CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration has proposed several changes that would affect the struggling U.S. coal industry. Trump issued executive orders this month to allow mining on federal land.
He has used his emergency authority to allow some older coal-fired power plants set for retirement to keep producing electricity to meet the rising demand amid the growth in data centers, artificial intelligence and electric cars.
It was one of the hottest trades of last year. Now the commodity has a new claim to fame – it dominates the list of most-shorted stocks on the ASX.
Uranium, one of the hottest trades of last year, has a new claim to fame, an unwanted one. Companies exploring or mining the commodity make up six of the 20-most-shorted stocks on the local bourse.
It is a big change from the bull market of 2023 and 2024, when demand for a new, emissions-free fuel source buoyed expectations that local uranium stocks would be big winners from the end of coal and gas generation. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton made nuclear the centrepiece of his energy policy; countries around the world scrambled to build new plants.
FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. (AP) — The winner of this year’s West Virginia Coal Festival teen beauty pageant walks among the ruins of a community abandoned 70 years ago and imagines the rusted remains of coal tipples and processing plants coming back to life.
Ava Johnson knows West Virginia coal will not ever be what it once was. But as she makes her way along overgrown railroad tracks near the abandoned Kay Moor mine in the New River Gorge National Park looking for spikes for her collection, the 16-year-old history buff says she has heard people talking with hope about the future of an industry that has brought good-paying jobs to her state for the better part of two centuries.
The Federal Government has announced plans to establish a Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve if re-elected, with plans to invest $1.2 billion into the initiative.
The Federal Government is aiming to bolster Australia’s economic resilience and national security, transitioning from a critical mineral supplier to a global market leader, strategically capitalising on the rising demand for rare earths, high-tech manufacturing materials and resources for the energy transition. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve would help Australia unlock its full potential of critical minerals at a critical time in the economy.
A landmark deal unlocking vast copper and gold reserves has Pakistan eyeing a transformative economic shift
Pakistan is poised to join the ranks of the world’s top producers of critical metals by the end of the decade, thanks to an April 8 deal between the government and Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold.
Together, they aim to unlock the vast potential of Reko Diq, home to the world’s largest known untapped deposits of copper and gold with near-term production potential. Chinese firms are already on the ground, Saudi Arabia is on the verge of investing, and the United States is clamouring for access to Pakistan’s mineral wealth.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/
The success of the Manhattan Project sent demand for uranium skyrocketing, and enterprising prospectors went out West in search of an overnight fortune. But many were exposed to lethal radiation in the mines.
Armed with picks and shovels, the prospectors turned to the American West intent on finding deposits of the mineral that would make their fortunes. Their pursuit of wealth led to vast riches—and left ghost towns in its wake.
But the year wasn’t 1849, and the miners weren’t in search of gold. Instead, it was the 1950s, and they carried Geiger counters along with their shovels. They were part of the United States’ last big mineral rush—a forgotten race to find uranium deposits at the dawn of the nuclear age.
China is limiting US access to critical minerals in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, but the move isn’t as devastating as Beijing wants it to be.
As the trade war between China and the United States continues to escalate, Beijing is responding by turning to one of its favorite retaliation tactics: limiting the export of critical minerals used in many high-tech electronics, from fighter jets to wind turbines.
While China’s mineral restrictions may sound scary, the reality is that they haven’t been very effective in the past and stand to become even less so if the US and other countries finally get their acts together. It all started in July 2023, when the Chinese government announced it would restrict the export of gallium and germanium, two critical minerals that are mostly used in making solar panels and semiconductors.
The Albanese government says it will use a critical minerals reserve as leverage with the Trump administration over tariffs, as the mining industry warned that establishing the stockpile could push down commodity prices.
The opposition was ambiguous towards the proposal to establish the reserve, with Peter Dutton saying “we’re not supporting the plan because it is a refit and rehash and reannouncement with no delivery”. But he went on to support the concept. “Critical minerals are absolutely essential for us and for our partners and whether that looks like an offtake agreement or whether it looks like an agreement to stockpile it to work with the US, in the UK, in Japan, etcetera, we will work all that detail in government.”
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Trump administration is considering investing in companies that mine and process critical minerals in an effort to end U.S. dependence on imports from countries including China, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said this week.
“We should be taking some of our balance sheet and making investments,” Burgum said late Wednesday at a conference organized by the Hamm Institute for American Energy. The U.S. may need to make an “equity investment in each of these companies that’s taking on China in critical minerals,” he said.
BHP Group is preparing to begin looking for a new chief executive officer in the coming months, with key lieutenants already jostling for position to succeed boss Mike Henry at the top of the world’s biggest miner.
The understanding at BHP is that Henry is now heading toward the end of his tenure, according to company insiders. They emphasized that no decision has been made. But some people close to the company say a change could come as soon as early next year, and some top executives have begun increasing their interaction with investors and other stakeholders ahead of a likely succession process.
President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at boosting the deep-sea mining industry, the latest attempt to boost US production of nickel, copper and other critical minerals used widely across the economy.
The broad order avoids a direct confrontation with the United Nations-backed International Seabed Authority and seeks essentially to jumpstart the mining of US waters as part of a push to offset China’s sweeping control of the critical minerals industry.
China is halting the export of certain critical raw materials that are essential for future technologies and the defense industry. It’s a move that will hit the US and the EU hard. Could Canada fill the gap?
The New York Times reported recently that the Chinese government was to halt exports of six rare earth elements that are refined entirely in China. It will also cease to export certain specialized powerful rare earth magnets currently manufactured almost exclusively in China, which is responsible for 90% of global production.
The raw materials and specialized magnets are key for high-tech sectors such as the manufacture of cars, robots, and military equipment like drones and missiles.
The EU wants to cut reliance on powers like China for mineral supplies by the end of the decade. As geopolitical tensions boil, EU Decoded asks whether the bloc can keep up with its competitors. World powers are scrambling to get ahead in the race for the minerals needed to produce new technologies such as microchips, solar panels and electric cars.
US President Donald Trump has invoked wartime powers to boost American production, and has contemplated the use of economic, military and diplomatic force to gain access to Canada, Greenland and Ukraine’s mineral wealth.
https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/
To sell its 50% stake in the 39-million-oz gold project to Paulson and Novagold for $1 billion.
After nearly two decades of exploration, engineering, and permitting, Barrick Gold Corp. has sold its 50% joint venture ownership of the world-class Donlin Gold project in Southwest Alaska to hedge fund billionaire John Paulson and Novagold Resources Inc. for $1 billion in cash.
“The Donlin agreement allows Barrick to exit the Donlin Gold Project at an attractive valuation, while allowing NOVAGOLD and Paulson to pursue the development of the project,” Barrick Gold President and CEO Mark Bristow said in an April 22 statement announcing the sale.
Britain’s parliament is only recalled at times of national crisis. But when lawmakers were brought back from their Easter vacation last weekend, the cause was not a war, terror attack or the death of a monarch – but the potential closure of a steel plant in northern England.
The government said the owner of the British Steel complex in Scunthorpe, the Chinese company Jingye, was prepared to cancel orders for the raw materials needed to keep its blast furnaces burning, a step that would leave Britain unable to make virgin steel for the first time since the Industrial Revolution.
