The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Whether exploring and mapping a historical underground mine for the first time since it was shuttered during World War II or generating more detailed maps of a modern operation, drones that navigate the labyrinth of ramps, declines, stopes, and other underground environs without reliance on the global positioning system or human guidance can make subterranean mine surveying safer, faster, and more accurate. Ascot Resources Ltd. and Northern Star Resources Ltd. are amongst the...
Already pushing the boundaries of portable energy storage technology through its development of solid-state batteries, Energy Exploration Technologies Inc. or EnergyX, announced a US$50 million funding from General Motors Co. to help the company develop its lithium extraction and refinery technology. EnergyX's direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology can extract lithium metal directly from brine and potentially in anode-ready form for electric vehicle batteries, enabling a...
COVID-19 may have served as an inflection point for metal 3D printing. After suffering a short-term downturn in the wake of the pandemic, the global metal additive manufacturing market is expected to grow to US$18.5 billion by 2032, according to business research firm IDTechEx. The United Kingdom-based market analyst says several factors have come into play to push this burgeoning technology to the foreground, most notably the supply chain disruption caused by the pandemic its...
Geothermal power has generally represented region-specific and niche clean energy in the public consciousness for over a century. Today, thanks to a profusion of social outreach and government incentives, investors and leaders across both public and private sectors are exploring lesser-known applications and exciting advancements in the field. Just a few feet below the surface, the earth maintains a near-constant temperature that belies the seasonal extremes of aboveground...
Techno-clothing company utilizes graphene to make jacket invisible to infrared cameras. Thanks to the "wonder material" graphene, the invisibility cloak often seen in fantasy and science fiction will likely soon be a thing of reality, as Vollebak unveils the world's first thermal camouflage jacket that brings us one step closer to disappearing into thin air. Home to the initial discovery of graphene and two researchers that won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneering...
From flashlights to supercomputers, tin is the glue for an electronic age Lost in the clamor for lithium, nickel and other metals needed for the batteries powering electric vehicles and modern electronics, or the rare earth elements that turn stored energy into motion, is the enormous need for a much more modest metal that is so fundamental to the advancement of technology that it almost goes unseen – tin. While other technology metals are critical to certain products and s...
Electric Vehicles require six times the minerals than their fossil fuel forebearers With even the most basic models boasting sophisticated driver-assist, navigation, infotainment, diagnostics, and other advanced digital systems being fed power from oversized versions of the lithium-ion batteries found in your laptop or smartphone, electric vehicles are becoming personal computers that you can drive. While this puts a whole new spin on the term mobile computing, riding around i...
Shining a light on a metal used in nearly all today's economic sectors Used in everything from beer cans to spacecraft, aluminum is a metal most people interact with nearly every day. What many people don't know is this lightweight metal is also a candidate for next-generation rechargeable batteries with the potential to outperform the lithium-ion cells in use today. The major uses for aluminum metal are generally found in: • Transportation – automobiles, aircraft, tru...
Coal ash, acid drainage, and tailings for future green economy As the world continues to prime itself for the global energy shift, academia, governments and the private sector are scrambling to extract the valuable minerals and metals necessary to power the low-carbon renewable future – resulting in some truly innovative and unconventional methods. In addition to the rare earths, cobalt, lithium, and other technology metals that capture headline attention, this list often miss...
Rare metalloid key element of CdTe thin-film solar cell tech The rising popularity of thin-film solar cells as a highly effective means of converting sunlight into electricity is creating increased demand for tellurium, amongst the rarest of the stable elements on the periodic table. Tellurium is a metalloid, one of seven elements with properties that fall between metals like aluminum and tin and non-metals like carbon and phosphorus. These semimetals, which also include...
Russia and China's control of global supplies worry DC lawmakers From its uses in flame retardants that have saved countless American lives to being an important ingredient in batteries poised to be the answer to the challenge of storing intermittent renewable energy, few metals are more critical to the national security and economic wellbeing of the United States than antimony. Described as a metalloid, which means it falls somewhere between metals such as zinc and solid...
Tungsten could be held ransom unless domestic mines open Tungsten, or wolfram, is the 74th element on the periodic table of elements and, like many other metals that have found their way onto critical mineral lists in Canada, Europe, and the United States, this sturdy metal is vulnerable to supply disruption. Tungsten has been known since prehistoric times, and as far back as 350 years ago, Chinese porcelain makers were using this element as a pigment to incorporate a unique...
MIT develops a wearable sensor able to target any biomarker Using a gold-gallium "band-aid" could prove the next generation of biological monitoring as researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have devised a new kind of wearable sensor capable of communicating wirelessly without the need for microchips or even batteries. Wearable sensors are ubiquitous due to wireless technology, which enables the monitoring of glucose concentrations, blood pressure, heart...
Researchers from the University of Manchester might have to adopt a new title: alchemists, as they may have discovered the 21st-century version of the philosopher's stone. But unlike the mystical substance of old, the modern golden transformation is thanks to a microscopically thin material that has been growing in popularity due to its miracle-like properties – graphene. "Graphene turns rubbish into gold, literally," said Andre Geim, a professor from the University of M...
Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin have discovered the potential of using the super material graphene to develop synaptic transistors for brain-like computers. For most traditional computing devices, silicon remains the gold standard. However, there have long been attempts to use more flexible, more efficient, and more environmentally friendly materials for transistors. Computers that function like the human brain are inching closer to mainstream adoption, yet...
A small, made-in-British-Columbia device that uses sensors typically found in breweries and greenhouses has proven to be useful in the exploration of critical minerals. A new report from Geoscience BC shows that this device can indicate the presence of geological faults and sulfide mineralization through real-time measurements of the concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide in soil. This ability to sniff out CO2 in the soil can help geologists identify potential mineral...
As part of a wider initiative to recover critical minerals as byproducts at its current mining operations, Rio Tinto is now producing the tellurium used in thin-film photovoltaic solar panels at its Kennecott copper operation in Utah. "We are proud to deliver a new domestic supply of tellurium to support the manufacturing of solar panels and other critical equipment here in the United States," said Rio Tinto Copper Chief Operating Officer Clayton Walker. This key ingredient...
How much rock must be moved to produce the metals in an Apple iPhone, Tesla Model 3 electric vehicle or any other product that requires mined commodities (i.e., nearly everything)? Apple teamed up with the United States Geological Survey to develop a "rock-to-metal ratio" that makes it easier to answer that question. Metals are essential to every aspect of modern life. Even a bowl of oatmeal requires these fundamental building materials to grow, ship, and process this...
Looking to lower the carbon footprint of the single largest gold-producing complex in the world, Nevada Gold Mines has turned to First Solar Inc. to provide enough cadmium-telluride thin-film photovoltaic solar modules to supply up to 17% of the energy needs of its Nevada gold mines. A joint venture between Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont Corp., the world's two largest gold mining companies, Nevada Gold Mines produces approximately 3.5 million ounces of gold a year. Joining a...
After recovering from a short-term downturn for metal 3D printing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, IDTechEx forecasts that the global metal additive manufacturing market will hit US$18.5 billion by 2032. The market research firm says several factors have come into play to push this burgeoning technology to the foreground, most notably the pandemic itself. The remote and autonomous capabilities of "printing" metal components – oftentimes, in locations where shipping was h...
Looking to increase the speed and accuracy of establishing drill targets on its gold properties in Brazil, Jaguar Mining Inc. has signed a license for long-term use of Minerva Intelligence Inc.'s DRIVER, a proprietary artificial intelligence-driven product developed to allow mining companies to better understand and evaluate drill data to pinpoint superior targets, geometallurgical domains, and more through 3D modeling. "Jaguar is committed to embracing new technologies to...
Scientists in Australia have developed a copper material that kills deadly bacteria two minutes after contact and could prove effective in destroying SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. A team from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, working in collaboration with CSIRO, the science research agency of the Australia government, reported in the January 2022 edition of the scientific journal, "Biomaterials," that the copper innovation kills bacteria more than 100...
Although delayed by a few extra days, a historic event occurred this Christmas with the launch of what is set to become mankind's most powerful "eye" into the unknown, the James Webb Space Telescope. Composed of 18 4.3 feet diameter hexagonal-shaped mirror segments, with a central primary mirror of 21.4 feet, years of innovation, ingenious problem-solving, and sheer determination have set the stage for a view into the cosmos we may never have even conceived of before....
Looking for speedier and more accurate assays from drilling at its Queensway gold project in Newfoundland, New Found Gold Corp. is shipping its samples to Australia for analysis with Chrysos Corp.'s PhotonAssay technology. While shipping samples all the way from eastern Canada to Western Australia may not seem like the fastest way to get results back from drilling, the backlog at assay laboratories in North America this year has mineral exploration companies waiting months to...
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have provided Pretium Resources Inc. with a cutting-edge in discovering new high-grade gold deposits that could extend the life of its Brucejack Mine in British Columbia's famed Golden Triangle. Before the start of a 2021 drill program seeking new high-grade gold deposits at Brucejack, Pretium employed the services of GoldSpot Discoveries Corp., a technology company that leverages the power of machine learning to help mineral...
