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United States Mining

US Moves to Restore Stockpiling ‘Panic Button’ in EV Metals Fight with China – by Mark Burton, Joe Deaux, Michael J Kavanagh, Jennifer A Dlouhy and Annie Lee (Bloomberg News – 19, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Insiders liken it to a “panic button.” And for more than 80 years, the primary job of the National Defense Stockpile has been to keep the US military supplied with essential raw materials and protect against supply shocks.

So when China surprised the markets by restricting exports of two niche industrial metals last year, top-level officials in the Pentagon-controlled agency—and the White House—faced an uncomfortable reality: Its panic button no longer worked. The realization triggered a different kind of alarm in Washington.

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How an 1872 law is being exploited to mine uranium near the Grand Canyon (Fast Company.com – February 20, 2024)

https://www.fastcompany.com/

It’s just one of multiple sites where companies are allowed to mine on public land—without paying a dime of royalties to the U.S. Treasury.

When Congress opened U.S. public lands for mining in 1872, the nation was less than a century old. Miners used picks, shovels, and pressurized water hoses to pry loose valuable minerals like gold and silver.

Today, mining is a high-technology industry, but it’s still governed by the Mining Law of 1872. As was true 150 years ago, companies can mine valuable mineral deposits from federal lands without paying any royalties to the U.S. Treasury.

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Filmmakers aims to honor Appalachian culture in ‘King Coal’ – by Miles Layton (Vinton Jackson Courier – February 13, 2024)

 

https://www.vintonjacksoncourier.com/

“King Coal” is one of the best movies I’ve seen depicting the people, places and culture of Appalachia. The film was shown as part of From the Hills and Hollers: Appalachian Stories Film Series on Feb. 8 at the Athena Cinema.

Initially, without knowing anything about “King Coal,” I was worried it was going to be a documentary that negatively portrays Appalachian people (poverty porn) before a sermon about coal’s impact on climate change and possibly includes a cameo from Al Gore. None of that could be further from the truth. It was an accurate presentation about the culture surrounding coal.

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The Great Salt Lake Is Full of Lithium. A Startup Wants to Harvest It. – by Scott Patterson (Wall Street Journal – February 12, 2024)

https://www.wsj.com/

Lilac has raised $145 million from Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, other investors

America’s biggest saltwater lake may hold a key to the country’s energy future. This summer, a California startup plans to start construction on a project to suck up water from the Great Salt Lake to extract one of its many valuable minerals: lithium, a critical ingredient in the rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles.

The water will then be reinjected back into the lake, which Lilac Solutions says addresses concerns about the damaging effects of mineral extraction. At its peak, Lilac says it will use a series of pipes to suck up 80,000 gallons of water a minute to harvest the mineral. The company plans to eventually produce up to 20,000 tons of battery-grade lithium a year at its site in northern Utah, located among fields of cattle and pickleweed.

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Copper Giant Freeport-McMoRan Names Kathleen Quirk as CEO – by Kevin Orland (Bloomberg News – February 7, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Freeport-McMoRan Inc., the world’s largest listed copper producer, has named veteran Kathleen Quirk to succeed Richard Adkerson as chief executive officer, a shift set to signal continuity at the top at a time of industry consolidation and heightened focus on metal supply.

The change is effective June 11, the company said. Adkerson, an industry heavyweight who has been at the helm for more than two decades, will remain chairman.

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State of Michigan could invest in Canadian mining company’s copper project – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 5, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Highland Copper in the running for US$50-million development grant

A Canadian company with a copper mine project in northern Michigan is in the running for a substantial subsidy from the State of Michigan.

Highland Copper Company announced the Michigan Economic Development Corporation has proposed a US$50-million grant for its Copperwood mine project in the Upper Peninsula. The money would come from the Strategic Site Readiness Program. But it’s not a done deal. Final approval still has to come from the state’s Application Committee in both the Michigan legislature’s house of representatives and senate.

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Old Tyrone a mining utopia in wartime – by Robert L. Conley (Silver City Daily Press – February 5, 2024)

https://www.scdailypress.com/

Known today for their vast resources of copper ore, the Little Burro Mountains of Grant County were first famous for their deposits of turquoise. For countless generations, until interrupted by non-Indigenous visitors, Native Americans operated shallow mines to extract the decorative blue-green stone.

The name of the first white man to discover turquoise here is unknown, but it is said that anyone who entered the area before the early 1870s was never seen alive again. The Apache were thought to blame. But by 1879, prospectors had staked out workable claims and, perhaps due to safety in numbers, were less prone to disappearing. The turquoise found here, just a dozen or so miles southwest of Silver City, was judged to be at least equal with the stones from the best mines in Persia — and good enough to gift President McKinley during his tour of New Mexico in 1901.

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One of nation’s only aluminum smelters set to close in Missouri Bootheel – by Allison Kite (Missouri Independent – January 25, 2024)

https://missouriindependent.com/

The Magnitude 7 Metals plant employed more than 400 workers in Marston.

One of the nation’s last primary aluminum smelters, which employs more than 400 workers in the Missouri Bootheel, will reportedly close its doors.

The Magnitude 7 Metals plant, in the southeast Missouri town of Marston, announced Wednesday it would curtail operations, according to Industrious Labs, an industry analysis group. In a press release, Industrious Labs said the plant represents about one-fifth of the nation’s aluminum production.

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Is uranium poised for a renaissance? – by Jonathan Thompson (High Country News – January 25, 2024)

https://www.hcn.org/

As prices climb, mining proposals proliferate. But it might just be hype.

In December, Canada-based Energy Fuels announced plans to begin production at three of its uranium mines, including the controversial Pinyon Plain (née Canyon) Mine, near the Grand Canyon, as well as two operations near Moab, Utah.

It seems like everywhere you look these days, some firm — maybe one with an unusual name (Okapi or Kraken, say) — is announcing that it’s acquiring or staking of thousands of acres of public-land mining claims, embarking on exploratory drilling or has “exciting,” if enigmatic, survey results to report. Does this mean that the long-moribund domestic uranium-mining industry is sauntering down the comeback trail?

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The US plan to break Russia’s grip on nuclear fuel – by Jamie Smyth and Sarah White (January 21, 2024)

https://www.ft.com/

Demand for atomic energy is surging but Moscow dominates the world’s supplies of enriched uranium

Shortly after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the US banned all imports of Russian oil, liquefied natural gas and coal. But not all energy supplies were included in the US sanctions, nor in those of its European allies. On the contrary, western powers have taken care not to interrupt the flow of raw materials and services from Russia’s state-owned nuclear giant Rosatom and its subsidiary Tenex.

Moscow’s invasion exposed many vulnerabilities in US and European energy supplies, not least in the nuclear sector, where more than a fifth of the enriched uranium fuel required to power both regions’ nuclear fleets comes from Russia.

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How Miners Are Still Paying the Costs of Pursuing an ‘American Dream’ – by Taylor Sisk (Good Men Project – January 19, 2024)

https://goodmenproject.com/

They went into the mines to secure a better life for their loved ones. Unfortunately, they emerged with ravaged lungs and damaged psyches.

“I’ve loaded more coal in my sleep than I have in the mines,” says Terry Lilly. The words don’t come easy. Though retired, Lilly remains ever a coal miner. It’s said coal miners are a stoic sort. Inner revelations aren’t in Lilly’s nature. But it’s also physically difficult for him to share those words.

Black lung has seen to that. Lilly went underground in 1975, at 18. Thirty years in, shortly after returning from hernia surgery, he was buried in a collapse. “I broke a leg, both knees, a hip, my back. And while I was in the hospital, I had blood clots go through my lungs. I lay in ICU for 18 days. Should have died.”

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Why the U.S. might just set its sights on Canadian-owned Westinghouse Electric – by David Olive (Toronto Star – January 18, 2024)

https://www.thestar.com/

Westinghouse Electric Co., a Canadian-owned company, is at the centre of a geopolitical struggle between the West and Russia for dominance in the global nuclear-power industry.

Westinghouse is among the nuclear industry’s few vertically integrated companies, designing reactors and providing them with nuclear fuel and maintenance services.The U.S. will be looking to Westinghouse to help triple America’s nuclear power capacity by 2050 to meet soaring U.S. power demand and fight climate change.

At some point, Washington is likely to exert pressure on Westinghouse to play a bigger role in the global nuclear-industrial complex, David Olive writes. Westinghouse also stands to gain from an end to Russia’s near-monopoly on nuclear fuel supplies in Eastern Europe.

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10 years after the last uranium speculator left Cañon City, an Australian company is on the hunt – by Sue McMillin (Colorado Sun – January 2024)

Homepage 2024

About two dozen property owners in remote northwestern Fremont County neighborhoods are fighting an Australian company that wants to explore known uranium deposits beneath their land.

The residents fear contamination of their water wells, a concern bolstered by the Fremont Conservation District’s recommendation to deny a county conditional use permit because of the potential contamination of Tallahassee Creek, which flows into the Arkansas River about 8 miles northwest of Cañon City. The 10-year permit was approved by Fremont County commissioners in October.

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Albemarle to cut jobs, halt expansions and sell stake in Liontown – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – January 17, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Albemarle (NYSE: ALB) said on Wednesday it would cut jobs and defer spending on projects, including a massive refinery project in South Carolina, as part of a wide-ranging plan to slash costs in light of falling lithium prices. The world’s top producer of the battery metal said it plans to spend $1.6 billion to $1.8  billion in 2024, down from about $2.1 billion it invested last year.

“The actions we are taking allow us to advance near-term growth and preserve future opportunities as we navigate the dynamics of our key end-markets,” chief executive Kent Masters said in the statement. “The long-term fundamentals for our business are strong and we remain committed to operating in a safe and sustainable manner.” 

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Wyoming goes nuclear: Cowboy State is set to see uranium mining boom as prices soar and lawmakers propose ban on Russian imports to end Putin’s stranglehold on the rare element – by Keith Griffith (Daily Mail – January 14, 2024)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Uranium mining operations in Wyoming are gearing up for a potential dramatic expansion in operations, as a proposed ban on Russian imports drives up prices for the crucial nuclear reactor fuel.Uranium spot prices hit $92.50 this week, the highest since 2007 and up more than 84 percent from a year ago, according to data shared with DailyMail.com by market-tracking firm UxC, LLC.

On Tuesday, the Department of Energy announced that it would seek bids from contractors to help establish a domestic supply of a uranium fuel enriched to higher levels, for use in the next generation of nuclear reactors.

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