As federal authorities work to issue permits for mining in and beyond US waters, industry officials are making plans to build infrastructure the country lacks to process what’s recovered from the ocean floor. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told a gathering of G20 energy ministers recently the US was months away from issuing its first deep-sea mining permits. Despite that timeline, the US has yet to figure out how it will refine the mineral-rich rocks, called polymetallic nodules, for use in technology ranging from electric-vehicle batteries, defense systems, smartphones, and medical equipment. “A big part of any new mineral source, particularly…
Author: TJ Markle
For decades, Igor Raykhelson has managed an extraordinary double life. To most of the public, he is the Maestro — a sophisticated composer and pianist whose music appears on prestigious European stages and whose biographies portray him as a rare man who somehow conquered both classical music and international business. But follow Raykhelson out of the concert hall and into the metals trade, and an entirely different biography emerges. His name and his company, Interlink Metals & Chemicals, have surfaced repeatedly in lawsuits, fraud allegations and bitter disputes involving steel and titanium. A federal court found Interlink liable for breaching…
The Department of Energy’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation will split $73 million in funding among four projects to test innovative new mining technologies in the U.S., the agency announced last week (Mining Technology). What’s going on: “Part of the DOE’s Mine of the Future initiative, the funding aims to advance the development and commercialization of mining technologies designed to support critical mineral supply chains.” The chosen projects are in Virginia, Missouri, Texas and Arizona “and are set to provide real-world environments for testing next-generation mining applications.” The details: Lynchburg, Virginia–based Innovative Wireless Technologies plans to use its part of…
Brazil is courting the foreign capital needed to develop its vast critical mineral resources while pushing to keep more processing and industrial value at home — and moving to give the government new powers to scrutinize who controls strategic mineral assets. The tension sharpened last week after Brazil’s Senate approved legislation creating a National Policy for Critical and Strategic Minerals. The bill, which now goes to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for final approval, creates a council linked to the presidency that could scrutinize changes in corporate control of companies holding rights to minerals deemed critical or strategic. The mechanism could…
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) released on Friday an expression of interest (EOI) seeking input from American industry on the potential transfer of surplus critical minerals, rare earth elements and other materials located at five EM cleanup sites across the country. The materials identified in the EOI are the result of past nuclear weapons production and government-sponsored energy research. No longer needed for planned activities, they may be valuable to private industry, including advanced technology and manufacturing, alternative energy and national defense, the DOE said. The critical minerals and rare earth materials subject to this EOI are aluminum, cesium-137,…
Thirty-seven people arrested in a Nigeria government crackdown on suspected illegal mining died while in custody, sparking protests and scrutiny of the country’s mining enforcement drive. Niger state on Friday suspended all mining until further notice and imposed a round-the-clock curfew in the city of Minna, about 150 km by road northwest of Abuja. The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps arrested scores of people on Monday and Tuesday at mining sites near Minna. Authorities found 37 detainees dead early Thursday. The cause of death hasn’t been established. “It could be as a result of suffocation because there were so…
Canada spent the first half of September answering Washington’s trade escalation dollar for dollar after the United States imposed 50% tariffs on a broad range of Canadian goods that extend well beyond the stated grievances of autos, dairy and alcohol. Canada’s counter-tariffs on C$27.6 billion ($19.7 billion) of US imports took effect September 8 and this week the same government hosted the first Canada Investment Summit in Toronto, putting a 167-project prospectus in front of investors managing a suspiciously rounded C$100 trillion. American managed money, rather uncomfortably, accounted for the bulk even with the world’s richest sovereign wealth funds in the same…
State-owned China Rare Earth Group is reportedly in talks to acquire Shenghe Resources (SHA: 600392), a deal that could give Beijing indirect ownership of a stake in US rare earths producer MP Materials (NYSE: MP) alongside the US Department of Defense. Talks have been underway since earlier this year, Reuters reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions. Shenghe owns about 3% of MP Materials, operator of the Mountain Pass rare earths mine in California. The Pentagon became MP’s largest shareholder last year after agreeing to buy $400 million of preferred stock and warrants.…
The road to opening a copper-nickel mine in Minnesota is long and uncertain, but it’s a path Twin Metals is exploring every day. Their exploratory drilling brings them further below the surface than 16 stacked Statues of Liberty, all to refine a plan to mine out the copper and nickel on the land here, if they ever get the proper approvals. Twin Metals Chief Geologist Kevin Boerst has been working to understand the deposit for 20 years. “This is not a normal copper deposit. The day that Mother Nature made this deposit, she got up on the right side of the bed.…
Pilot test produces 97% antimony ingot from Treasure Creek stibnite. Felix Gold Ltd. Aug. 27 reported that pilot-scale testing has demonstrated that hand-sorted, coarse-crushed stibnite extracted from the company’s Treasure Creek project in Alaska can be converted into antimony metal without grinding, flotation, or a concentrate stage. “We did not model this pathway. We designed it, built it, ran it, and made metal. Ore went in one end of the plant and antimony ingot came out the other end, through the same sequence of unit operations Frontier intends to build and operate at scale,” said Felix Executive Director Joseph Webb.…