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United States Mining

Honoring those who built our coal legacy on National Miners Day – by Bobby McCool (Appalachian News- Express – December 2, 2024)

https://www.news-expressky.com/

Bobby McCool is the State Representative 97th District

Electricity, roads, smartphones. What do all these seemingly unrelated things have in common? Their existence is dependent on mined materials, extracted from the earth by hard-working men and women who take pride in the role they play in providing a great quality of life to our nation.

While the products mined can range from rock salt to metals, Kentuckians most often think of mining in terms of the coal industry that accounts for almost 70 percent of our energy portfolio. It is the coal miner that kept our state’s utility rates less expensive than neighboring states.

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China bans exports to US of gallium, germanium, antimony in response to chip sanctions – by Elaine Kurtenbach (Associated Press – December 3, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

BANGKOK (AP) — China announced Tuesday it is banning exports to the United States of gallium, germanium, antimony and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications, as a general principle, lashing back at U.S. limits on semiconductor-related exports.

The Chinese Commerce Ministry announced the move after the Washington expanded its list of Chinese companies subject to export controls on computer chip-making equipment, software and high-bandwidth memory chips. Such chips are needed for advanced applications.

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Wyoming and Montana Republicans vow to challenge Biden decision to block coal mining in area – by Staff (Washington Examiner – December 3, 2024)

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President Joe Biden’s administration approved legislation blocking new coal mining in parts of Wyoming and Montana due to climate change concerns. Republican politicians in both states vowed to challenge and eventually overturn the decision.

The Bureau of Land Management announced its approval of the Resource Management Plan Amendment for the Buffalo Field Office in Buffalo, Wyoming, according to reports. This amendment will prohibit new federal coal mining leases in the Powder River Basin by 2041. The judgment was made over concerns about the amount of greenhouse gas emissions due to coal mining operations, according to documentation.

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‘Green’ energy needs metal. Can we combat climate change while reducing mining impacts? – by Kate S. Petersen (USA TODAY – December 1, 2024)

https://www.usatoday.com/

More than 2 miles across and nearly 2,000 feet deep, the mining operation in a social media photo has replaced any flora that might have once inhabited the now barren landscape. Nothing but soil and stone is visible until the horizon meets the sky.

In an apparent attempt to disparage the renewable energy transition, the post showcasing the image wrongly asserts the devastation was caused by mining for lithium – a key ingredient in electric car and grid storage batteries. In reality, the post shows a gold mine and is one of a suite of false claims about lithium mining USA TODAY has debunked.

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OPINION: Election plot twist: Trump and Musk to oversee great US battery boom in red states – by Simon Moores (Benchmark Minerals – November 26, 2024)

https://source.benchmarkminerals.com/

In the alliance between President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk stands the pending electric vehicle (EV) battery boom in the US. Lithium ion batteries are a new mega-industry in-waiting sparked by $110 billion of Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) money.

Three years ago, while China dominated, the US was a bystander in this global battery arms race with only a handful of gigafactories producing batteries for domestic EV production. Today, 40 super-sized battery plants span the country in stages of construction that will soon employ up to 4,000 American workers and spark over 50,000 related jobs per site.

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Cleveland-Cliffs CEO still keen on acquiring U.S. Steel as uncertainty weighs on Nippon bid – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 26, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. chief executive Lourenco Goncalves says he is still interested in buying United States Steel Corp. to create an American champion, as regulators continue to deliberate over whether to allow Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp. to buy the company.

Cleveland-based Cliffs, which recently acquired Canadian steelmaker Stelco Holdings Inc., attempted to buy its Pittsburgh-based competitor U.S. Steel in the summer of 2023. But Nippon Steel swooped in with a higher bid late last year that U.S. Steel’s board backed.

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Column: Trump 2.0 won’t reverse Biden’s critical minerals push – by Andy Home (Reuters – November 21, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

Donald Trump has described the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as a “green scam” and vowed to repeal it after he returns to the White House in January. This is bad news for sectors such as electric vehicles (EV) and wind power, which have been major recipients of the Biden administration’s signature $369 billion energy transition legislation.

But some of the “new green deal” money has also been channeled to the US industrial base, such as the $75 million allocated for an upgrade of Constellium’s aluminum rolling mill in West Virginia.

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Opinion: Arkansas just found a large lithium deposit. But lithium ain’t what it used to be – by Gus Carlson (Globe and Mail – November 23, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Gus Carlson is a U.S.-based columnist for The Globe and Mail.

Just weeks after a discovery that could transform humble Arkansas into an unexpected global powerhouse in a green-tech future, the state is learning the hard way that, as in life and love, when it comes to lithium, timing is everything.

A study released last month by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment revealed a huge deposit of lithium – the essential element in batteries for electric vehicles – in a limestone aquifer known as the Smackover Formation in the southwestern section of the state.

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Russia temporarily limits nuclear-fuel shipments to US – by Liezel Hill (Bloomberg News – November 15, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Russia is temporarily limiting exports of enriched uranium to the US, creating potential supply risks to utilities operating American reactors that generate almost a fifth of the country’s electricity.

The Russian government didn’t provide details of the restrictions or their duration in a Friday statement on Telegram. Utilities tend to make purchases well in advance, so any impact is unlikely to be immediate.

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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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