The Elements of Innovation Discovered

(69) stories found containing 'mining mine waste for technology metals'


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  • Dozens of plumes of emissions in an industrial district.

    DOE funding makes decarbonization history

    A.J. Roan, Metal Tech News|Updated Mar 27, 2024

    Largest industrial decarbonization investment ever in US history; will see $6 billion across 33 projects throughout the nation. Stoking the non-emissive fires of industry once again, the U.S. Department of Energy has leveraged another significant share of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to inject upwards of $6 billion into 33 projects across more than 20 states to decarbonize energy-intensive industries, reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions, and invigorate job...

  • Artist's rendering of an infinity symbol made up of batteries.

    A one-stop, closed-loop U.S. battery supply

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated Mar 12, 2024

    With the money, permits and resources locked in, US Strategic Metals has positioned itself as a desperately needed sustainable domestic battery metals platform Intent on repairing the widening gap representing a nonexistent American electric battery industry, US Strategic Metals (USSM) has transformed from humble beginnings as a mine site cleanup and reclamation business to a one-stop green battery metals platform taking the first steps toward a secure domestic closed-loop...

  • Sparks arc out of a vat being filled with molten steel.

    Green steel made from Baffinland iron

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Mar 9, 2024

    European steelmakers are looking across the Atlantic for high-quality iron ore mined on Canada's Baffin Island. Due to the combination of high strength, low cost, and the abundance of the minerals and metals from which it is made, steel is the most used metal on Earth. The making of this alloy that serves as the skeleton of modern society, however, is also responsible for roughly 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions. To help reduce the CO2 footprint of this building material... Full story

  • Puzzle pieces of Chinese and U.S. flags over a globe.

    Critical minerals cold war heats up

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated Mar 6, 2024

    Massive geothermal lithium reserves give U.S. leverage while superpowers employ protectionist measures around supply chains. There's a new international race, not into space or to establish military superiority, but to secure critical minerals in a worldwide resource grab for the feedstocks that will fuel a global green energy transition. While we're all on the same side – or, in this case, the same planet – the superpowers have been at odds with how to achieve net-zero...

  • Artist John Sabraw with reclaimed pigment on a steel table.

    Acid mine drainage to earth tone paints

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated Feb 16, 2024
    1

    Gamblin Artists Colors introduces oil paints pigmented with waste from acidic water draining from old coal mine. Paints throughout the ages have been uniquely colored by crushed gemstones, rare shellfish, and even powdered Egyptian mummies. With that same pioneering spirit, the Portland, Oregon-based Gamblin Artists Colors began recycling dry pigment dust collected by their Torit air filtration system during the 1990s and mixing it into a paint color they called Torrit Grey.... Full story

  • Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivers a speech at Vitals’ REE plant.

    Top 10 Metal Tech News articles of 2023

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jan 4, 2024

    From Trudeau's visit to Vital REE plant to a Chinese firm buying Vital stock and Canada rare earths, MTN counts down the 10 most popular articles of 2023. From the energy transition driving enormous new demand for technology metals to advances in technologies that make the mining of those materials more efficient and sustainable, 2023 was a big year for tech metals and mining tech news. Here are the 10 most popular Metal Tech News articles of 2023: No. 10 - Trudeau tours Vital... Full story

  • Rows of solar panels and wind turbines along the bank of a river.

    The energy transition mines of tomorrow

    K. Warner, For Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 16, 2023

    The ages of human history have been defined from stone to iron, from hunting to husbandry, and from industry to information. The latest change has come not through any one revolutionary commodity or tool but in an overall shift from resource consumption to one of stewardship. "The argument could be made that, with the clean energy transition, we're exchanging a fossil fuel-based energy system with a metals-based energy system," said Scott Odell, MIT Environmental Solutions...

  • Stacks of reclaimed rare earths from Phoenix Tailings’ technology.

    Phoenix Tailings' first US REE refinery

    A.J. Roan, Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 2, 2023

    Highly promising startup reveals first commercial-scale rare earth element refinery in the US. Rising from the ashes, an American startup that was early in the field of rare earth element separation, Phoenix Tailings, has made a brilliant comeback with the announcement of the first rare earth refinery to begin production in the United States. Founded in 2018, Boston-based Phoenix Tailings had a significant head start at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seeing the potential...

  • Missouri S&T Professor Guang Xu testing ventilation in experimental mine.

    Missouri S&T to assist in cleaner mines

    A.J. Roan, Metal Tech News|Updated Nov 25, 2023

    Awarded EPA grant for critical mineral waste and P2 prevention assistance at MO and AK mines. Wanting to better understand the effects of pollution and waste related to the mining of critical minerals, a Missouri University Science and Technology team has been awarded nearly $1 million from the Environmental Protection Agency for a study in their home state and Alaska. "The United States is facing a critical minerals crisis, and Missouri S&T is uniquely positioned to help... Full story

  • Visual Capitalist infograph on global cobalt production.

    Cobalt crashes – will it rise again?

    K. Warner, For Metal Tech News|Updated Nov 23, 2023

    From being the priciest and hardest-to-come-by, lithium-ion battery metal during the budding energy transition to a massive surplus and wavering demand, cobalt mining has had a nail-biting year as sales have stalled and prices have begun to fall (global benchmark cobalt prices have dropped by more than half since May of last year). Cobalt is a lustrous ferromagnetic metal with a high melting point used increasingly in renewable energy technologies, such as wind turbines and...

  • Mine tailings from Newmont Corp.'s Musselwhite Mine in Canada.

    Nextgen miners might include microbes

    K. Warner, For Metal Tech News|Updated Nov 15, 2023

    Each year in Canada, roughly 200 active mines contribute to billions of tons of mining waste. The estimated number of tailing storage facilities surveyed worldwide is over 12,000. While considered industrial waste, these facilities also contain a number of useful minerals at a concentration deemed too low to be worth extracting-until now. Enter biomining, which covers several biological separation technologies offering eco-friendly recovery of valuable and strategic materials...

  • Piles of shredded metals to be used in recycling.

    Recycling key to U.S. critical minerals

    K. Warner, For Metal Tech News|Updated Oct 26, 2023

    The growing list of critical minerals and conflict elements like cobalt are drawing intense focus and demand for alternative sources. Investors and consumers are increasingly focused on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials, provenance, and indirect emissions of these supply chains. If done right, prioritizing urban mining – specifically moving recycled materials upstream in supply chains – could provide cheaper domestic supply with a lower emissions...

  • Heavily mineralized rock with veining and orange, red, and purple colorization.

    A fortunate bismuth-cobalt partnership

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Oct 24, 2023

    Rio Tinto, Fortune Minerals team up to recover critical minerals at Nico refinery in Alberta. To bolster the North American supply of critical minerals, global mining giant Rio Tinto and Canadian mine developer Fortune Minerals Ltd. are working together to improve the recovery of bismuth and cobalt from ore and waste streams. "We are committed to find better ways to provide the materials the world needs to grow and decarbonize," said Rio Tinto Kennecott Managing Director Nate...

  • Road sign pointing to Japan and Canada.

    Canada, Japan forge battery alliance

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Oct 5, 2023

    A flurry of industry partnerships on battery material projects followed landmark alliance between nations. In a move that aligns Canada's rich minerals endowment with Japan's battery-making expertise, the two countries have entered into a historic battery supply chain agreement. "Canada and Japan are committed to advancing our shared ambitions to develop sustainable and reliable global battery supply chains," said Canada Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry...

  • A 3D rendering of a future Redwood Materials facility.

    Strong Redwood attracts $1B investment

    A.J. Roan, Metal Tech News|Updated Sep 19, 2023

    From a small sprout to a mighty tree, Redwood Materials Inc. may share its roots with the Tree of Tesla but has grown into a pillar of stability in the realm of recycling amidst a time when electric vehicle battery materials are becoming increasingly difficult to source. This battery and e-waste startup's vision of creating a domestic supply through recycling has drawn nearly $2 billion in new investment to expand its operations in the U.S., spreading its own "Sequoian" roots...

  • Hands holding a heap of coal ash with potential critical minerals.

    An unconventional critical minerals push

    A.J. Roan, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 11, 2023

    As the cracks in the wall continue to chill the bones of an ill-prepared American clean-energy economy, attention has been paid to nearly every facet imaginable to obtain the minerals critical to fuel a zero-carbon future; however, all has seemingly been quiet on the unconventional front. Repeated time and time again during the ongoing transition, U.S. policymakers are becoming increasingly concerned about the overreliance on China for the minerals and metals essential to... Full story

  • Green northern lights above a nickel mine during a winter night in Canada.

    Nickel's evolving role in clean energy

    K. Warner, For Data Mine North|Updated Sep 11, 2023

    While lithium has been the poster child for optimism and controversy in equal measure, nickel has its own crucial role to play in the batteries powering the clean energy future – increasing range and capacity – but is traditionally carbon-heavy to produce. For nickel, the industry's focus has been twofold – obtaining enough and moving the needle between untenable quantities of emissions from mining and processing and the battery and alloying metal's necessary inclusion... Full story

  • Blue-colored lithium brine fills square holes cut into white salt flats.

    The 'white gold' rush for lithium

    K. Warner, For Data Mine North|Updated Sep 11, 2023

    Lithium is an indispensable element in the clean energy transition for several key reasons; like all alkaline metals on the periodic table, it has one more electron than it strictly needs, and this tendency to shed electrons makes it well-suited for passing them back and forth between cathode and anode, charging and discharging thousands of times without degradation. Pure lithium does not occur in nature, but traces are found throughout nearly all igneous rocks, mineral... Full story

  • Lithium-tellurium button cells being held by wired clamps during testing at UBC.

    Tellurium: secret clean energy ingredient

    Shane Lasley, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 11, 2023

    From promising solid-state battery technology that could eliminate range anxiety for electric vehicle owners to solar panels and thermoelectric devices that transform sunshine and heat into low-carbon energy, tellurium is emerging as a secret ingredient of the clean energy future. "It has flown largely under the radar, even though it's essential for cadmium-telluride solar panels and new lithium-tellurium batteries that could revolutionize energy storage," said Tyrone... Full story

  • A technician with electronic equipment surveys a gold mine in Nevada.

    Newmont CEO delivers powerful message

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Sep 8, 2023

    Urges the mining industry to build goodwill and trust to survive societal, geopolitical, and new technology megatrends in a changing world. Newmont President and CEO Tom Palmer did not waste his keynote address at the Minerals Week 2023 gathering in Australia to tout the many achievements of the world's largest gold mining company he leads. Instead, he delivered a powerful and sometimes foreboding message to the mining leaders in the room and around the world about the... Full story

  • Artist rendering of at RIINO monorail hauling rocks up a steep mining slope.

    MICA funds for Sudbury mining innovators

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Aug 29, 2023

    $2.1M awarded to three companies advancing tech for more sustainable, productive mining The Greater Sudbury region of Ontario is so enriched with deposits containing nickel and other metals needed for the clean energy transition that one of the area's parliamentary districts is named Nickel Belt. Looking to also be an epicenter of sustainable mining technologies, Marc Serré, member of parliament for Nickel Belt, and Viviane Lapointe, member of parliament for the neighboring... Full story

  • A freshly paved road cuts between mostly empty brick buildings in Virginia.

    Critical minerals from Appalachian coal

    K. Warner, For Metal Tech News|Updated Aug 23, 2023

    U.S. policymakers have become increasingly concerned about overreliance on China for the minerals and metals essential to clean energy technologies. Today China controls roughly one-third of the global market for critical minerals and rare earth elements, and several countries, including Australia, are making strides toward developing robust domestic resource extraction and processing industries of their own in response. To take advantage of recent federal tax credits for elec... Full story

  • Rich blue lithium evaporation pools at Allkem's Olaroz project in Argentina.

    Industry playing catch-up with lithium

    K. Warner, For Metal Tech News|Updated May 30, 2023

    At first glance, it appears that mining giants have been slow on the uptake during the booming market for battery materials. This may demonstrate an unusual lack of forethought, or over the next few years, may actually prove they've been two steps ahead. In less than a decade, the likes of lithium, cobalt, and graphite went from minor materials to a demand so intense that several electric vehicle (EV) and battery manufacturers are jumping the usual supply chain and investing...

  • Black schist material bioleached at Talvivaara Sotkamo Mine in Finland.

    Earth's tiniest miners help environment

    A.J. Roan, Metal Tech News|Updated May 8, 2023

    Similar to some International Space Station experiments for mining in space, the University of Waterloo in Southern Ontario has been using microorganisms as an environmentally friendly means of breaking down tailings here on Earth, reclaiming critical resources and cleaning up the leftovers of yesteryear at the same time. A common byproduct of mining, tailings are typically fine-grained waste material left after extracting a target ore mineral. Stored in various media such as...

  • The Tamagawa Onsen hot spring in Towada Hachimantai National Park.

    Raising rare earth recovery with yeast

    K. Warner, For Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 21, 2023

    While not quite as easy as whipping up a science experiment in the kitchen, a research group from the Osaka Metropolitan University Graduate School of Engineering has developed an inexpensive and eco-friendly way to condense various rare earth elements (REEs) from natural water sources using common, food-safe ingredients. The research group, led by Professor Masayuki Azuma and Associate Professor Yoshihiro Ojima, have successfully tested an adsorbent material using dry...

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