A smelter owned by mining and energy group PT Alamtri Resources Indonesia made its first aluminium exports in June, shipping to the U.S. and South Korea, according to Export Genius, a trade data platform. PT Kalimantan Aluminium Industry, which is located on the island of Borneo and began commissioning its first phase at the end of last year, shipped 31,494 metric tons of primary aluminium to the U.S. last month as well as 3,569 tons to South Korea, Export Genius data showed. The U.S. has been seeking alternative sources of aluminium amid disruption to deliveries from key suppliers in the…
Author: TJ Markle
Asteroids are often described as floating treasure chests, packed with iron, nickel, and platinum group metals, but the reality is more complicated. These small bodies preserve clues from the early history of the solar system, and some are genuinely rich in metals. Yet no company has ever mined an asteroid and returned commercial quantities of metal to Earth. For now, asteroid mining remains a long-term ambition, not an operating industry. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is currently traveling toward a large metal rich asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. Launched on October 13, 2023, the probe is scheduled to arrive at its destination in 2029. Scientists once described…
A Quebec chemical firm has developed a cyanide-free, and generally non-toxic method to extract gold from mineral ores—an option that could potentially relieve companies from a significant portion of current environmental compliance. The firm, Dundee Sustainable Technologies, also offers a patented chemical process called GlassLock, which addresses one of the industry’s most pressing environmental concerns: arsenic. The technology can replace cyanide leaching during extraction to isolate the arsenic and turn it into an inert glass. Mixed with common components like silica, recycled glass, and hematite, the arsenic is then vitrified into a stable and insoluble glass product that can be…
Gold’s slide back below $4,000 an ounce wipes out most of mining’s 2026 gains, but the old guard of diversified giants – led by a resurgent BHP – is staging a comeback. At the end of the second quarter the MINING.COM TOP 50* ranking of the world’s most valuable miners had a combined market capitalization of $2.19 trillion, down $228 billion over the three months and hanging on to a gain of just $22 billion so far in 2026. After a first quarter in which the ranking powered through the outbreak of the US-Iran war to touch $2.41 trillion, the June quarter…
The natural world has evolved in ingenious and bizarre ways to survive some of the most hostile environments on the planet. Take for instance deep-sea molluscs, which survive in temperatures of up to 450ºC, living on hydrothermal vents some 5000 metres below the surface. Many of these molluscs – including snails, limpets, mussels, clams and chitons – were left untouched for millenia, and were in fact only discovered in the past 10 years. But, a new global assessment of these species has found that 62% face extinction due to deep-sea mining. By filtering toxic chemicals and providing structural habitats, these…
Mexico’s government is negotiating a settlement with Vulcan Materials to permanently end limestone extraction at the Calica site in Quintana Roo, offering the company an alternative location and port-use flexibility in exchange for environmental remediation. The outcome carries weight beyond mining: the dispute has entered the USMCA joint review as one of roughly 54 US-flagged issues and prompted congressional legislation on port access, exposing how unresolved foreign investment claims can intersect with trade negotiations and infrastructure policy. A resolution would set precedent for handling environmental enforcement against foreign-owned assets in protected areas. Mexico’s federal government is negotiating with US-based Vulcan…
Miners backed by the US administration sell to Japan and South Korea despite push to develop domestic supply chain US rare earths produced by Washington-backed companies are flowing to Japan and South Korea, as American demand has yet to materialise despite the Trump administration’s push to develop a national supply chain. Rare earths products produced by MP Materials, Energy Fuels and Phoenix Tailings — which together have won billions of dollars in US government support — are being sold to companies in Asia, where the scale of magnet manufacturing remains larger than the nascent production in the US. China’s lock…
The U.S. is beginning to see signs of a uranium mining boom as the Trump administration pushes to revive a nuclear power sector it believes is vital to feed the grid and power-hungry data centers. Most of the uranium used in U.S. nuclear power plants today is imported primarily from Kazakhstan, Canada, Uzbekistan, Australia, Namibia and Russia, with federal analysts warning that owners and operators of U.S. reactors face possible uranium shortages over the next decade. While Russia dominates the global market for the nuclear fuel, the U.S. banned imports of that company’s uranium in 2024, although there are allowances…
Chile and Argentina have revived a nearly three-decade-old treaty to develop mining projects along their shared border, with planned investments that exceed $20.7 billion. The proximity of Argentine mining deposits to Chile’s northern mining regions could support the expansion of ports, highways, railways and international trade corridors. The agreement also could create new opportunities for companies that provide goods and services to the mining industry. Officials from the mining and foreign affairs ministries of both countries met this week in Buenos Aires to relaunch the bilateral agreement, which was originally signed in 1997. The move comes as Argentina experiences a…
Metal alloys are used everywhere from aircraft to cutlery, making them an indispensable part of modern life. Scientists are continuing to try to find ways to improve them – which often comes down to the way they’re initially formed. Steel is one of the classic alloy examples: mostly iron with a dash of carbon and other elements, making it much stronger and harder than iron on its own. Now, an international team of researchers has come up with a new way of building alloys. The method, described in a new paper published in Science, promises to make metals that are…