Tag - mining

 
 

MINING

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.
An ingot of a rare earth metal used to make components for technology products at a factory in China. The country is the world’s top exporter of rare earth elements, but that may change if deep-sea mining gains traction in nations like Japan.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 25, 2024
We’ve got to get deep-sea mining right
Seabed mining could muddy the waters of critical minerals' supply chains by tapping into new sources. But will environmental and legal concerns sink the project?
China's Premier Li Qiang visits Western Australia's only operating lithium hydroxide plant Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia (TLEA) in Kwinana, on the outskirts of Perth, on June 18.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 18, 2024
Chinese premier's Western Australia tour spotlights global race for critical minerals
Western Australia supplies more than half of the world's seaborne iron ore, with China its top customer.
Jars containing rare earth minerals produced near Laverton, northeast of Perth, Australia, in 2019
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 18, 2024
Brazil sees opportunity in race to loosen China's grip on rare earths
Rare earths projects in Brazil are expected to be a test for how effectively the West can build a new advanced industry almost from scratch.
A person walks past the logo of the 2024 Korea-Africa Summit in Goyang, South Korea, on Tuesday. Seoul will aim to secure critical mineral imports and boost trade ties with Africa as President Yoon Suk-yeol hosts dozens of heads of state from the continent at a major summit.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 4, 2024
South Korea's Yoon Suk-yeol pledges closer ties with Africa on minerals and trade
Hosting an inaugural summit, Yoon said South Korea will increase development aid for Africa as it looks to tap the continent's mineral resources and export market potential.
President of China Xi Jinping and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa attend the China-Africa Leaders' Roundtable Dialogue on the last day of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Aug. 24, 2023.
WORLD
May 28, 2024
Post-COVID, China is back in Africa and doubling down on minerals
While new Chinese investment in Africa increased 114% last year, it was centered on minerals essential to the global energy transition and China's plans to revive its economy.
The Mount Holland lithium mine is a glimpse of the future of what Western Australia hopes will be a new, greener stage of development.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2024
On lithium’s frontier, miners are betting on a greener second act
Despite weak prices for the metal deemed critical to energy transition, they are gearing up for a rebound in demand for batteries and electric vehicles.
Lithium powder from recycled batteries in Nevada in March
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 21, 2024
Japanese trading firms look abroad to diversify lithium supply
The resource-limited country is aiming to create a stable supply of the mineral, which is critical for producing batteries for electric vehicles.
A brine pool at an SQM lithium mine on the Atacama salt flat in the Atacama Desert, Chile. The industry that deals with one of the world’s most important commodities is asking whether it's doomed to repeat a boom and bust cycle again and again.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 12, 2024
Lithium industry braces for long-term oversupply after price instability
Those involved with the commodity are asking whether they're doomed to repeat a boom and bust cycle again and again.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?