taking further action to develop and implement the te...
Above and beyond its agreement to sell cobalt hydroxide feed material to Electra Battery Materials Corp., Glencore has signed a five-year tolling contract for the use of Electra's refinery in Ontario to upgrade additional cobalt hydroxide into battery-grade cobalt. Glencore has been a strong supporter of Electra for a number of years, funding the initial engineering studies and providing technical input as the Canada-based company advanced development of its First Cobalt...
With a "substantially complete" application for a loan to fund the development of its Rhyolite lithium-boron project in Nevada already being processed by the U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office, ioneer Ltd. is positioned to be one of the early beneficiaries of the more than $20 billion in federal loans and loan guarantees available to mining and manufacturing companies along the electric vehicle battery materials supply chain. Early in 2021, ioneer entered into...
A two-story-tall mining truck hauling more than half a million pounds of rock may not seem like the best choice for perfecting the science of autonomous travel. As it turns out, however, mines provide an ideal controlled testing ground for autonomous vehicles, and Caterpillar Inc. has been at the forefront of pioneering autonomous haulage systems for mining operations around the world. This revolutionary work has resulted in an exciting new mining technologies milestone for...
Broadening the potential applications of its environmentally sustainable metal leaching formula, EnviroMetal Technologies Inc. reports that it has successfully extracted 221 ounces of gold from roughly 150 kilograms (330 pounds) of dust collected in baghouse filters from a Canadian gold producer. The company says this milestone demonstrates the effectiveness of its proprietary non-cyanide formula in recovering exceptionally high-grade gold from otherwise difficult to process...
Powering its ambition to become a fully electric automaker by 2030, Volvo Cars has teamed up with Northvolt to build a 50-gigawatt-hour-per-year battery gigafactory in Gothenburg, Sweden. "Our battery cell partnership with Northvolt is key to our strategic ambitions in electrification," said Volvo Cars Chief Executive Håkan Samuelsson. "We are committed to becoming a leader in the premium electric car segment and selling only pure electric vehicles by 2030." Toward this commit...
Immediately following its partnership with Northvolt to build a 50-gigawatt-hour-per-year battery gigafactory in Sweden, Volvo Cars announced plans to invest roughly US$1.1 billion (10 billion Swedish kronor) to ready its Torslanda manufacturing plant to produce the next generation of fully electric vehicles. "With these investments we take an important step towards our all-electric future and prepare for even more advanced and better electric Volvos," said Volvo Cars Chief...
With the recent completion of a $2 million expansion, US Vanadium Holding Company LLC is now able to produce up to 4 million liters of ultra-high-purity electrolyte for vanadium redox flow batteries per year at its facility in Hot Springs, Arkansas. "We are very pleased to announce the completion of this major expansion of our ability to produce ultra-high-purity electrolyte for vanadium redox flow batteries," said US Vanadium CEO Mark Smith. "This milestone establishes...
Teck Resources Ltd. is piloting a project that utilizes the power of blockchain technology to trace responsibly produced germanium from its Red Dog zinc mine in Northwest Alaska all the way to fiber optic cables that leverage the unique properties of this critical mineral. From the transistors in quantum computers that are millions of times faster than their classical counterparts to fiber optic cables that send data at the speed of light, germanium is a little-known semicondu...
Alberta has been chosen as the best locale to develop a critical minerals refinery that would process concentrates from Fortune Minerals Ltd.'s planned Nico cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper mine in Canada's Northwest Territories. A mine at Nico and an associated hydrometallurgical refinery in a Canadian province would produce an average of 1,800 metric tons of battery-grade cobalt sulfate; 1,700 metric tons of bismuth; 300 metric tons of copper; and 47,000 ounces of gold annually ov...
In its race toward becoming North America's electric vehicle market leader by 2025, General Motors Co. has unveiled plans to invest roughly $7 billion in new lithium-ion battery and EV manufacturing facilities in Michigan, the single largest investment ever by the American automaker. "Today we are taking the next step in our continuous work to establish GM's EV leadership by making investments in our vertically integrated battery production in the U.S., and our North American...
On the heels of Rio Tinto's order for four battery-electric locomotives to pull trains of iron ore in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, BHP has placed an order for four of its own battery-electric locomotives to be trialed on its Western Australia Iron Ore rail network. Both of these global miners see electrification of mining and transport equipment as an important facet of achieving their steep carbon dioxide emission reduction targets moving forward. "Replacing...
Seeking greener and more efficient technology for the production of advanced lithium materials for rechargeable batteries, Australia-based Albemarle Corp. has entered into a joint development agreement with 6K, a United States-based company that has developed a cutting-edge microwave-controlled plasma technology for producing advanced materials. Dubbed UniMelt, this patented technology leverages the physics of plasma chemistry to produce high-purity and customized materials...
As the competition for supplies of the minerals and metals needed to build electric vehicles heats up, Tesla Inc. has cut a deal to secure the nickel for the lithium-ion batteries to power its future EVs from Talon Metals Corp.'s Tamarack project in Minnesota. Located 54 miles west of Duluth, the Tamarack project is slated to produce roughly 28 million pounds of nickel, plus 17 million lb of copper, per year over the first nine years of mining. Talon's commitment to reducing t...
Taking a large step toward its goal of halving the carbon emissions at its iron mines in the Pilbara region of Western Australia by 2030, Rio Tinto has placed an order with Wabtec Corp. for four FLXdrive battery-electric locomotives. "Our partnership with Wabtec is an investment in innovation and an acknowledgment of the need to increase the pace of our decarbonization efforts," said Rio Tinto Iron Ore Managing Director of Port, Rail and Core Services Richard Cohen. The...
In another step toward Ucore Rare Metals Inc.'s goal of producing the first separated rare earth elements at its planned Strategic Metals Complex in Alaska in about two years, a third party has carried out an independent evaluation of the RapidSX rare earths separation technology to be used at the Alaska SMC. Developed by Gareth Hatch and his team at Innovation Metals Corp., a subsidiary of Ucore, RapidSX is a technological upgrade to the conventional solvent extraction techno...
5 has been a watershed year for Zentek Ltd., which entered the year as Zen Graphene Solutions Ltd., a mining company leveraging the unique characteristics of the graphite at its Albany project in Ontario to produce a graphene coating that is more than 99% effective at killing a broad range of bacteria and viruses, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for COVID-19, and exited the year as a technology that is applying this patent-pending ZENGuard antimicrobial coating...
Seeking to wean Wyoming's energy grids and coffers off coal and other fossil fuels, the United States Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management is providing the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources with funds to evaluate the idea of deploying clean hydrogen technologies in the state. The Biden administration sees the development of affordable clean hydrogen as a key to achieving its goal of net-zero carbon emissions in the U.S. by 2050....
It is an inconvenient truth that the low-carbon future envisioned by world leaders that gathered for the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, cannot be built without massive new supplies of minerals and metals. While battery metals, rare earths, and other critical minerals have garnered the spotlight for their role in building this future of traveling and transporting goods with electric vehicles charged with renewable energy – and rightfully so – the inc...
While it may seem counterintuitive to consider lava as a source of inspiration for preventing homes and businesses from going up in smoke, researchers in Australia and China have drawn inspiration from this molten rock in the development of a better flame retardant. To prevent buildings from going ablaze, manufacturers have added flame retardants to plastic, wood, and steel building materials for decades. These additives, however, can be toxic and expensive. To make a better...
Tesla Inc. has cut a deal with Syrah Resources Ltd. to supply the single largest ingredient in most lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles – graphite. More specifically, the renowned electric automaker has entered into an offtake agreement for natural graphite active anode material, also known as coated spherical graphite, from Syrah's Vidalia processing facility in Louisiana. The anodes in lithium-ion batteries that power most EVs are packed full of graphite that h...
Looking to establish itself as a major new player in the technology metals and energy transition metals space, Welsbach Technology Metals Acquisition Corp. has launched a $75 million initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market. Led by CEO Daniel Mamadou, a technology metals advisor with more than 20 years of experience in global banking, Welsbach is being established as a blank check company that will use the funds raised through its IPO to invest in and support...
Pennsylvanian coal helped to fuel America's Industrial Revolution, and mines in the Keystone State have since provided a domestic source of iron ore, cobalt, nickel, and various other metals. Now, researchers at Pennsylvania State University have identified a potential motherlode of battery metals to feed into America's EV Revolution in waste left behind by more than two centuries of mining in the commonwealth. "Preliminary estimates indicate that waste left by coal mining...
