The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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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...
New titanium alloys combine strength and ductility, offering potential advancements for aerospace and biomedical industries. In a breakthrough that could transform multiple industries, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers, in collaboration with ATI Specialty Materials, have developed new titanium alloys that break the conventional tradeoff between strength and ductility, potentially revolutionizing applications from aerospace to biomedical equipment. Titanium...
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...
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...
German, US scientists work to commercialize energy storage systems designed to offset fluctuations in renewable power production. Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany are developing a high-temperature heat storage system that employs liquid-metal technology to enhance the use of renewable energy sources. Highly conductive liquid metals can be heated to more than 700 degrees Celsius (1,290 degrees Fahrenheit) using green electricity to flexibly...
International Energy Agency says significant investments are still needed for critical minerals supply to keep pace with clean energy demand. While encouraged by the billions of dollars that has been invested in developing new supplies of the minerals and metals critical to the energy transition, the International Energy Agency (IEA) cautions that the current well-supplied market may not be a good guide for the future of critical minerals. "The world's appetite for...
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...
PyroDelta is developing a tellurium-based thermoelectric generator that could transform prop downwash into longer drone range. Can tellurium-based thermoelectric generators provide extra lift to drones? First Tellurium believes they can and a company it created to advance research and development of thermoelectric devices for clean energy generation is developing a prototype specifically for drone applications. Thermoelectric generators transform the differences in temperature...
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...
High-grade REE concentrate previously destined for China is now on its way to Saskatchewan for further processing. As home to the first rare earths mine in Canada, Vital Metal Ltd.'s Nechalacho project in Northwest Territories grabbed national headlines as the initial link of a burgeoning rare earth supply chain that would be completely independent of China. With this being hailed as a major milestone for Canada and its allies, Vital's announcement late last year that it...
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...
Energy Fuels begins commercial neodymium-praseodymium production at White Mesa Mill; has sights set on world-class expansions. On the path to toward establishing its White Mesa Mill as a world-class hub for at least six of the metals critical to the energy transition, Energy Fuels Inc. is now producing commercial quantities of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr), a pair of rare earths widely used in electric vehicle motors at the uranium production facility in southeastern Utah....
Adds silicon metal, high-purity iron ore, and phosphorous to 31 materials already on the list. Toward the goal of positioning itself as the "global supplier of choice" for the minerals and metals essential to modern technologies, especially the enormous quantities of raw materials being demanded by a world transitioning to clean energy, Canada has assembled an updated and expanded list of minerals critical to the northern nation. "By updating Canada's Critical Minerals List, w...
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...
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...
Oak Ridge National Laboratory experiments demonstrate that critical metal can withstand prolonged reactor heat and radiation. Conventional nuclear reactors and next-generation modular and microreactors rely on thousands of sensors delivering data to sophisticated electronic monitoring devices for safe and efficient operations. Traditional silicon-based electronics, however, do not hold up to the heat and radiation emitted from the core and must be installed at a distance. New...
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...
Georgia Tech researchers forge copper-infused, nanotextured stainless-steel material to stem rising tide of deadly infections. Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have created a stainless-steel alloy infused with copper to prevent bacterial infections caused by surface contamination. The new metal has potential to be used to create an effective, scalable, and sustainable solution to the growing threat of deadly antibiotic-resistant microbes adhering to surfaces in...
Solution-focused NGO agrees to help manufacture and sell tellurium-based thermoelectric generator with green potential. Amongst the rarest of stable elements on the periodic table, tellurium has quietly emerged as a secret ingredient of the clean energy future. This includes serving as a semiconductor in thermoelectric generators – solid-state devices that transform waste heat from vehicle engines and industrial processes into clean electricity. This promising green energy t...
Returns to a Yukon property with the same advantageous nickel mineral as is found at its Baptiste project in B.C. FPX Nickel Corp.'s search for a unique mineral that offers a cleaner source of the nickel that is in high demand due to its use in lithium-ion batteries has led the company back to Canada's Yukon. FPX is best known for its work at Baptiste, an advance-staged exploration project in central British Columbia that shows the potential of being a significant future...
Pentagon awards $20 million to jump-start the production of battery-grade manganese at South32's Hermosa project in Arizona. The Department of Defense (DOD) has announced a $20 million grant awarded via the Defense Production Act Investment (DPAI) Program to South32, a globally diversified mining and metals company, for accelerating the upcoming Hermosa zinc-manganese project in Arizona. Located in a historic mining district in the Patagonia Mountains, Hermosa was chosen for...
New legislation heralds anticipated domestic nuclear energy transformation. With the signing into law of bipartisan legislation that effectively bans the import of uranium products from Russia, the Biden administration has signaled a monumental shift for America's civil nuclear energy sector. Signed by President Biden on May 14, the bipartisan Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act has finally been enacted into law. "This bill limits the importation of uranium from Russia....
Idaho National Lab tests Sheep Creek samples; one rock from Montana project contains 17.8% rare earths and 350 ppm* gallium. Recent analysis by Idaho National Laboratories confirms that US Critical Materials Corp.'s Sheep Creek project in southwestern Montana hosts extremely high concentrations of gallium alongside the high-grade rare earth elements found there. "The gallium and rare earth grades, calculated and verified by Idaho National Laboratory, are higher than any that...
