Baltimore Bridge Collapse Will Likely Block Coal Exports for Weeks – by Josh Saul (Bloomberg News – March 26, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The collapse of a major Baltimore bridge Tuesday is likely to shut down the port’s coal exports for as many as six weeks and block the transport of up to 2.5 million tons of coal, said Ernie Thrasher, chief executive officer of Xcoal Energy & Resources LLC.

The US exported about 74 million tons of coal last year, with Baltimore the second-largest terminal for the commodity. Plugging up a major coal hub threatens to disrupt global energy supply chains that have finally begun to work out the kinks left over from pandemic slowdowns.

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America’s lithium laws fail to keep pace with rapid development – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – March 25, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

March 25 (Reuters) – Washington’s drive to make the United States a major global lithium producer is being held back by a confusing mix of state regulations that are deterring developers and hampering efforts to break China’s control of the critical minerals sector.

Across Texas, Louisiana and other mineral-rich states, it’s unclear who owns the millions of metric tons of lithium locked in salty brines underneath U.S. soils, how the battery metal should be valued by regulators and who ultimately should pay to process it into a form usable by manufacturers.

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Cleveland Cliffs gets part of $6 billion funding to slash emissions in industrial facilities – by Rick McCrabb (Dayton Daily News/Associated Press – March 25, 2024)

https://www.daytondailynews.com/

Middletown steel plant among projects that will slash planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

MIDDLETOWN — Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works is expected to receive a major investment up to $500 million to overhaul the ironmaking systems and install a new environmentally friendly system.

The 100% hydrogen-ready, flex-fuel direct reduction plant will be directly coupled to two electric melting furnaces to produce iron with nearly zero greenhouse gas emissions, according to U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s (D-OH) office.

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Biden opposes plan to sell US Steel to a Japanese firm, citing the need for ‘American steel workers’ – by Josh Boak (Associated Press – March 14, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden came out in opposition to the planned sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel of Japan, saying on Thursday that the U.S. needs to “maintain strong American steel companies powered by American steel workers.”

In a statement, Biden added: “U.S. Steel has been an iconic American steel company for more than a century, and it is vital for it to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated.”

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Canada, U.S. governments reach deal to address cross-border coal pollution – by Wendy Stueck (Globe and Mail – March 11, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Canadian and U.S. governments have agreed to put the issue of cross-border pollution from B.C. coal mines before the International Joint Commission, a body set up more than a century ago to resolve conflicts over shared waters.

The request, made through what is known as a joint reference under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909, follows years of campaigning by Indigenous peoples and was developed with the Ktunaxa Nation, an Indigenous people whose traditional territory takes in parts of British Columbia, Montana and Idaho.

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Oil Fields of Arkansas Are the Newest Locations for a Lithium Battery Rush – by Boyce Upholt (Mother Jones – March 11, 2024)

https://www.motherjones.com/

“Production at existing sites could negate the benefits of the clean technologies they power.”

The town of Smackover, Arkansas, was founded a hundred years ago when a sawmill operator got lucky: his wildcat oil well yielded a gusher. For a time in the 1920s, the oil field beneath the clay hills and swampy creeks in this stretch of southern Arkansas was the world’s most productive site. Now, boosters say the region will help usher the world into an oil-free future, thanks to the discovery of underground brines that are rich in lithium.

Lithium is one of the most important metals in the transition to renewable power. Lithium-ion batteries are, thanks to their lightweight and high energy density, currently the top choice for storing energy in electric vehicles, and a potential tool for grid storage, too. Global production of the metal tripled throughout the 2010s, and demand is projected to increase as much as 40-fold by mid-century.

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US uranium miners resurrected by nuclear revival and Ukraine war – by Jamie Smyth and Harry Dempsey (Financial Times – March 10, 2024)

https://www.ft.com/

Surging prices for ore and concerns over Russian imports lead to mothballed mines being restarted

Over a 40-year career, Scott Melbye watched the US uranium industry fall from its position as the world’s leading producer of the radioactive ore that powers nuclear reactors to an also-ran with negligible production.

Now, the president of the Uranium Producers of America is leading an industry charge to revive mothballed mines and invest in new production to capitalise on soaring prices and policies aimed at reducing the US’s dependence on Russian imports.

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Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power – by Evan Halper (MSM.com/Washington Post – March 8, 2024)

https://www.msn.com/

Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around the country, leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the nation’s creaking power grid.

In Georgia, demand for industrial power is surging to record highs, with the projection of new electricity use for the next decade now 17 times what it was only recently. Arizona Public Service, the largest utility in that state, is also struggling to keep up, projecting it will be out of transmission capacity before the end of the decade absent major upgrades.

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US Moves to Restore Stockpiling ‘Panic Button’ in EV Metals Fight with China – by Mark Burton, Joe Deaux, Michael J Kavanagh, Jennifer A Dlouhy and Annie Lee (Bloomberg News – 19, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Insiders liken it to a “panic button.” And for more than 80 years, the primary job of the National Defense Stockpile has been to keep the US military supplied with essential raw materials and protect against supply shocks.

So when China surprised the markets by restricting exports of two niche industrial metals last year, top-level officials in the Pentagon-controlled agency—and the White House—faced an uncomfortable reality: Its panic button no longer worked. The realization triggered a different kind of alarm in Washington.

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How an 1872 law is being exploited to mine uranium near the Grand Canyon (Fast Company.com – February 20, 2024)

https://www.fastcompany.com/

It’s just one of multiple sites where companies are allowed to mine on public land—without paying a dime of royalties to the U.S. Treasury.

When Congress opened U.S. public lands for mining in 1872, the nation was less than a century old. Miners used picks, shovels, and pressurized water hoses to pry loose valuable minerals like gold and silver.

Today, mining is a high-technology industry, but it’s still governed by the Mining Law of 1872. As was true 150 years ago, companies can mine valuable mineral deposits from federal lands without paying any royalties to the U.S. Treasury.

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Filmmakers aims to honor Appalachian culture in ‘King Coal’ – by Miles Layton (Vinton Jackson Courier – February 13, 2024)

 

https://www.vintonjacksoncourier.com/

“King Coal” is one of the best movies I’ve seen depicting the people, places and culture of Appalachia. The film was shown as part of From the Hills and Hollers: Appalachian Stories Film Series on Feb. 8 at the Athena Cinema.

Initially, without knowing anything about “King Coal,” I was worried it was going to be a documentary that negatively portrays Appalachian people (poverty porn) before a sermon about coal’s impact on climate change and possibly includes a cameo from Al Gore. None of that could be further from the truth. It was an accurate presentation about the culture surrounding coal.

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The Great Salt Lake Is Full of Lithium. A Startup Wants to Harvest It. – by Scott Patterson (Wall Street Journal – February 12, 2024)

https://www.wsj.com/

Lilac has raised $145 million from Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, other investors

America’s biggest saltwater lake may hold a key to the country’s energy future. This summer, a California startup plans to start construction on a project to suck up water from the Great Salt Lake to extract one of its many valuable minerals: lithium, a critical ingredient in the rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles.

The water will then be reinjected back into the lake, which Lilac Solutions says addresses concerns about the damaging effects of mineral extraction. At its peak, Lilac says it will use a series of pipes to suck up 80,000 gallons of water a minute to harvest the mineral. The company plans to eventually produce up to 20,000 tons of battery-grade lithium a year at its site in northern Utah, located among fields of cattle and pickleweed.

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Copper Giant Freeport-McMoRan Names Kathleen Quirk as CEO – by Kevin Orland (Bloomberg News – February 7, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Freeport-McMoRan Inc., the world’s largest listed copper producer, has named veteran Kathleen Quirk to succeed Richard Adkerson as chief executive officer, a shift set to signal continuity at the top at a time of industry consolidation and heightened focus on metal supply.

The change is effective June 11, the company said. Adkerson, an industry heavyweight who has been at the helm for more than two decades, will remain chairman.

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State of Michigan could invest in Canadian mining company’s copper project – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 5, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Highland Copper in the running for US$50-million development grant

A Canadian company with a copper mine project in northern Michigan is in the running for a substantial subsidy from the State of Michigan.

Highland Copper Company announced the Michigan Economic Development Corporation has proposed a US$50-million grant for its Copperwood mine project in the Upper Peninsula. The money would come from the Strategic Site Readiness Program. But it’s not a done deal. Final approval still has to come from the state’s Application Committee in both the Michigan legislature’s house of representatives and senate.

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Old Tyrone a mining utopia in wartime – by Robert L. Conley (Silver City Daily Press – February 5, 2024)

https://www.scdailypress.com/

Known today for their vast resources of copper ore, the Little Burro Mountains of Grant County were first famous for their deposits of turquoise. For countless generations, until interrupted by non-Indigenous visitors, Native Americans operated shallow mines to extract the decorative blue-green stone.

The name of the first white man to discover turquoise here is unknown, but it is said that anyone who entered the area before the early 1870s was never seen alive again. The Apache were thought to blame. But by 1879, prospectors had staked out workable claims and, perhaps due to safety in numbers, were less prone to disappearing. The turquoise found here, just a dozen or so miles southwest of Silver City, was judged to be at least equal with the stones from the best mines in Persia — and good enough to gift President McKinley during his tour of New Mexico in 1901.

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