During his first year, President Donald Trump has been globetrotting attempting to ink trade deals, repair tattered relationships and attract manufacturing back to America. However, no mission has been more crucial than his recent trip to South Korea, Japan and China. Behind the bluster of new “reciprocal” tariffs was the simple fact that China is not only a manufacturing, trading and military challenge, but it is our primary supplier of strategic metals. Not only is America short of rare minerals, but also metals such as iron, copper and aluminum. Weaning ourselves from foreign critical metals suppliers is a key Trump…
Author: TJ Markle
Essex County supervisors back Boston-based start up’s efforts to salvage materials found in abandoned iron mining operation. A three-year study of the tailings pile at an abandoned Moriah iron mine shows that the site has significant amounts of the rare earth elements needed to produce advanced electronics and national weapons systems, a Boston company told Essex County supervisors Monday. Rare earths burst into the world’s consciousness this year when China — which dominates all phases of rare earth production — threatened to withhold its supply, forcing the White House to retreat from the extreme tariffs it had threatened to levy…
At the National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm, global industry leaders discuss how to inspire the next generation to see opportunity in the mining, a topic highlighted in a new Talent Report by Sandvik. The roundtable brought together Björn Axelsson, Head of HR, Professor Elisabeth Clausen of RWTH Aachen University, Pär Sundqvist, Senior Mining Engineer at LKAB and Joan Melendez Misner, Spacecraft Integration Engineer at NASA. As demand for critical materials accelerates, awareness of the industry remains limited. Findings from the new Talent Report from Sandvik reveal both the challenge and the opportunity ahead: nearly half of STEM…
Sediment plumes could trick plankton into eating empty calories Mining the seafloor for valuable metals could send dangerous ripples through ocean food webs. Tiny floating plankton, the base of the food web, can accidentally ingest particles of sediment kicked up by deep-sea mining operations — forgoing more nutritious food of similar size, researchers report November 6 in Nature Communications. That could trigger a bottom-up starvation cascade, even up to large marine predators, the team says. Researchers have long feared that seabed mining could cause irreparable harm to deep-sea ecosystems. Equipment scraping the seafloor some 4,000 meters deep can disrupt fragile microbial communities in the…
Gold bugs have been riding a scorching rally in 2025. With a gain of over 50%, gold is one of the best-performing assets year to date, buoyed by strong buying pressure from central banks and retail investors. Gold shot up to a record high close to $4,400 an ounce last month before succumbing to profit taking. After spending time below the $4,000 level, expected US interest rate cuts and persistent fears about inflation saw bullion climb again this month. With rising costs and lead times for new mines continuing to lengthen, many question whether gold companies can sufficiently increase production to meet the rising…
Canada and Ontario are accelerating efforts to attract global investment and speed up approvals for new mining projects. Ontario’s government has introduced new policies aimed at attracting investors and accelerating project timelines. Central to this strategy are laws like Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, and Bill 71, the Building More Mines Act. The surge in global demand for “critical minerals” such as nickel, lithium and cobalt—essential inputs for electric vehicles and clean energy technologies—has positioned mining as a cornerstone of energy transition strategies. Northern Ontario, endowed with vast mineral resources, has become a focal point in Canada’s emerging green economy. Yet this…
Testing reveals five permanent magnet REEs in America’s largest graphite deposit. America’s largest deposit of graphite could also be an important source of the rare earth elements essential to automotive, defense, and high-tech manufacturing, according to new testing of garnet-rich zones running through Graphite One Inc.’s Graphite Creek deposit in western Alaska. In April, Graphite One finalized a Pentagon-supported feasibility study detailing plans for a financially robust mine at Graphite Creek and a processing plant in Ohio. The study outlines a 20-year operation producing 175,000 metric tons of graphite annually. The deposit considered for this mine only accounts for about…
President Donald Trump hosted leaders of five Central Asian countries at the White House on Thursday as he intensifies his hunt for rare earth metals needed for high-tech devices, including smartphones, electric vehicles and fighter jets. Trump and the officials from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan held bilateral meetings in the Oval Office before having a working dinner. “These nations were once home to the ancient Silk Road connecting East and West,” Trump said, while noting that “sadly, previous American presidents neglected this region completely.” He added, “I understand the importance of this region” but “a lot of people don’t know that.” The…
The global demand for critical minerals is surging. Driven by the clean-energy transition, digital infrastructure, and geopolitical shifts, governments in Canada are pushing to unlock subsurface resources. These minerals—like lithium, graphite, and rare earth elements—are touted as necessary for clean tech and national defense. In the rush to skirt regulatory hurdles under the guise of building mines faster, industry and governments are increasingly seeking to avoid or streamline environmental impact assessments (IAs), which are required by law and allow the public, experts, and Indigenous groups to weigh in on proposed projects. However, our examination of IA processes over the years…
How Artificial Intelligence Transforms Modern Amazon Mining Operations The Amazon Basin represents one of the most complex mining environments on Earth, where traditional extraction methods clash with cutting-edge technology. As AI in Amazon mining revolutionises global mining operations, the Amazon region serves as a critical testing ground for balancing economic development with environmental protection. The integration of AI systems offers unprecedented opportunities to enhance operational efficiency while monitoring and preventing environmental damage across this vast ecosystem. Modern AI applications in Amazon mining encompass autonomous vehicle systems, predictive maintenance algorithms, and sophisticated environmental monitoring networks. These technologies address longstanding challenges in remote mining…