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International Media Resource Articles

How this new technology could change the way we mine copper – by Liz Dennett (Fast Company – June 4, 2025)

https://www.fastcompany.com/

Mining isn’t known for innovation. For more than a century, we’ve extracted copper using the same process: dig, crush, grind, leach, repeat. Meanwhile, demand has exploded, fueled by EVs, AI infrastructure, and the energy transition. That mismatch has created a bottleneck. We’re using yesterday’s tools to power tomorrow’s economy.

The conductive highway

Copper is the metal that moves energy. Literally, electrons don’t travel from solar panels to batteries—or from your laptop charger to the cloud—without it. Copper is the conductive highway that keeps the world’s electrons flowing. It’s in every EV, every wind turbine, and every data center.

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What to Know About China’s Halt of Rare Earth Exports – by Keith Bradsher (New York Times – June 3, 2025)

https://www.nytimes.com/

Since early April, China has stopped almost all shipments of critical minerals that are needed for cars, robots, wind turbines, jet fighters and other technologies.

China has suspended almost all exports since April 4 of seven kinds of rare earth metals, as well as very powerful magnets made from three of them. The halt has caused increasingly severe shortages that threaten to close many factories in the United States and Europe. Why are these metals so needed, why has China stopped exporting them and, crucially, what happens next?

What are rare earths?

There are 17 types of metals known as rare earths, which are found near the bottom of the periodic table. Most of them are not actually very rare — they are all over the world, though seldom in large enough ore deposits to be mined efficiently.

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Nationalisation, Sovereignty and Geopolitical Realignment in African Mineral Extraction: The case of West Africa – by Elio Brando (Italian Institue for International Political Studies – June 5, 2025)

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The global resource market is experiencing a sustained surge in demand for crucial minerals, such as gold, lithium, silver, bauxite, uranium, and cobalt. Two key forces are driving this trend: rising geopolitical and economic uncertainties, which are channelling increased investment in hard commodities, and the accelerating technological transition, which demands a significant expansion of mineral production and refinery.

Africa is bound to be deeply affected by current developments. The continent holds approximately 30% of the world’s critical mineral reserves, with individual nations possessing significant shares of specific resources. The global interest in precious minerals (such as gold, platinum, and silver) is paired by a rising demand for critical minerals such as lithium, graphite, cobalt, manganese, and bauxite.

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Coal miners backed Trump. He’s dismantled their safety net – by Bob Ortega, Curt Devine, Kyung Lah and Casey Tolan (CNN.com – June 4, 2025)

https://www.cnn.com/

OAK HILL, WEST VIRGINIA – After decades of mining coal deep below the mountains of West Virginia, David Bounds now struggles to carry a gallon of milk to the breakfast table without gasping for breath. The black lung disease that forced him to retire eventually may kill him, Bounds believes.

He’s proud of being a coal miner. But he doesn’t want anyone else to face his fate – or the myriad other dangers miners confront on the job. “It’s getting worse, and worse, and worse as I go along. I don’t want to see nobody in that shape, if it can be prevented,” he told CNN.

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Rio Tinto bets lithium will retain its battery metal crown – by Andy Home (Reuters – June 3, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – It’s a tough time to be a lithium producer as the light metal sinks under the weight of excess supply. Lithium hydroxide prices have collapsed by 90% from their 2022 peak and show no signs of recovery.

Multiple producers are now operating at zero or negative margins, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie. Even giants like Albemarle, the world’s largest producer of the battery metal, have been cutting costs and deferring new projects to weather the supply storm. Rio Tinto, however, is undaunted. The global mining house remains “consistent in its belief in the long-term outlook for lithium”.

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Innovation comes to tailings management – by Heidi Vella (Mining Technology – June 2, 2025)

https://www.mining-technology.com/

In the wake of several major tailings dam disasters, new technology is emerging to help miners manage waste more safely and sustainably.

Today, it is impossible to talk of mine tailings – the unfortunate but unavoidable legacy of mining – and not think of the Brumadinho dam disaster in Brazil, which, in 2019, claimed 259 lives. Aidan Davy, co-COO of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) called it a “stark wake-up call”, adding that it “marked the beginning of a vital journey to make these facilities safer for people and the environment”.

That journey should not only focus on strong governance but also the implementation of “good engineering practices” for tailings management across the life cycle, the ICMM noted in its latest updated guidance, published in February.

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Fresh Mongolia turmoil raises stakes for Rio Tinto’s copper bet – by Jessica Sier (Australian Financial Review – June 3, 2025)

https://www.afr.com/

Tokyo | Mongolia’s prime minister was ousted from power on Tuesday in a dramatic no-confidence vote, sparking fresh political uncertainty that raises questions over the future of Rio Tinto’s massive copper mine expansion in the country.

Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai was forced to resign after falling well short of the 64 votes he needed from lawmakers, Mongolian media reported. The vote was triggered by a corruption scandal involving Oyun-Erdene’s son and public anger over his lavish lifestyle that included weeks of mounting street protests demanding greater transparency or his resignation.

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How Kazakhstan can anchor a resilient rare‑earth supply chain for the West – by Miras Zhiyenbayev (Atlantic Council – June 3, 2025)

Atlantic Council – Shaping the global future together

The rare-earth supply crunch underscores a critical lesson: The United States cannot afford to rely on China’s goodwill for minerals essential to its economy and security. China dominates the rare-earth supply chain, with Beijing supplying about 60 percent of global rare-earths output and controlling up to 90 percent of refining capacity.

For the United States, which needs neodymium and dysprosium for F‑35 fighter jet engines as badly as it needs lithium for electric vehicles, continued dependence on Beijing is impossible. The solution is not wishful “onshoring” to the United States alone; it is establishing a portfolio of reliable partners. Kazakhstan, already the world’s leading uranium producer and a top‑ten copper and zinc exporter, is a prime candidate for such a partnership.

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Global alarms rise as China’s critical mineral export ban takes hold – by Jarrett Renshaw and Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – June 3, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

Alarm over China’s stranglehold on critical minerals grew on Tuesday as global automakers joined their US counterparts to complain that restrictions by China on exports of rare earth alloys, mixtures and magnets could cause production delays and outages without a quick solution.

German automakers became the latest to warn that China’s export restrictions threaten to shut down production and rattle their local economies, following a similar complaint from an Indian EV maker last week.

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Would You Buy Your Diamond Engagement Ring at Walmart? – by Elizabeth Paton (New York Times – May 8, 2025)

https://www.nytimes.com/

The popularity of synthetic stones has sent the market for natural diamonds crashing. With consumers confused about how to tell the difference, how can a market leader like De Beers regain its sparkle?

Do you care where a diamond comes from? Historically, consumers didn’t have a choice. Natural diamonds were formed billions of years ago, deep beneath the earth’s surface, and were then thrust hundreds of kilometers to its crust by volcanic eruptions before eventually being extracted from mines in South Africa, Russia and elsewhere.

Companies like De Beers convinced the world that a diamond is forever, made the stones synonymous with engagement rings and encouraged people to spend at least three months’ salary on a rock when they wed. But in recent years, the natural diamond industry has been upended by laboratory-grown diamonds, which are virtually identical in chemical composition to their natural counterparts (at least to the naked eye).

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Green Flashpoints: How The Surge In Renewable Energy May Spark A New Era Of Global Conflict – Analysis – by Syed Raiyan Amir (Eurasia Review – June 2, 2025)

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As the world races to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, a new energy order is beginning to emerge—one that promises cleaner air and climate resilience but also portends fresh geopolitical tensions. The shift to solar, wind, hydrogen, and rare earth-powered technologies is not merely a technological revolution; it is a profound geopolitical reordering with the potential to ignite a new spectrum of global conflict.

From the strategic control of critical minerals to green technology rivalry, energy access disputes, and economic power realignment, the green transition may ironically generate new fault lines even as it attempts to heal the planet.

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Juukan Gorge traditional owners sign landmark agreement with Rio Tinto (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – June 2, 2025)

https://www.abc.net.au/

Just over five years after Rio Tinto destroyed sacred sites at Juukan Gorge in WA’s Pilbara region, the area’s traditional owners have signed a new deal with the mining giant. The Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) Aboriginal Corporation and Rio Tinto announced the deal, which governs the company’s iron ore operations on PKKP lands, on Monday morning.

In a statement, the corporation says the deal gives traditional owners a “much greater say” about what happens on their country. It comes after years of tense relations between the PKKP people and Rio Tinto in the wake of the destruction of 47,000-year-old rock shelters.

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Geologists Reveal World’s Biggest Iron Deposit Worth $6 Trillion Set to Impact Global Economy – by Arezki Amiri (MSN.com – June 2, 2025)

https://www.msn.com/

In a remote part of Western Australia, geologists have uncovered a mineral deposit of staggering size—one that promises to rewrite not only the map of global iron production but also our understanding of Earth’s geological history.

The Hamersley region, already known for its rich mineral resources, now hosts what scientists say is the largest iron ore deposit ever recorded, containing roughly 55 billion metric tons of ore with iron concentrations exceeding 60 percent. This massive find, valued at nearly $6 trillion, marks a significant moment for the global mining industry.

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Eramet’s shares slide as Gabon plans manganese ore export ban – by Geert De Clercq, Gus Trompiz and Maxwell Akalaare Adombila (Reuters – June 2, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

PARIS, June 2 (Reuters) – Shares in Eramet fell sharply on Monday after Gabon announced an export ban on unrefined manganese from 2029, potentially upending the French mining group’s massive export-orientated production of the steel ingredient in the West African country.

Gabon’s plan, announced by the government in a weekend statement, comes as several African countries – including Guinea, with bauxite, Zimbabwe, with lithium, and Mali, and Tanzania, with gold – seek to move from exporting raw material to local processing.

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Trump Dreams of Minerals: in Ukraine and Greenland – by John Feffer (Foreign Policy in Focus – May 28, 2025)

https://fpif.org/

Trump wants to keep the US in, China out, and everyone else down.

The clean energy transition that the Biden administration touted as the focus of its industrial policy required large amounts of mineral inputs. Batteries for electric vehicles depend on lithium, solar panels contain gallium and molybdenum, and powerful magnets in wind turbines can’t be built without rare earth elements.

Biden’s landmark legislation, such as the 2022 Inflation Adjustment Act, effectively resurrected industrial policy in the United States but this time on the basis of a shift away from fossil fuels. Donald Trump, since taking office in early 2025, has swung U.S. policy back again toward oil, gas, and coal. But the Trump administration is no less interested in securing access to minerals.

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