The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Established in 1891, Hecla Mining Company has survived two global pandemics, two World Wars, the Great Depression, and numerous crests and troughs of a cyclical metals market that has sunk many of the silver miner's contemporaries over the past 130 years. One of the reasons for this long-lived success is a readiness to adapt to change and the vision to adopt new technologies that maximize safety, improve efficiency, and reduce the environmental footprint of its operations in...
With the recent signing of a rare earth offtake and profit-sharing agreement with Norway-based REEtec, Australia-based Vital Metals Ltd. said it is targeting the production of rare earths from its Nechalacho project in Northwest Territories before the end of this year. "The signing of this agreement will enable REEtec and Vital to work together to supply separated rare earth oxides, which are competitive to products produced anywhere else in the world into the electric...
Best known for the brawn of the enormous earthmoving machines it manufactures for mining operations around the globe, Caterpillar Inc. showcased its brainy side during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2021 held from Jan. 11 to Jan. 14. "People may ask why a manufacturing company like Caterpillar has decided to participate in CES," said Denise Johnson, president of the Caterpillar resource industries group. "The real question is 'why not?' We're proud of our reputation for...
Considered by market experts to be the largest single fundraising in the history of lithium-ion battery supply chains, Sila Nanotechnologies raised US$590 million during a financing that closed on Jan. 26. "Raising way over half a billion dollars is an incredible achievement but is exactly the level of investment innovators in the battery supply chain should be receiving," said Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Managing Director Simon Moores. Aptly located in Silicon Valley,...
January 8, 2021 may go down in history as the inflection point for the transition from the fossil fuel powered vehicles that transported humanity through the 20th century to the electric vehicles that will carry us into the future. This tipping point for global transportation offers a spectrum of challenges and opportunities to sustainably mine, refine, and recycle the minerals and metals needed to build this electric mobility future. Entering 2021, Tesla Inc. was celebrating...
A dinner conversation between two highly successful women in Canadian business led to the creation of Onyen – a powerful, affordable, and easy to use ESG reporting solution designed specifically to meet the needs of junior and midsized mining and mineral exploration companies. "The Onyen platform is definitely a platform I would recommend to another junior mining company ... because of the simplicity, the cost, and the fact that we do expect that this increased disclosure w...
Already, the leading United States producer of the uranium that fuel's emissions-free nuclear energy, Energy Fuels Inc. has entered into an agreement with Canada-based Neo Performance Materials to produce rare earth products from natural monazite sands that are a byproduct of heavy mineral sands mined in the southeastern U.S. Under an agreement announced on March 1, Colorado-based Energy Fuels will process these monazite sands into a mixed rare earth carbonate in Utah for use...
Appia Energy Corp. says recent testing shows that the rare earths-enriched monazite mineral at its Alces Lake project in northern Saskatchewan also hosts gallium, a semiconducting metal that will melt in the palm of your hand. An electron microprobe study conducted by the Saskatchewan Research Council successfully demonstrated that monazite from two separate high-grade rare earth zones and trends at Alces Lake – Ivan and WRCB – contain similar concentrations of gallium oxi...
Furthering its ambitions to be a premium and sustainable battery solutions leader, Northvolt is investing US$200 million to build the largest energy storage systems factory in Europe. The first stage of the planned 50,000-square-meter (538,000 square feet) cutting edge battery systems factory being built in Gdańsk, Poland is already underway. This initial phase, expected to be completed next year, will be able to produce 5 gigawatt-hours of lithium-ion battery modules and...
Syrah Resources Ltd. Feb. 22 announced the decision to restart production at the Balama Mine, a globally significant graphite mine in Mozambique. Syrah achieved commercial production at Balama early in 2019 but decided to suspend operations there due to COVID-19. Pandemic related travel restrictions on the Balama workforce weakened graphite demand due to lockdowns; and electric vehicle sales uncertainty were among the reasons the Australia-based miner decided to curtail...
Instead of the economies-of-scale strategy typically used to get a viable rare earths project into production, Australia-based Vital Metals Ltd. has taken a power-of-partnerships approach to rapidly begin supplying global markets with rare earth oxides from its Nechalacho project in Canada's Northwest Territories. Under this partnership strategy, Vital has contracted a local First Nations to do the mining. It will apply its own expertise to upgrade the ore to a REE...
Australia-based ioneer Ltd. has signed a memorandum of understanding with Caterpillar Inc. to further pursue the use of a fleet of Cat autonomous trucks at the future mine at ioneer's Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Nevada. Ioneer and Caterpillar recently completed a joint study to explore the benefits of early adoption of the Cat Command autonomous haulage system at Rhyolite Ridge. Recognizing that fully integrated autonomous haulage could significantly improve...
With NASA and the private sector taking a serious look at mining lunar and Martian soil in support of human outposts, Colorado School of Mines has unveiled two new undergraduate minors to support these space-faring endeavors. Currently the only academic institution in the Unites States to offer an advanced degree in space resources, the Colorado School of Mines is adding a space mining minor this fall that will allow undergraduate students to get a flavor of the future of...
After a decade of meticulous planning, Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. has received a Quebec government environmental decree to begin developing a mine at its Matawinie project that has been designed to offer lithium-ion battery manufacturers a carbon neutral source of graphite. "I founded Nouveau Monde 10 years ago, and today's decree is a huge milestone for us all," said Nouveau Monde Graphite President and CEO Eric Desaulniers. "With this green light to launch our Matawinie...
American Resources Corp. has acquired exclusive rights to potentially game-changing rare earth and critical elements separation and purification technologies from Hasler Ventures LLC and Purdue University. These technologies developed in the laboratory of Linda Wang, a professor of chemical engineering at Purdue, are designed as a highly efficient and environmentally sound method to separate and purify rare earths and other critical elements from coal, coal byproducts,...
When it comes to the "Super Bowl" of electric vehicles, Norway is the undisputed world champion, a fact that does not sit well with Will Ferrell or General Motors. Behind the wheel of an all-electric Cadillac Lyriq, Farrell takes the EV fight to the "fish loving" Norwegians during a 60-second GM ad that aired during the first quarter of Super Bowl LV. "With GM's new Ultium battery, we are going to crush those lugers," Farrell vows on his way to enlist the help of Kenan...
Geomega Resources Inc. has entered into a preliminary agreement to recycle rare earths from a neodymium-iron-boron magnet production facility Everwin Magnetics Co. is developing in Ontario, Canada. Everwin is a subsidiary of Forte Mobility Co., a private company established in 2019 to design and manufacture customized electric buses and vans for public transit agencies and fleet customers in North America. Toward this goal, the company recently acquired a 435,659-square-foot...
The United States depends on foreign countries for more than 50% of its supply of 28 out of the 35 minerals, metals and groups of elements deemed critical to the nation's economic wellbeing and national security, including 100% import-reliant for 14 of them, according to Mineral Commodity Summaries 2021, which was published by the U.S. Geological Survey on Feb. 1. The list of critical mined commodities for which the U.S. is fully reliant on foreign nations for its supply...
Though Volkswagen does not expect any appreciable quantities of spent lithium-ion batteries for at least another decade, the German automaker has already constructed its first plant to recover more than 90% of the raw materials from these cells. Operated by Volkswagen Group Components, an independent entity formed by Volkswagen in 2019, this pilot plant that recently opened in Salzgitter, Germany aims to recycle more than 90% of the battery raw materials such as lithium, nicke...
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. anticipates that the RapidSX rare earths and critical metals separation technology being developed by its subsidiary, Innovation Metals Corp., will be ready for commercial adoption and implementation by Ucore and licensees of the REE separation technology in about 15 months. RapidSX is not so much a new technology as an enormous upgrade to the conventional solvent extraction technology that has been the standard for separating rare earths for more than...
Australia-based rare earth elements producer Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. has secured a contract for additional Pentagon assistance in funding its plans to develop a U.S.-based rare earths separation facility in Texas. "As the only non-Chinese commercial producer of separated rare earths products to the global marketplace, Lynas is delighted by the opportunity to develop a light rare earth separation facility in the United States," Lynas Rare Earths CEO Amanda Lacaze penned in a...
Toward its mission to be a carbon-neutral supplier of the graphite needed in the anodes of lithium-ion batteries, Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. is advancing the development of a coated spherical purified graphite production facility in Quebec. To increase the durability and energy density of lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles and storing renewable energy, the graphite that goes into the anodes is rolled into potato-shaped spheres and coated in a hard carbon shell....
Furthering a partnership to provide frontline medical workers with an extra layer of protection from bacteria, fungi and viruses, Canada-based Zen Graphene Solutions Ltd. and Trebor RX are working together to produce nitrile gloves with a graphene-based antimicrobial coating. "We are excited to bring another game changer to the PPE Industry," said Trebor RX CEO George Irwin. "We believe Zen's biocidal coating on gloves gives front line responders and health care associates in...
With graphite being a vital ingredient in the lithium-ion batteries storing clean but intermittent wind and solar energy, as well as powering the burgeoning electric vehicle sector, the U.S. Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC) has designated Graphite Creek as a high-priority infrastructure project. This designation means the world-class graphite project in western Alaska qualifies for Fast-41 – short for Title 41 of the Fixing America's Surface T...
Rio Tinto's titanium and iron facility in Quebec will soon be producing scandium, a critical metal used by the aerospace, defense, and high-tech sectors. This will make the global mining company the first commercial scale producer of high-quality scandium oxide in North America. A metal that is often associated with rare earths because they tend to be found alongside the 15 lanthanide elements and have similar chemical properties, scandium has traditionally been used in lightw...
