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...
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...
Mining giant BHP and Toyota Australia have teamed up to convert the Land Cruiser 70, a rugged and retro Toyota workhorse in Australia, to an electric truck that will retain the toughness for which this vehicle is renowned but without the exhaust that comes with the typical 4.5-liter diesel V8 engine. Available in SUV and pickup versions, the Land Cruiser 70 has been produced in Australia since 1984 and is a popular vehicle in the mines there. An electric Land Cruiser 70 is...
Best known for delivering technological solutions to the oil and gas sectors for more than 100 years, Schlumberger has formed Schlumberger New Energy, a new division focused on low-carbon and carbon-neutral energy technologies. One of Schlumberger New Energy's first projects in the United States is the development of a pilot plant to extract lithium from brine in Nevada. Unlike the evaporation process traditionally used to extract lithium from brines in South America, the...
The future of automated underground mining – where drones self-navigate through a labyrinth of underground mine workings and send back high-accuracy 3D data that can be used to guide autonomous mining equipment – is closer than you think. Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions (formerly Sandvik Mining and Rock Technologies) and Exyn Technologies Inc. offered Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention attendees a glimpse of the mining autonomy horizon in a vide...
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...
Minerva Intelligence Inc. announced Feb. 19, the successful implementation of its TARGET software for Giga Metals Corp., with prospectivity results compiled for its Parnaiba Basin copper project in Brazil, leading to the decision to acquire new exploration permits. Minerva, finding success in its artificial intelligence-driven suite of mineral exploration software and services, was enlisted by fellow Canadian Giga Metals to use its expertise to determine new prospective...
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...
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,...
Metals and mining giant Rio Tinto has begun a campaign of transparency and traceability for the aluminum industry with the launch of START, a blockchain-powered "nutrition label" for responsible aluminum. In the growing metals, minerals and rare earths market for all your favorite electronic gadgets and gizmos, the demand for ethically sourced materials has grown as well. With a world of information at their fingertips, smart consumers have begun to explore the trail of...
Sweden-based Kaunis Iron, in collaboration with Vattenfall, Volvo Trucks, ABB and Wist Last & Buss have come together for a unique pilot project to develop a sustainable logistics system, free from fossil fuels. Managing one of the largest iron mines in Sweden, Kaunis Iron has a vision of being the world's most sustainable supplier of iron ore. One of the highest hurdles to achieving this objective is reducing the carbon dioxide emissions from the heavy equipment transporting...
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...
Following the successful completion of four rounds of testing its rare earths recycling pilot plant, Geomega Resources Inc. is ready to begin scaling up the technology. "Having a fully operational pilot plant has provided Geomega with the necessary validation to proceed to the next stages of engineering, finalize discussions with vendors and launch procurement," said Geomega Resources President and CEO Kiril Mugerman. Though Geomega owns a mining project in Quebec that hosts...
Gold Fields' Tarkwa Mine in Ghana is safer thanks to collision avoidance and operator alertness systems developed by Hexagon, a global leader in sensor, software, and autonomous technologies. "This will augment our existing safety management system as it serves as an additional layer of safety intervention to help prevent injuries and fatalities, as well as equipment damage," said Executive Vice President and Head of Gold Fields West Africa Alfred Baku. Hexagon's mining...
Seeking to bring down the cost and carbon dioxide emissions of mining the graphite needed for lithium-ion batteries, Syrah Resources Ltd. has reached an agreement for the installation of solar power generation and battery storage at its Balama Mine in Mozambique. Currently, graphite is the primary anode material in lithium-ion batteries used to store renewable energy and power electric vehicles. These applications are expected to drive an estimated 500% increase in annual...
Newmont Corp. is investing $500 million over the next five years toward the ambitious goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2030, another step toward the ultimate objective of transforming to a carbon neutral gold mining company by 2050. "We fundamentally understand the human contribution to climate change and understand we reap what we sow. It is our responsibility to take care of the resources provided to us," said Newmont President and CEO Tom Palmer. For a...
Lunar Outpost has agreed to fly up to the Moon, grab a sample and sell the lunar rocks to NASA for $1. The Golden, Colorado-based company receives 10 cents of its prize upon award of the contract, another 10 cents upon launch, and the remaining 80 cents when it delivers the sample collected from the lunar South Pole region to NASA in 2023. Despite the paltry monetary values printed on their face, these checks may prove to be some of the most important documents to...
Newmont Corp., the world's largest gold mining company, has forged a partnership with Dingo, the global leader in predictive maintenance, to ensure the optimal health of Newmont's fleet of heavy equipment without putting equipment out of commission for time consuming and often unnecessary preventative maintenance checks. Newmont is among the many global mining companies that are increasingly turning to predictive maintenance devices and software to track the health of equipmen...
Natural "minimoons" that temporarily orbit Earth may be interesting targets for both scientific study and to practice asteroid mining techniques. While Earth is orbited by thousands of artificial satellites and one large natural one, the Moon, it has only been recently that scientists have confirmed that small natural objects are also circling our planet. About eight years ago, researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy predicted that there must be a...
Quebec has put in motion a plan to establish itself as a leader in the global transition to a green economy – by both lowering the eastern Canadian province's carbon footprint through the adoption of renewable energy and electric vehicles, and being a source of responsibly mined minerals and metals that make these technologies possible. Provincial officials recently unveiled the Quebec Plan for the Development of Critical and Strategic Minerals 2020-2025, which provides the f...
Newcrest Mining Ltd.'s Cadia East gold-copper-molybdenum mine in Australia is a bit safer with the integration of a remote operated MacLean water cannon into the fleet of automated equipment there. Mining water cannons, essentially water hauling trucks with a high-pressure water jet, are used to blast out wedged rocks that get lodged in underground block cave mining drawpoints. Block caving is a relatively new underground hard rock mining technique that involves mining under...
Drifting some 250 miles above the Earth, researchers aboard the International Space Station have enlisted the help from some of the smallest miners in the universe, microbes. These off-world experiments tested the possibility of using these tiny organisms to convert unsuitable space rock and regolith into soil for growing plants and food, as well as extracting valuable minerals and metals from extraterrestrial materials. Published in Nature Communications, the findings by a...
With consumers increasingly calling for proven sustainable products, Norsk Hydro has teamed up with fellow Norwegian DNV on a pilot project that utilizes blockchain technology to trace Norsk's low-carbon aluminum from pit to purchase. An internationally accredited global assurance provider, DNV helps companies manage risks and assure sustainable performance, Norsk Hydro, which operates across a broad range of market segments for aluminum, energy, metal recycling, renewables,...
