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United States Mining

Will we go back? Exploring the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck 49 years later – by Josh Berry (Fox 17 Online – November 10, 2024)

https://www.fox17online.com/

OTD in 1975: The SS Edmund Fitzgerald lost to the depths of Lake Superior

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — It’s part of Michigan and midwest lore. Lost to the depths of the Great Lakes, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank on November 10, 49 years ago. We took a look back through the lens of a man who has laid eyes on the site himself.

“Because of the notoriety, because of the song from Gordon Lightfoot, everybody wants to know about the Edmund Fitzgerald,” said Ric Mixter. There aren’t many people better suited for answers on the wreckage than Ric Mixter. He’s published a 300-page book on the Fitzgerald, three documentaries, and a four-hour podcast.

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Amid Upper Peninsula mining rush, tribe is still living with past pollution – by Kelly House (Bridge Michigan – November 7, 2024)

https://www.bridgemi.com/

KEWEENAW BAY — After years of uncertainty, Dione Price hopes her community may win a long battle to clean up century-old mining waste. Years of advocacy by partners including the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, where Price is environmental health manager for the tribal government, have resulted in a new plan to clean up the notorious Gay stamp sands, a waste pile visible from space that is smothering critical fish habitat in Lake Superior.

And 40 miles downstream, where yet more mining waste has washed ashore on the tribe’s reservation, native plants are eking out an existence on a scarred landscape thanks to the tribe’s habitat restoration efforts. “It’s promising,” Price said, a testament to how far the UP has come toward healing environmental harms caused by the mining industry.

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Explainer: what Trump 2.0 means for the mining industry – by Caroline Peachey (Mining Technology – November 7, 2024)

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

With Donald Trump securing his return to the White House just hours after the polls closed, we explore what his second term could mean for the mining sector.

Former US President Donald Trump has been declared the winner of the 2024 US election, after surpassing the 270 votes needed to win the presidency and likely also the popular vote. Republicans also control the Senate, which they may even hold throughout 2024 having picked up West Virginia, Ohio and Montana from the Democrats, analysts from GlobalData TS Lombard predict.

Control of the House remains a toss-up, with a result potentially weeks away. The Democrats got a head start by flipping at least two seats in New York, although two seats in Pennsylvania may turn Republican. However, several states including Arkansas, California, Maine and Michigan remain battlegrounds.

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Miners react to election news – by Munira Rajkotwalla (Mining Magazine – November 6, 2024)

https://www.miningmagazine.com/

Domestic push and less red-tape emerge as key themes

As the US prepares to usher in another Trump presidency, the mining industry is watching closely. Topics like the country’s China outlook, investment policy and environmental regulation are all expected to have ripple effects for miners and service providers, both in country and out.

Some industry leaders see the possibility of renewed policies aimed at reducing red tape and accelerating project timelines, aligning with former President Trump’s pro-business stance.

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US Election: what a Trump or Harris victory means for critical minerals – by Caroline Peachey (Mining Technology – November 4, 2024)

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

Both candidates have pledged their support for mining and recognise the strategic importance of critical minerals for the energy transition and national security.

In the most anticipated political event of the year, the 2024 US presidential elections will see Kamala Harris and Donald Trump battle for America’s vote on 5 November. It is an extremely tight race. Polls are predicting a “knife-edge” result, with outcomes in seven swing states set to decide who will become the next US president.

Both candidates have pledged their support for mining and recognise the strategic importance of critical minerals for the energy transition and national security. Here, Mining Technology looks at how critical minerals policy could be impacted by the election outcome.

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Book Brings W.Va. Mine Wars History To Young Readers (West Virginia Public Broadcasting – November 6, 2024)

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The West Virginia mine wars played an important part in U.S. history, but for decades were often left out of history classes. A new book aims to change that. It’s titled The Mine Wars: The Bloody Fight for Workers’ Rights in the West Virginia Coalfields, by Steve Watkins.

The mine wars occurred in the early 1900s as the United Mine Workers tried to unionize coal mines, and coal companies fought back — literally. The conflict culminated in the Battle of Blair Mountain, which was the largest armed insurrection in the US since the American Civil War.

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Utah has the last conventional uranium mill in the country. What does it do? – by Anastasia Hufham (Salt Lake Tribune – October 7, 2024)

https://www.sltrib.com/

The mill’s owner and regulators say there’s no evidence its uranium processing is causing contamination. But a nearby tribe and others fear the impacts of increased demand.

San Juan County – Trucks filled with thousands of pounds of rock roll up a paved road, the namesake twin buttes of Bears Ears National Monument visible in the distance on a clear day. The dark gray rock is uranium ore headed to the White Mesa Mill in Utah’s rural San Juan County — the last remaining “conventional” uranium mill in the United States.

The country’s other 14 uranium recovery sites solely process rock from the site where they’re located. This leaves White Mesa as the only American uranium mill still accepting ore and other radioactive materials from around the country and the world.

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Massive lithium deposit found across southeastern US could end reliance on imports – by Shane Galvin (New York Post – October 23, 2024)

https://nypost.com/

A new geological survey has discovered enough lithium to meet global demand for the next six years. The study, led by the United States Geological Survey, discovered between 5 million and 19 million tons of lithium reserves in a rock formation in the southern part of the continental US, Fox Business reported.

Scientists derived samples from the Arkansas portion of the Smackover Formation – which spans six states from Florida’s Gulf Coast, through parts of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and stretching across Texas.

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1 dead and 23 rescued after elevator issue at Colorado tourist mine left some trapped 1,000 feet underground for 6 hours – by Jeff Winter, Sarah Moon and Dalia Faheid (CNN.com – October 11, 2024)

https://www.cnn.com/

(CNN) One person has died and 23 people have been rescued after an elevator malfunction trapped them hundreds of feet underground at the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine, a tourist mine in Cripple Creek, Colorado, officials said Thursday.

At around noon Thursday, the mine experienced a mechanical issue with its elevator system, causing “a severe danger for the participants,” Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said during a news conference. The cause of the incident remains under investigation. “Accidents happen when dealing with this kind of machinery,” Mikesell said.

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Beijing’s nickel glut leaves America penniless – by Oliver McPherson-Smith (The Hill – October 2, 2024)

https://thehill.com/

Oliver McPherson-Smith, Ph.D., is the director of the Center for Energy & Environment at the America First Policy Institute.

America’s vast mineral wealth has underwritten our nation’s evolution into an economic and military superpower. From the gold rush that fueled the race westward almost 200 years ago to the iron ore and coal miners that powered the construction of bridges, skyscrapers, rail lines and military vessels, mining has been central to American prosperity.

Sadly, America’s commitment to mining its resources has fallen victim to progressive dogma. Now, Beijing’s vast influence over global mineral supply chains poses an economic threat to the United States. While the Biden-Harris administration is hamstringing American mining projects in red tape, Chinese miners are preemptively flooding the global market to keep American minerals in the ground.

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U.S. Ramps Up Hunt for Uranium to End Reliance on Russia – by Ivan Penn and Rebecca F. Elliott (New York Times – September 2024)

https://www.nytimes.com/

Miners aim to meet a growing demand for emissions-free energy, though a failure to clean up old sites haunts the industry.

More than 1,400 feet below an Arizona pine forest, miners are blasting tunnels in search of a radioactive element that can be used to make electricity. Two states north, in central Wyoming, drillers have been digging well after well in the desert, where that element — uranium — is buried in layers of sandstone.

Uranium mines are ramping up across the West, spurred by rising demand for electricity and federal efforts to cut Russia out of the supply chain for U.S. nuclear fuel.

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Saudi Arabia intensifies mining tech push in meetings with US firms – by Mohammed Al-Kinani (Arab News – September 29, 2024)

https://www.arabnews.com/

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia is ramping up its adoption of advanced mining technologies as top minister met with senior executives from the US firms at MINExpo International 2024.

During his visit to Las Vegas, Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar bin Ibrahim Alkhorayef held bilateral meetings with these firms to discuss localizing innovative solutions for mining operations and exploring promising investment opportunities in the sector.

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India, US likely to sign pact on critical minerals -by Shivangi Acharya, Neha Arora and David Lawder(Reuters – September 30, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

India and the United States are likely to sign an initial pact for cooperation on critical minerals this week, two Indian government sources said, as the two countries try to bolster trade ties despite diplomatic hiccups.

They are expected to sign an agreement to partner and cooperate in the area of critical minerals during Indian trade minister Piyush Goyal’s visit to Washington, the sources said.

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[Coal Mining] Life today feels tough, but our ancestors faced harder battles – by Gabriela Bereghazyova (Slovak Spectator – September 24, 2024)

https://spectator.sme.sk/

In an age where millennials struggle with mortgages and the cost of living, it’s easy to romanticize the past.

Today, life is not a stroll through a rose garden. But for the purpose of a reality check, it is worth contrasting our current challenges with those of our ancestors who chose to pursue a brighter future in the New World just over a century ago.

Let’s take a look at what life was like for our ancestors at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Countless people in Slovakia, then Upper Hungary, lived in poverty. Their homeland did not offer them a way out of the vicious circle of destitution.

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Deep in the nation’s only nickel mine, industry fights to green its image – by Hannah Northey (E&E News – September 16, 2024)

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Biden officials point to the Eagle mine as proof that mining critical minerals in the U.S. can gain public support while avoiding pollution and trampling Indigenous rights. Not everyone is convinced.

MICHIGAMME TOWNSHIP, Michigan — In the sun-drenched forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula stands the black, gaping mouth of the nation’s only operating nickel mine.

Hundreds of feet below in the darkness, heavy machinery blasts, scrapes and prepares to haul up to the surface rock rich with tiny flecks of high-grade nickel and copper formed more than 1 billion years ago.

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