United States Mining – Page 23

You may be stuck paying high gas prices for years as a global metals shortage sabotages the electric car revolution – by Tristan Bove (Fortune Magazine – June 10, 2022)

June 10, 2022

Metals are quickly becoming the new oil as fossil fuels are phased out and replaced with clean energy and electric cars. The green energy transition relies on mining to produce enough lithium, cobalt, and nickel for the expected boom in solar panels, wind turbines, and electric car batteries over the next decade.

The only problem is that most of those metals are already in short supply. Paltry investments by governments in mining, the complexity of recycling rare metals, and geopolitical trade squabbles are already hampering metal production.

Milliman: Black-Lung Liabilities Top $9 Billion as Coal Industry Shrinks – by William Rabb (Claims Journal – June 9, 2022)

June 10, 2022

https://www.claimsjournal.com/

The U.S. coal industry may be shrinking rapidly as the country shifts to renewable energy, but insurers’ and self-insured companies’ liabilities for black-lung occupational disease claims have ballooned – to an estimated $9 billion and perhaps more than $14 billion.

pastedGraphic.pngThat’s according to a recent report from Milliman, the global actuarial and consulting firm. The study’s authors took a first-ever look at the cost of existing and future claims, payments for which will continue for years to come.

One-time tourist hotspot to supply key electric car battery ingredient for Stellantis – by Eric D. Lawrence (Detroit Free Press – June 2, 2022)

June 3, 2022

https://www.freep.com/

Chrysler parent Stellantis plans to get a substantial amount of the lithium needed for its electric vehicle batteries from a former tourist mecca in California. The automaker announced a deal Thursday with Controlled Thermal Resources, which has offices in California and Australia, to supply “battery grade lithium hydroxide” for use in EV production in North America.

That means Stellantis, which also controls the Jeep, Ram, Dodge, Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands, will join General Motors, which announced a similar agreement last year, in tapping Controlled Thermal’s expected lithium production in the Salton Sea Basin, an area near the U.S. border with Mexico.

Unless We Get Serious About Domestic Mining, America’s Electrified Future Is Impossible – by Jim Vinoski (Forbes Magazine – May 31, 2022)

May 31, 2022

https://www.forbes.com/

There are a lot of people who are convinced that in just a few short years, the U.S. will be powered completely by fossil fuel-free renewable electricity. EVs will replace ICE-powered cars, and wind and solar will supplant coal and natural gas to generate all the juice needed. It’s a glorious vision.

The problem is it’s a fiction. For a whole bunch of different reasons, that CO2-free utopia not only isn’t going to happen in the next few years–it’s not even going to happen in the foreseeable future.

Hudbay Minerals allowed to move Arizona copper project forward – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Canadian Mining Journal – May 25, 2022)

May 26, 2022

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Hudbay Minerals (TSX, NYSE: HBM) has scored a small but key win in the United States after an Arizona judge ruled in favour of the company’s planned Copper World mine.

The ruling dismissed a pair of lawsuits filed by three Native American tribes and a coalition of environmental groups, which aimed to stop ongoing work on Copper World.

Judge: Challenges to new Arizona copper mine ‘moot’ after Hudbay abandons Rosemont water permit – by Paul Ingram (Tucson Sentinel – May 24, 2022)

May 25, 2022

https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/

A federal judge dismissed a pair of lawsuits filed by three Native American tribes and a coalition of environmental groups over Rosemont Copper’s move to expand its mining operations on the western slopes of the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson.

In recent weeks, the Tohono O’odham Nation, Pascua Yaqui and Hopi tribes, along with the environmental groups led by the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, challenged “Copper World,” a project to expand the controversial mining project to a nearby area across the western reaches of the Santa Ritas. In their filings, both groups argued Rosemont was violating the terms of a Section 404 permit granted under the Clean Water Act by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Lithium War Next Door – by Alexander C. Kaufman (Huff Post – May 23, 2022)

May 25, 2022

https://www.huffpost.com/

A lithium mining startup promised to make a rural pocket of North Carolina a clean-energy boomtown. But perceived slights and concerns over water have turned neighbors against the project.

GASTON COUNTY, North Carolina — Brian Harper opened the door to his back porch, stepped outside, and inhaled the brisk air. Exhaling, he stretched his arms out wide as if to embrace the bucolic scene before him.

Moments like this were sacred — and, he feared, fleeting. On that late afternoon in early January, the sun cast a golden tint over the brown frost-nipped fields behind the Harper family’s stately brick home. Just a few hundred feet away was the red barn containing his workshop, where he makes precision gears for clients like Duracell, Dart Container Corp. and Nestlé.

OPINION: So much for the electric vehicle revolution. You cannot make the machines without the metals that power them – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – May 13, 2022)

May 16, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Any successful politician is adept at finding the one bit of good news floating in the ocean of despair, then gushing about it to try to drown our worries.

So it is with U.S. President Joe Biden. A few weeks ago, when the war in Ukraine was propelling gasoline and diesel prices ever higher – regular gas hit a record average of US$4.43 a gallon on Friday – he suggested that painful pump prices will speed the transition to electric vehicles (EVs), fear not. Voila – no more hard decisions about filling your SUV or feeding your kids.

Pentagon asks Congress to fund mining projects in Australia, U.K. – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – May 11, 2022)

May 12, 2022

https://www.reuters.com/

May 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Defense has asked Congress to let it fund facilities in the United Kingdom and Australia that process strategic minerals used to make electric vehicles and weapons, calling the proposal crucial to national defense.

The request to alter the Cold War-era Defense Production Act (DPA) came as part of the Pentagon’s recommendations to Congress for how to write the upcoming U.S. military funding bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act.

Biden Admin’s Anti-Mining Policies at Odds With Green Energy Goals, Experts Say – by Chris Woodward (Inside Sources – May 8, 2022)

May 10, 2022

https://insidesources.com/

President Joe Biden has made two commitments on green energy. One is to dramatically increase the use of green tech like electric vehicles (EVs), windmills and solar power. The other is to build that new tech here in America.

“There is simply no reason why the blades for wind turbines can’t be built in Pittsburgh instead of Beijing,” Biden said during his State of the Union address. And he wants half of all new cars sold in 2030 to be EVs, too. But there;s at least one reason why these products can’t be built in America: Minerals. Production of green tech, like batteries for EVs, relies heavily on minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper.

EDITORIAL: The president wants more mining — or does he? (Las Vegas Review-Journal – May 4, 2022)

May 5, 2022

https://www.reviewjournal.com/

President Joe Biden’s energy policy consists of catering to progressive greens while pretending for voters that he’s doing everything he can to fix the damage he’s caused by catering to progressive greens. His recent executive order on mining represents more of the same incoherence.

A few weeks back, the president signed a measure invoking the Defense Production Act of 1950 to boost domestic production of minerals — lithium, cobalt, nickel — critical to clean-energy technology. Yet it’s anything but clear that the White House actually wants these minerals out of the ground.

The Salton Sea could produce the world’s greenest lithium, if new extraction technologies work – by Katie Brigham (CNBC.com – May 4, 2022)

May 4, 2022

https://www.cnbc.com/

About 40 miles north of the California-Mexico border lies the shrinking, landlocked lake known as the Salton Sea. Once the epicenter of a thriving resort community, water contamination and decades of drought have contributed to a collapse of the lake’s once vibrant ecosystem, and given rise to ghost towns.

But amidst this environmental disaster, the California Energy Commission estimates that there’s enough lithium here to meet all of the United States’ projected future demand, and 40% of the entire world’s demand. That’s big news for the booming electric vehicle industry, as lithium is the common denominator across all types of EV batteries.

Biden administration making $3 billion investment in lithium ion battery production – by Betsy Klein (CNN.com – May 2, 2022)

May 3, 2022

https://edition.cnn.com/

(CNN)President Joe Biden is building on his electric vehicle goal with a $3 billion investment Monday aimed at boosting the US supply of lithium ion batteries through the bipartisan infrastructure package.

The move is aimed at fighting climate change, but also to make the US more energy independent and secure, officials said, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted global oil markets.

Biden Administration Begins $3 Billion Plan for Electric Car Batteries – by Lisa Friedman (New York Times – May 2, 2022)

May 2, 2022

https://www.nytimes.com/

The Biden administration is planning a major shift to electric vehicles, but experts say it requires a secure, resilient supply of critical minerals.

The Biden administration plans to begin a $3.1 billion effort on Monday to spur the domestic production of advanced batteries, which are essential to its plan to speed the adoption of electric vehicles and renewable energy.

President Biden has prodded automakers to churn out electric vehicles and utilities to switch to solar, wind and other clean energy, saying the transitions are critical to eliminating the pollution that is dangerously heating the planet.

Biden order to boost mining may not have quick payoff – by Matthew Daly (Associated Press/Yahoo Finance – April 30, 2022)

May 2, 2022

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is turning to a Cold War-era law to boost production of lithium and other minerals used to power electric vehicles, but experts say the move by itself is unlikely to ensure the robust domestic mining Biden seeks as he promotes cleaner energy sources.

Biden’s action, part of his efforts to find alternatives to fossil fuels and combat climate change, does not waive or suspend existing environmental and labor standards, the White House said. Nor does it address the chief hurdle to increased domestic extraction of so-called critical minerals: the years-long process needed to obtain a federal permit for a new mine.