The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Cutting-edge innovations turn aluminum into a cornerstone of the green transition, reshaping technology and the future. Imagine a metal that's as light as it is strong, capable of taking cars further on a single charge and helping planes soar higher with less fuel. Enter aluminum – the unsung hero of the green revolution. This year, aluminum isn't just playing a supporting role in the shift to sustainability; it's stealing the spotlight, driving innovations that are making o...
There is nearly a $1 trillion chasm between where the United States' lithium battery supply chain is today and where it needs to be by 2035 in order to build the envisioned green energy future where electric vehicles are charged with low-carbon energy. Roughly 40% of this investment will need to go toward ensuring there is a plentiful supply of cobalt, graphite, lithium, nickel, and other battery materials. Simon Moores, CEO of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence and one of the...
While lithium has been the poster child for optimism and controversy in equal measure, nickel has its own crucial role to play in the batteries powering the clean energy future – increasing range and capacity – but is traditionally carbon-heavy to produce. For nickel, the industry's focus has been twofold – obtaining enough and moving the needle between untenable quantities of emissions from mining and processing and the battery and alloying metal's necessary inclusion in ne...
Russia and China's control of global supplies worry DC lawmakers From its uses in flame retardants that have saved countless American lives to being an important ingredient in batteries poised to be the answer to the challenge of storing intermittent renewable energy, few metals are more critical to the national security and economic wellbeing of the United States than antimony. Described as a metalloid, which means it falls somewhere between metals such as zinc and solid...
The U.S. Department of Commerce June 4 released "A federal strategy to ensure secure and reliable supplies of critical minerals," an interagency report that outlines a government-wide action plan to ensure the United States has secure and reliable supplies of critical minerals. Department of Commerce was charged with spearheading this report under Executive Order 13817, which was signed by President Donald Trump late in 2017. Trump's critical minerals executive order...
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) have teamed up to introduce bipartisan legislation aimed at addressing America's "Achilles' heel" – a heavy dependence on foreign countries for its growing mineral needs. "Our nation's mineral security is a significant, urgent, and often ignored challenge. Our reliance on China and other nations for critical minerals costs us jobs, weakens our economic competitiveness, and leaves us at a geopolitical d...
Twenty years ago, Canada created the territory of Nunavut, carving out the easternmost part of the Northwest Territories to form the country's northernmost jurisdiction. A vast land of lakes and tundra sprawled across the North from the Hudson Bay to the Arctic Ocean and east to Baffin Bay and the coastal waters of Greenland, Nunavut is home to only about 38,000 people, of whom 85 percent are indigenous Inuit who have lived in this frozen land for millennia. Since 1999,...
U.S. President Donald Trump sparked a renewed interest in critical minerals and metals when he issued an executive order calling on federal agencies to devise a strategy to ensure the United States has reliable supplies of these commodities vital to America's economic and strategic security. "It shall be the policy of the federal government to reduce the nation's vulnerability to disruptions in the supply of critical minerals, which constitutes a strategic vulnerability for...
Permitting delays are becoming the bane of companies endeavoring to develop mines in the United States, a country that is otherwise considered a stable and richly endowed mining jurisdiction. SNL Metals & Mining has published a report that shows a notoriously lengthy process is resulting in U. S. mines losing up to half their value before receiving final approvals for development. "The longer the wait, the more the value of the investment is reduced, even to the extent that...
Alaska's venerable Institute of the North has organized a mining summit for developing effective strategies for mining success in the northernmost regions of the Western Hemisphere. The Northern Regions Mining Summit, to be held May 28-30 in Vancouver, B.C., will address the social, cultural and economic impact and opportunity of mineral resource development for northern peoples in Alaska, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon Territory and Greenland. The Alaska-based think tank is co-sponsoring the summit in partnership...
Taking as its theme, "Building a Resourceful Future," the 15th annual Nunavut Mining Symposium held April 16-19, 2012 in Iqaluit, Nunavut, featured several presentations that examined the challenges facing mining and the importance of regulatory reform to the industry's future in Canada's northern territories. Pierre Gratton, president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada, led the discussion by citing mining's significant contributions to the North, which include 30,000+ person years of stable, high-wage employment,...
Alaska officials are seeking to turn the national challenge of securing domestic supplies of critical minerals into an opportunity. "Alaska has accepted the challenge," Gov. Sean Parnell told participants in the Strategic and Critical Minerals Summit held Sept. 30 in Fairbanks. "Where China has said, 'We're going to curtail exports,' Alaska is accepting the challenge of saying, 'We've got them here, and we want to provide them to our nation and to the world beyond." The Department of Natural Resources organized the...