The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

(31) stories found containing 'usa rare earth'


Sorted by date  Results 1 - 25 of 31

  • Closeup of columns filled with colorful liquids for rare earths extraction.

    Making rare earths separation less rare

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Oct 2, 2024

    Separation and processing are the master link of US supply chain. From tech devices such as smartphones and computer monitors to clean energy products like electric vehicles and wind turbines, household goods like vacuum cleaners and refrigerators, and military hardware such as F-35 fighters and communications equipment, rare earths have a critical role to play in nearly every facet of America's economy and security. The United States, however, currently relies on China for ne...

  • AI-generated image of a pistol frame and various military munitions.

    North America fortifies scandium supply

    A.J. Roan, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 18, 2024

    Projects, initiatives, and technology expand scandium supply chain security. While it may not have quite as strong a chemical bond to its adopted lanthanide siblings as they do each other, scandium does possess similar enough characteristics and is almost always found at the same geological gatherings (deposits) as the rest of its rare earth family. Named for the Latin word for Scandinavia, "Scandia," – as the mineral was thought to only dwell off the Nordic peninsula – sca...

  • A large Cat mine truck, water truck, and dozer at the Manh Choh gold mine.

    North of 60 Mining News 2023 Top 10

    Shane Lasley, Mining News|Updated Jan 17, 2024

    From breaking ground at Alaska's next gold mine to the advancement of North of 60 projects focused on delivering the metals needed for the transition of low-carbon energy, and an impressive safety milestone at Alaska's only coal mine to a history of the helicopters that make mineral exploration across the North possible, here is a countdown of the 10 most popular North of 60 Mining News articles in 2023: No. 10 - CORE celebrates Manh Choh, Lucky Shot Contango Ore Inc., a...

  • Finger changing cube from fossil to H2 in front of other cubes spelling fuel.

    Platinum metals are catalysts for change

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 13, 2023

    After 50 years of scrubbing the emissions from fossil-fueled transportation and industry, platinum group metals are finding new roles as catalysts for the transition to a low-carbon energy future. "Platinum group metals (PGM) are critical for today's energy sector industrial base and will play a key role in tomorrow's decarbonized economy," U.S. Department of Energy inked in an informational brochure on these transitional metals, also known as platinum group elements. PGMs...

  • Golden Gate Bridge disappears into low clouds over San Francisco Bay.

    Bridging the US battery supply chain chasm

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 13, 2023

    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...

  • Piles of rare earth oxides used for magnets, batteries, and high-tech products.

    Making rare earths separation less rare

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 15, 2022

    US invests heavily into developing domestic rare earth element processing plants Despite what their name suggests, rare earths are not all that scarce. An efficient and environmentally sound technology capable of separating this tightly bonded group into the 15 individual elements of innovation, however, is truly unique and the key to establishing a rare earths supply chain in North America. There are currently no commercial-scale rare earths separation facilities in North...

  • A red Tesla Roadster speeds past a large wind turbine farm.

    Seven world transforming rare earths

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 15, 2022

    Magnet rare earths transform motion to energy; and energy to motion and music While all 15 of the rare earths have special properties that have been called magical, alchemistical, and futuristic, seven of these elements are imbued with a powerful magnetism that is hard to resist when it comes to creating a high-tech future powered by clean energy. The magnetic qualities of these rare earths – praseodymium, neodymium, samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, and holmium – are...

  • A satellite view of a coal ash landfill in Pennsylvania.

    Outside-the-box critical mineral sources

    A.J. Roan, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 15, 2022

    Coal ash, acid drainage, and tailings for future green economy As the world continues to prime itself for the global energy shift, academia, governments and the private sector are scrambling to extract the valuable minerals and metals necessary to power the low-carbon renewable future – resulting in some truly innovative and unconventional methods. In addition to the rare earths, cobalt, lithium, and other technology metals that capture headline attention, this list often miss...

  • Gallium in its crystal form at below 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

    Gallium may be more critical than realized

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 15, 2022

    CO2 scrubbing liquid-metal catalyst is tech metal's latest amazing property From making smartphones smarter to transforming troublesome carbon dioxide into useful oxygen and high-value carbon products for batteries and other advanced products, gallium is an amazing tech metal lending its incredible qualities to high-performance computers, telecommunications, national security, and the environment. A soft silvery metal that will turn to liquid in the palm of your hand due to...

  • Float plane lands at Ucore’s uranium and rare earths project in Alaska.

    Alaska uranium deposit attracts interest

    Shane Lasley, Mining News|Updated Jun 23, 2022

    With renewed interest in nuclear to generate zero-carbon electricity for the clean energy future, coupled with Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, the past-producing Ross-Adams uranium mine on Ucore Rare Metals Inc.'s Bokan Mountain project in Southeast Alaska has caught the attention of unnamed parties interested in this potential domestic source of nuclear fuel. While Ucore says it is entertaining the unsolicited offers to investigate Bokan's uranium potential, any efforts on t...

  • Appia Energy Critical Minerals Alliances gallium Alces Lake Canada Saskatchewan

    Techy gallium overshadowed by rare earths

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 16, 2021

    Overshadowed by headline-grabbing rare earth elements, gallium is an underappreciated critical metal that is a vital ingredient in next-generation smartphones and communication networks, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), thin-film solar cells, and medical devices. "The development of gallium arsenide as a direct band-gap semiconductor in the 1960s led to what are now some of the most well-known uses of gallium – in feature-rich, application-intensive, third- and f...

  • REE rare earth elements 17 15 lanthanides yttrium scandium USGS Mojave Desert

    Made in North America rare earths return

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 16, 2021

    Roughly 38,000 metric tons of rare earth concentrates were produced from American soil during 2020, yet the United States remains 100% reliant on foreign countries for its supply of these 17 elements critical to our modern high-tech society – an apparent paradox that speaks to the complexities of these enigmatic metals. The irony of rare earth elements (REEs) begins with their name, which is at the same time a misnomer and accurate descriptor. "All the REEs except p...

  • battery recycling lithium-ion black mass American Manganese General Motors

    Recycling to complete a circular economy

    A.J. Roan, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 16, 2021

    Reminiscent of America's gilded age, the world is priming itself for a new era of technology and energy centered on the electricity that sparked the imaginations of visionaries such as Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. This new era, however, sets aside more than a century of burning fossil fuels in favor of new clean sources of the electricity that will power human innovation into the 21st century and beyond. Solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal are but a few of the methods...

  • coal waste recycling Phoenix Tailings rare earth elements lithium cobalt ash

    Unconventional critical mineral solutions

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 16, 2021

    From electric vehicles plugged into renewable energy to smartphones connected to 5G networks, new technologies take advantage of the special properties of a suite of critical minerals and metals that are often rare and in short supply. In addition to the rare earths, cobalt, lithium, and other technology metals that capture headline attention, this list includes even more obscure mined materials such as gallium, germanium, scandium, and tellurium. While scarce, these critical...

  • Critical Minerals Alliances US strategy energy transition zero-carbon EV

    Building a US critical minerals strategy

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 16, 2021

    A heavy reliance on imports for a long list of minerals and metals critical to American supply chains could be a stumbling block for the Biden administration's ambitious "Build Back Better" agenda. "From the largest infrastructure plan since the Eisenhower interstate highway system, to an aggressive plan for a national energy transition, the Biden administration's agenda will require an immense amount of minerals," National Mining Association President and CEO Rich Nolan...

  • Vital Metals Avalon Advanced Materials Northwest Territories Canada Nechalacho

    Vital mines 12-kilogram REE bulk sample

    Rose Ragsdale, For Mining News|Updated May 27, 2021

    Racing to become Canada's first miner of rare earth elements, Vital Metals Ltd. had clocked another milestone by producing a 12-kilogram sample of rare earth carbonate in a bulk sampling program at its Nechalacho rare earths project located 100 kilometers (62 miles) southeast of Yellowknife, the capital of Northwest Territories. Vital is hoping to begin production of rare earth oxide at Nechalacho in the second quarter of 2021, with early production from a North T starter...

  • critical minerals Alaska EV graphite copper zinc cobalt lithium-ion batteries

    Once in a century opportunity for Alaska

    Shane Lasley, Mining News|Updated Apr 29, 2021

    From a world-class graphite deposit in the Northwest to rare earths on the Southeast Panhandle, Alaska has the potential to offer a sustainable and secure supply to meet the coming explosive demand for the minerals and metals crucial to the renewable energy and electric vehicle sectors in North America and around the globe. International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank Group, estimates that this shift to low-carbon energy and electric mobility will create nearly...

  • Mining eligible for permit streamlining

    Shane Lasley, Mining News|Updated Sep 26, 2020
    1

    It's official, U.S. mining projects can now be considered for more efficient permitting under Title 41 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, or Fast-41, a program established in 2015 to improve the timeliness, predictability, and transparency of the federal environmental review and authorization process for eligible infrastructure projects. This Obama-era Fast-41 program established the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC), a federal entity...

  • Texas JV moves quickly on REE separation

    Shane Lasley, Mining News|Updated Sep 26, 2020

    USA Rare Earth LLC and Texas Mineral Resources Corp. has made a major advancement toward developing the heavy rare earth separation technology that the U.S. Army is looking to invest in. The Army recently sent memos requesting information on the costs to develop separation facilities that can produce heavy rare earths, which tend to be the least abundant but most highly prized of the 17 elements considered rare earths. Further details on the Army memos and Pentagon's push to...

  • Army probes rare earth facility funding

    Shane Lasley, Mining News|Updated Sep 26, 2020

    From helmet mounted radios to laser guided missiles, rare earth elements (REE) are an essential ingredient to the advanced hardware used by the U.S. military. These high-tech metals, however, are not produced in America, forcing the Pentagon to depend primarily on China for its supply. As part of a joint armed forces effort to establish a domestic source of rare earths, the U.S. Army is looking to invest in the processing facilities needed to ensure a reliable supply of these...

  • Defense Production Act Title 3 rare earth element REE declaration Trump

    Trump: rare earths essential to US defense

    Shane Lasley, Mining News|Updated Sep 26, 2020

    With the issuance of five presidential determinations related to the domestic production of rare earth metals and magnets, President Donald Trump is making it clear the White House sees this group of 17 technology elements as essential to the security of the United States. In five memos sent to the secretary of defense on July 22, Trump made an official determination under Section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950 that domestic production, separation and manufacturing...

  • Global miners explore Alaska's Interior

    Shane Lasley, Mining News|Updated Feb 4, 2018

    A group of diverse global-scale mining companies hailing from Australia, Japan, and the United States are quietly exploring a relatively small region of Alaska's Interior. Two of these international players - Sumitomo Metal Mining and Newmont Mining Corp. - are seeking gold in the Pogo region of the Tintina Gold Belt. Melbourne-based MMG Ltd., on the other hand, is seeking nickel in the Wrangellia Terrane, a promising band of rocks immediately south of the legendary gold...

  • Ucore has option to acquire IBC, own REE separation technology

    Updated Jan 18, 2018

    Ucore Rare Metals Inc. March 13 reported that it has secured an option to acquire the outstanding shares of IBC Advanced Technologies, a company that has been instrumental in designing and developing a rare earth separation process for Ucore. Ucore paid US$650,000 to enter the two-year option. Under the terms of the agreement, Ucore will have the right to purchase the outstanding shares of IBC for US$10 million cash and 10 million Ucore units, which includes one Ucore share and half of a purchase warrant. The agreement also...

  • Alaska mining experiences quiet 2012

    Curt Freeman, For Mining News|Updated Jan 27, 2013

    The mining industry just passed through one of the quietest year-end transitions in over a decade. The last month has seen few new public announcements regarding Alaska mineral occurrences but that relative silence is about to change. Within a week of completing this summary, the 2013 Cordilleran Roundup mineral convention will begin in Vancouver, B.C. This annual event is well-attended by individuals and corporations that are active in Alaska's mineral industry or looking to...

  • Alaska gold could get its turn at bat

    Curt Freeman, For Mining News|Updated Oct 28, 2012

    Over the past six months, the single-most common question I have gotten asked about Alaska's mineral industry is, "Have there been any significant new discoveries?" While there may be an as-yet unannounced new discovery in Alaska, it seems the above question is being asked more frequently in other parts of the world as well and the most common answer is a simple "no." While information on new discoveries in other sectors of the mining industry is out there, it's not as...

Page Down