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United States Mining

Critical Mineral Access is a Serious National Security Risk – by Bob Dees (Defense Post – December 6, 2022)

The Defense Post

Critical and rare earth minerals are used in a wide range of military applications, from communications equipment and precision-guided weapons to night-vision goggles and stealth technology.

A major part of ensuring America’s national security is addressing dangers before they cause real harm. While threats are sometimes obvious, others often go overlooked and don’t receive the attention they deserve. That’s the case with access to critical minerals such as lithium, nickel, copper, and cobalt.

These elements are essential for making modern technologies, and securing their supply chain should be a top priority.

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NEWS RELEASE: Voters in Southern Arizona Overwhelmingly Support Copper Mining in Arizona (Tucson Metro Chamber of Commerce – November 29, 2022)

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TUCSON, Ariz., Nov. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — A recent survey commissioned by the Tucson Metro Chamber, in partnership with the Arizona Mining Association, showed that more than 66% of Southern Arizona voters support the Arizona copper mining industry. The poll, conducted in late September, also indicated that when given a description of the project and its location, more than half of voters support (52.6% support, 37.7% oppose) Hudbay Minerals’ new proposed Copper World Project, located 28 miles south of Tucson.

“Mining is in our region’s blood and has been for more than a century,” said Michael Guymon, President & CEO, Tucson Metro Chamber. “The industry supports thousands of jobs and creates millions in economic activity both locally and statewide. Voters clearly understand the role mining plays especially since an increasing amount of everyday items, such as electric vehicles, cell phones and solar panels, require mined resources to operate.”

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How the state of Wyoming could supply the US with rare earth elements Amanda Stutt (Mining.com – November 18, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

Already a wind energy powerhouse, the state of Wyoming’s economy is 65% tied to mining — most of that coal mining. Wyoming has been the top coal-producing state since 1986, accounting for about two-fifths of all coal mined in the United States in 2020, but the industry has seen its reputation blackened.

Industry innovators, however, are tapping coal and its waste streams to extract rare earths, 17 essential elements to realizing an electrified economy. Mining them can be challenging as materials needed are either not yet mined, or are latent in old coal mines.

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Mosaic misses profit estimates on lower fertilizer prices, Hurricane Ian damage – by Ruhi Soni (Reuters – November 7, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

Nov 7 (Reuters) – Mosaic Co (MOS.N) on Monday became the latest fertilizer maker to miss third-quarter profit estimates, hurt by damage from Hurricane Ian and cooling prices of crop nutrients.

Prices of nutrients such as phosphates and potash have cooled from the near record highs they touched earlier this year as farmers cut back on fertilizer use to rein in costs.

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There are 280 billion tons of mining waste. This startup is putting it to good use – by Adele Peters (Fast Company – November 7, 2022)

https://www.fastcompany.com/

Phoenix Tailings uses new technology to get key minerals out of mining waste.

Digging up and extracting the minerals needed to make electric car batteries or wind turbines comes at an environmental cost, using huge amounts of energy and dangerous chemicals and creating toxic pollution. But one Boston-area startup is getting some key materials in a different way: Instead of mining them from the ground, it uses new technology to extract them from mining waste.

“For us, it’s about figuring out how can we extract the most from the waste that has already been mined,” says Anthony Balladon, cofounder and VP of partnerships at the startup, Phoenix Tailings. “It has already been dug out of the ground. How can we make the most of what we’ve already done, rather than dig up new holes somewhere else?”

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US lithium mining: not if, but when – by Elle Farrell-Kingsley (Automotive World – November 8, 2022)

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As electric vehicle (EV) demand surges so too will lithium battery usage. The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) forecasts that the global semiconductor industry will increase manufacturing capacity by 56% in the next decade.

This expansion is driven by the worldwide boom in EV sales, with 23 million electric passenger vehicles expected to be produced by 2030, says a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Furthermore, the worldwide market of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, the most common rechargeable car battery, was estimated at US$7bn in 2018 and is expected to reach US$58.8bn by 2024—significant growth.

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How big coal companies avoid cleaning up their messes – by Josh Saul, Zach Mider and Dave Mistich (Cap Radio.org – October 29, 2022)

https://www.capradio.org/

Miles Hatfield was walking into his dining room when he felt the wooden floor give way. His legs dropped hip-deep into water that had pooled under the brick house in the green hills of eastern Kentucky where he had lived for the past 40 years, trapping him in his own floor.

Hatfield, a retired coal miner, raised two boys in the house a few miles from the West Virginia border and added on five rooms as his family grew. But the red water running off from the nearby Love Branch coal mine had turned his backyard into a marsh, ruined his septic system, and finally sucked him through his floor three years ago.

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Russia’s Uranium Dominance Threatens America’s Next-Gen Nuclear Plans – by Tsvetana Paraskova (Oil Price.com – Oct 23, 2022)

https://oilprice.com/

The U.S. is doubling down on nuclear power generation as a means to reduce emissions and is supporting demonstration projects of advanced smaller nuclear reactors that promise to be more efficient and cost less to build than the current nuclear fleet.

However, there is one major hurdle to the construction of most advanced reactors under development in the United States—the uranium type of fuel on which those reactors are designed to run is currently sold commercially by only one company in the world. And that company is a subsidiary of Russia’s ROSATOM, the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation.

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Idaho cobalt mine is a harbinger of what’s to come – by Kylie Mohr (High Country News – October 21, 2022)

https://www.hcn.org/

A new venture near Salmon signals an uptick in hardrock mining across the West.

Idaho’s Cobalt Belt is a 34-mile-long desirable stretch of ore tucked under the Salmon River Mountains that’s considered “globally significant” by mining companies. And miners are interested in that cobalt: a hard, brittle metal used in electric vehicle batteries. On Oct. 7, Australia-based Jervois Global opened the only cobalt mine in the U.S. there to much fanfare.

The new mine, which will be at full operating capacity in 2023, is part of a burgeoning Western mineral rush. These modern prospectors are focused on so-called green metals like cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel and rare earth elements that are used in clean energy applications.

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Doubts downstream: Residents of Libby, Mont., have heard selenium from Canadian coal mines isn’t a threat. But trust in industry is hard to come by after hundreds here died from minerals contaminated with asbestos. – by Joel Dryden and Rob Easton (CBC News – October 19, 2022)

https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/

Walking the streets of Libby, Mont., on a hazy September day, it’s not uncommon to hear the cough of a local resident. The picturesque, blue-collar town about an hour southwest of the Canada-U.S. Border in Montana’s north was once bustling with jobs thanks to nearby vermiculite mines. The work helped line locals’ wallets with steady pay. And lined their lungs with toxic asbestos dust.

Years of remediation have helped make the town of about 2,700 safe again following what government officials called the worst case of industrial poisoning of a community in American history. But residents are still struggling to rebuild after hundreds died, and approximately 2,400 have been diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases.

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Radiation Victims Seek Expansion of 32-Year-Old Compensation Act – by Carolyn Campbell (Daily Yonder – October 11, 2022)

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Larry King crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair on the stone porch of his ancestral home in Church Rock, New Mexico. The Puerco River, which irrigates ranch land, is just beyond the fence. He breathes heavily, pushing his voice raspy. “I’m 65. I’m one of the younger, aging uranium miners who worked in the uranium mines. My lungs aren’t so good,” he says.

In addition to being a miner, his home borders the site of the largest radioactive spills in U.S history. In July 1979, a dam at the uranium mine broke, releasing over 94 million gallons of toxic waste into the river behind his house and into the fields and water table.

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New bill introduced to bring the U.S. back to the gold standard to control gov’t spending and inflation – by Neils Christensen (Kitco News – October 11, 2022)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – One American politician proposes bringing stability back to the U.S. economy and its currency by introducing a new gold standard.

Last week, U.S. House Representative Alex Mooney (R-WV) introduced the Gold Standard Restoration Act. The bill looks to peg the U.S. dollar to gold to address the growing inflation threat, massive deficit spending and instability within the U.S. monetary system.

“The gold standard would protect against Washington’s irresponsible spending habits and the creation of money out of thin air,” said Rep. Mooney in a statement.

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White House Weighs Ban on Russian Aluminum Over Ukraine War Escalation – by Joe Deaux and Jenny Leonard (Bloomberg News – October 12, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The Biden administration is considering a complete ban on Russian aluminum — long shielded from sanctions due to its importance in everything from automobiles and skyscrapers to iPhones — in response to Russia’s military escalation in Ukraine.

The White House is eyeing three options: an outright ban, increasing tariffs to levels so punitive they would impose an effective ban, or sanctioning the company that produces the nation’s metal, United Co. Rusal International PJSC, according to people familiar with the decision-making.

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As the Western world looks for ‘Western fuel,’ Canadian nuclear fuel firm is buying into Westinghouse Electric Co. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – October 12, 2022)

https://www.post-gazette.com/

As nuclear operators around the world forge plans to turn away from Russia, a Canadian nuclear fuel company, Cameco Corp., is buying into one of Russia’s nuclear industry’s main foils: Westinghouse Electric Co.

Westinghouse, a Cranberry-based nuclear engineering company, is changing hands again, four years after it was bought out of bankruptcy in 2018 by Canadian investment firm Brookfield Business Partners for $4.6 billion. Westinghouse will still be under the Brookfield umbrella when the newly announced deal closes, expected in the second half of next year.

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US opens new cobalt mine as EV battery needs grow – by Claire Bushey and Aime Williams (Financial Times – October 7, 2022)

https://www.ft.com/

Recently passed climate law boosts incentives for electric cars with domestic materials

The first new US cobalt mine to open in decades is ramping up production in Idaho, buoyed by the carmakers’ increasing demand for battery raw materials and legislation designed to foster a battery supply chain.

The mine is located in the state’s Salmon River Mountains at 8,000ft above sea level. Owned by Australia’s Jervois Global, chief executive Bryce Crocker said it will reach full production in February, extracting 2,000 tonnes of the bluish ore a year. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was scheduled for Friday.

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