Tag - mining

 
 

MINING

A lithium smelter in Yichun, Jiangxi province, China
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 9, 2025
Stubbornly resilient lithium supply remains hurdle to recovery
Lithium prices have plunged since late 2022 on oversupply and slower-than-expected growth in electric vehicle demand.
The town of Ilulisat in Greenland in September 2021. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said he would like to make Greenland part of the United States.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 9, 2025
Why is Trump interested in Greenland?
The U.S. president-elect has said control of the Arctic island is "an absolute necessity" for "purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World."
Africa’s growing resource nationalism is prompting governments to renegotiate mining deals, aiming for a larger share of profits from mineral resources and reducing the revenues for multinational companies.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2024
Africans demand a bigger share of their natural resources wealth
Multinational companies should hurry to find sustainable ways in which they can share risk and revenue with governments, as they do elsewhere.
The flag of China is seen next to the elements of gallium and germanium on a periodic table.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 23, 2024
Tiny but vital metal markets rush to adjust to Chinese clampdown
Beijing this month slapped a ban on U.S.-bound exports of gallium, germanium and antimony in a tit-for-tat move in a technology trade war.
An Apple logo is seen in Brussels, Belgium, in 2016.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 17, 2024
Congo files criminal complaints against Apple over conflict minerals
International lawyers representing Congo argue that Apple uses minerals pillaged from the country and laundered through international supply chains.
An electric vehicle charging station in Baker, California. The Inflation Reduction Act has spurred investment in EVs and other green technologies across the U.S. and President-elect Donald Trump should continue Joe Biden's climate-related industrial policy.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2024
Green tech and U.S.-China rivalry: Two sides of the same coin
The incoming president should improve, not undo, Biden's industrial policies, which have boosted investment in green technologies, a key economic battleground.
Gold samples confiscated by Federal Police in Amazonas state, Brazil, on June 19
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 16, 2024
New technology aids Brazil's crackdown on illicit Amazon gold trade
A police program is creating a database of samples from across Brazil that are examined to determine the unique composition of elements.
Teck Resources signage during the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto, Canada, on March 2, 2020
WORLD / Politics
Dec 4, 2024
Canada mining group uses China ban to push back on Trump's tariffs
Trade tensions with the U.S. are escalating after President-elect Donald Trump threatened to slap 25% tariffs on all goods coming from Canada and Mexico.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shakes hands with Peruvian President Dina Boluarte in Lima on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 18, 2024
Peru and Japan strengthen ties with defense and mining agreements
Peru is one of the world's top copper producers, while Japan is a major consumer of the key industrial metal.
An automated truck is seen at Anglo American's Quellaveco copper mine in Peru in April.
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2024
Japan and Peru to agree on mineral mining technology tie-up, report says
Resource-poor Japan has been actively reinforcing global supply chains for critical minerals — essential components for decarbonization technology.
Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces, is greeted by an honor guard upon arriving at Juba International Airport in South Sudan on  Sept. 16.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2024
The dark reality of global capitalism and perpetual war
In countries like Sudan and the DRC, however, we have something closer to the feudalism of medieval times.
The Mountain Pass mine, operated by MP Materials in California, is the only rare earths mine in the United States.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 17, 2024
China’s grip on rare earths undercuts projects from U.S. to Japan
Japan's experience reducing its dependence on China shows that rare earths projects take longer and are more expensive than initially expected.
Local miners collect small rocks as they mine for gold in Benguet province in the northern Philippines.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 1, 2024
Toxic, deadly, cheap: Life for women gold miners in the Philippines
One in three of the illegal mining workforce is female — and women are 90 times more at risk of dying on the job than men.
The Great War of Africa between 1998 and 2003 was the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II. Now, hostilities between Congo, Rwanda and Uganda are reigniting.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2024
Africa is heading toward another deadly war
Armed clashes between Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and others could see a repeat of the world’s deadliest conflict since WWII, unless an escalation can be averted.
A view of new Bering Sea ice just formed off of Nome, Alaska, in 2018
WORLD / Politics
Jul 30, 2024
China and Russia challenge legality of new U.S. claims to seabed floor
The U.S. has filed claims to extend its continental shelf by about 1 million square kilometers in the Bering Sea, Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.
The Maersk Launcher, a ship chartered by The Metals Company, carries seabed samples from the remote Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean on June 7, 2021.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jul 30, 2024
The future of deep sea mining hinges on a contentious election
The vote will determine whether companies can begin strip-mining the world’s oceans for critical metals despite concerns about the impacts.
The Sado Gold Mine, so heavily tapped that the mountain bearing it has been cleaved in two, is up for consideration for UNESCO World Heritage Site status.
LIFE / Travel
Jul 20, 2024
Land of punishment, land of gold
The Sado Gold Mine may soon become Japan’s newest UNESCO World Heritage site, but the island’s history is much more complicated than a single tourist destination.
Tools at an exploration site run by KoBold Metals in Chililabombwe, Zambia, on June 11. A complex AI-driven technology that data crunchers at KoBold Metals painstakingly built over years helped identify a copper bonanza deep below a site in Zambia, and the company’s process could radically transform the discovery of metal and mineral deposits critical not only to the tech industry but to the fight against climate change.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 18, 2024
AI joins search for needed metals just in time
KoBold’s find comes as the United States and China are increasingly clashing over global access to minerals.
Workers transport soil containing rare-earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, China, in October 2010.
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2024
China issues rare-earth regulations to further protect domestic supply
The rules focus on the mining, smelting and trade in the critical materials used to make products from magnets in electric vehicles to consumer electronics.
A rare earths plant owned by Neo Performance Materials in Sillamae, Estonia
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Jun 27, 2024
In race to regain rare earth glory, Europe falls short on mineral goals
EU demand for rare earths is forecast to soar sixfold in the decade to 2030 and sevenfold by 2050.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go