I watched Armageddon again fairly recently with Bruce Willis, oil drillers in space and an asteroid the size of Texas bearing down on Earth. Buried beneath the Hollywood chaos is a genuinely interesting question, what exactly could we do with an asteroid if we got our hands on one? As it turns out, the answer has nothing to do with blowing it up, sorry Bruce but everything to do with building a new world. Building a colony on Mars is not just an engineering problem, it’s a logistics one too. The logistics, unglamorous as it sound, may ultimately determine whether…
Author: TJ Markle
A group of monks piled into Harry Browne’s one-room cabin earlier this year for morning Mass. They left proof of their presence: a crucifix and a medal of St. Benedict. Browne isn’t a member of their flock, but the group was brought to his property in the mountains north of Silver City by a shared concern about mining in and around southwestern New Mexico’s Gila National Forest. Silver City is a historic mining town. But when hundreds of mining claims were staked in the Gila Wilderness and surrounding areas over the past year, the community pushed back. Arizona-headquartered copper and…
In Brazil’s eastern Amazon, a bright red flower found nowhere else on Earth is threatened with extinction from expanding iron ore mining, scientists warn. The flowering plant, Ipomoea cavalcantei, known locally as flor-de-Carajás, only grows in cangas, an island-like ecosystem of metal-rich rocky soils and shallow vegetation in the middle of dense rainforest. There are only five patches of this unique habitat in the world, all of them in Brazil. “You’re walking through a forest, and suddenly you step into this environment where the ground is basically iron, and you’re quite literally stepping on iron,” Rita Portela, a biologist who…
Venezuela has approved a new mining law to open the gold industry to international investors, but the legislation overlooks the symbiosis between illegal mining and the national government—and the dirty gold that results. The Organic Mines Law (Ley Orgánica de Minas) was approved unanimously by the National Assembly on April 9. The law repeals regulations established in 1999 that prohibited foreign and private-sector investment in strategic minerals, particularly gold. The legislation is the latest in a series of efforts to open Venezuela’s resource markets to foreign investors after the United States captured and removed President Nicolás Maduro on January 3, 2026. The United States…
Fast-tracking clearances for critical minerals may ease supply risks, but without stronger transparency and community safeguards, it risks undermining sustainability and public trust In March 2026, India’s Ministry of Mines initiated the seventh tranche of auctions for the rights to explore and mine critical mineral blocks under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2023 (MMDR Act), which empowers the government to exclusively auction concessions for such minerals. India has designated around 30 minerals as ‘critical’, classifying them as essential for economic development in Part D of the First Schedule to the MMDR Act. However, the successful operationalisation of these blocks following auction depends on…
The Malawi government has suspended the mining license of a coal company for dumping mining waste into two rivers that communities rely on for water. The suspension follows an uproar by one of the communities in Malawi’s coal mining heartland in the north of the country. Community members demanded the closure of the mine for contaminating the rivers that supply water for their domestic and agricultural needs. Preliminary investigations by government agencies responsible for water and the environment confirmed the pollution. The northern region, particularly the two districts of Karonga and Rumphi, has Malawi’s largest coal mines. The country depends…
An environmental advocacy group is suing the Department of the Interior (DOI) over its decision to greenlight a rare earth mining project located within the Mojave National Preserve a year ago. The lawsuit, filed last week by environmental law firm Earthjustice on behalf of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), relates to the Department’s approval last year of the Colosseum mine project being developed by Australia’s Dateline Resources (ASX: DTR). In its filing, Earthjustice said that the National Park Service (NPS) — a bureau under the DOI managing national reserves like the Mojave — signed off on the project without a “valid…
U.S. companies are showing “significant” interest in Democratic Republic of Congo mining assets, including the rebel-held Rubaya area, a State Department official said, adding that investments in that area will have to align with Washington-led peace efforts. Earlier this year, Congo sent Washington a shortlist of strategic assets – including manganese, copper-cobalt, gold and lithium projects – for U.S. investors to consider as part of a minerals partnership. The U.S. hopes through the minerals partnership to convert peace and investment deals with Congo into influence over the country’s critical-minerals supply chain. The U.S. has stepped up efforts to secure critical…
International body regulating seabed mining faces challenge to its authority Even as the race to mine the ocean floor for important minerals intensifies, an international body tasked with regulating the emerging industry ended a key global meeting this week without a new mining code. The International Seabed Authority (ISA), based in Kingston, Jamaica, is the only global body responsible for regulating resource extraction in international waters. It has faced mounting pressure in recent months after the United States, under President Donald Trump, moved to begin approving mining outside the ISA process. The U.S. is not a part of the 172-member…
The Vizsla Silver workers were taken Jan. 23 from Concordia, in the northwestern state of Sinaloa Vancouver-based Vizsla Silver has confirmed that nine of its 10 workers abducted in Concordia, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, in late January have been found dead. “Nine colleagues have now been found deceased,” the company said in a news release. It added that the company “remains in close contact with the family of one colleague who remains missing and continues to support the authorities in their ongoing investigation.” The workers were kidnapped on Jan. 23. Ten bodies were found in February in Concordia,…