The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Whether exploring and mapping a historical underground mine for the first time since it was shuttered during World War II or generating more detailed maps of a modern operation, drones that navigate the labyrinth of ramps, declines, stopes, and other underground environs without reliance on the global positioning system or human guidance can make subterranean mine surveying safer, faster, and more accurate. Ascot Resources Ltd. and Northern Star Resources Ltd. are amongst the...
Group 11 Technologies Inc. believes that GFG Resources Inc.'s Rattlesnake Hills project about 60 miles southwest of Casper, Wyoming is the ideal place to prove the viability of its proprietary means of recovering gold from the earth without mining. This technique, known as in-situ recovery, is a non-invasive method that involves circulating fluids underground that dissolve the sought metals and then pumping the fluids back to the surface to extract the metals – reverse of the...
As part of a wider initiative to recover critical minerals as byproducts at its current mining operations, Rio Tinto is now producing the tellurium used in thin-film photovoltaic solar panels at its Kennecott copper operation in Utah. "We are proud to deliver a new domestic supply of tellurium to support the manufacturing of solar panels and other critical equipment here in the United States," said Rio Tinto Copper Chief Operating Officer Clayton Walker. This key ingredient...
How much rock must be moved to produce the metals in an Apple iPhone, Tesla Model 3 electric vehicle or any other product that requires mined commodities (i.e., nearly everything)? Apple teamed up with the United States Geological Survey to develop a "rock-to-metal ratio" that makes it easier to answer that question. Metals are essential to every aspect of modern life. Even a bowl of oatmeal requires these fundamental building materials to grow, ship, and process this...
Looking to lower the carbon footprint of the single largest gold-producing complex in the world, Nevada Gold Mines has turned to First Solar Inc. to provide enough cadmium-telluride thin-film photovoltaic solar modules to supply up to 17% of the energy needs of its Nevada gold mines. A joint venture between Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont Corp., the world's two largest gold mining companies, Nevada Gold Mines produces approximately 3.5 million ounces of gold a year. Joining a...
After recovering from a short-term downturn for metal 3D printing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, IDTechEx forecasts that the global metal additive manufacturing market will hit US$18.5 billion by 2032. The market research firm says several factors have come into play to push this burgeoning technology to the foreground, most notably the pandemic itself. The remote and autonomous capabilities of "printing" metal components – oftentimes, in locations where shipping was h...
Looking to increase the speed and accuracy of establishing drill targets on its gold properties in Brazil, Jaguar Mining Inc. has signed a license for long-term use of Minerva Intelligence Inc.'s DRIVER, a proprietary artificial intelligence-driven product developed to allow mining companies to better understand and evaluate drill data to pinpoint superior targets, geometallurgical domains, and more through 3D modeling. "Jaguar is committed to embracing new technologies to...
Scientists in Australia have developed a copper material that kills deadly bacteria two minutes after contact and could prove effective in destroying SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. A team from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, working in collaboration with CSIRO, the science research agency of the Australia government, reported in the January 2022 edition of the scientific journal, "Biomaterials," that the copper innovation kills bacteria more than 100...
Although delayed by a few extra days, a historic event occurred this Christmas with the launch of what is set to become mankind's most powerful "eye" into the unknown, the James Webb Space Telescope. Composed of 18 4.3 feet diameter hexagonal-shaped mirror segments, with a central primary mirror of 21.4 feet, years of innovation, ingenious problem-solving, and sheer determination have set the stage for a view into the cosmos we may never have even conceived of before....
Looking for speedier and more accurate assays from drilling at its Queensway gold project in Newfoundland, New Found Gold Corp. is shipping its samples to Australia for analysis with Chrysos Corp.'s PhotonAssay technology. While shipping samples all the way from eastern Canada to Western Australia may not seem like the fastest way to get results back from drilling, the backlog at assay laboratories in North America this year has mineral exploration companies waiting months to...
Blue Star Gold Corp. is among the latest in a rapidly growing list of mineral exploration companies leveraging the machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities offered by GoldSpot Discoveries Corp. As the largest stakeholder along the High Lake Greenstone belt in Nunavut, Canada, Blue Star's Ulu, Hood River and Roma projects cover more than 40 high-grade gold occurrences over a 50-kilometer (31 mile) strike, with a majority of the two former projects being...
GoldSpot Discoveries Corp. Sept. 7 announced the results of its property-wide comprehensive data review, compilation, and target generation on Critical Elements Lithium Corp.s' New Blocks 1-6 and 7 claims within the prolific Nemiscau greenstone belt in James Bay, Quebec. Aspiring to be a large-scale, responsible supplier of lithium to the burgeoning EV and energy storage systems industries, Critical Elements Lithium is advancing its wholly-owned, high-purity Rose...
With a little bit of gold, scientists at Pennsylvania State University have taken another step toward the vision of turning windows into transparent solar cells that generate electricity while still offering a view of the world outside. "Transparent solar cells could someday find a place on windows in homes and office buildings, generating electricity from sunlight that would otherwise be wasted," said Kai Wang, assistant research professor of materials science and...
Roughly 200 times stronger than steel, highly conductive to electricity and heat, antibacterial, and only one atom thick, graphene is a wonder material that has captured the imagination of scientists. Now, researchers in Germany and Finland have created a new two-dimensional carbon material that offers new properties and possibilities. In recent years, graphene has been used to make materials lighter and stronger, batteries charge faster and last longer, and even as a coating...
The formation of bonanza-grade gold veins like those running through the ore at Pretium Resources Inc.'s Brucejack Mine in Northern British Columbia, Canada, has long baffled scientists. Given the time it would take the mineralizing fluids carrying minute concentrations of gold to form the thick veins of the precious metal, they simply should not exist. Yet, these seemingly impossible ultrahigh-grade seams of gold are found at places like Brucejack, Ballarat in Australia,...
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley reported April 17 the discovery of a method for simplifying the removal of toxic metals such as mercury and boron to produce clean water, while at the same time potentially capturing valuable metals, such as gold. The research targets improvements in treatments currently applied either before or after desalination – the removal of salt – in the process of producing drinkable water, or water for agriculture or industry, fro...
Recovering scandium from its iron-titanium mine in Quebec, tellurium from the Kennecott copper mine in Utah, and now lithium from its Boron mine in California, Rio Tinto is leveraging its operations to produce the critical metals needed for 3D printing, solar energy, and lithium batteries. On April 7, the global miner announced that it has begun producing battery-grade lithium from waste rock at its Boron mine site at the western edge of the Mojave Desert. The mine is...
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have provided Pretium Resources Inc. with a cutting-edge in discovering new high-grade gold deposits that could extend the life of its Brucejack Mine in British Columbia's famed Golden Triangle. Before the start of a 2021 drill program seeking new high-grade gold deposits at Brucejack, Pretium employed the services of GoldSpot Discoveries Corp., a technology company that leverages the power of machine learning to help mineral...
Roughly 38,000 metric tons of rare earth concentrates were produced from American soil during 2020, yet the United States remains 100% reliant on foreign countries for its supply of these 17 elements critical to our modern high-tech society – an apparent paradox that speaks to the complexities of these enigmatic metals. The irony of rare earth elements (REEs) begins with their name, which is at the same time a misnomer and accurate descriptor. "All the REEs except p...
The global transition to electric vehicles plugged into renewable energy sources is powering enormous demand for graphite, the single largest ingredient in lithium-ion batteries. "Graphite demand increases in both absolute and percentage terms since graphite is needed to build the anodes found in the most commonly deployed automotive, grid, and decentralized batteries," the World Bank penned in a 2020 report, "The Mineral Intensity of the Clean Energy Transition." According...
One year after unveiling a graphene-based coating that is 99% effective at killing the virus responsible for COVID-19 when applied to face masks and other personal protective equipment, ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd. has received Health Canada approval of its ZENGuard disposable face mask treated with this pathogen-fighting coating. "Exactly one year ago today we announced the scientific breakthrough related to our antimicrobial coating – and now seeing proactive affirmation f...
From the advancements of technology during the Bronze Age to the computers and telecommunication systems of today's Big Data Era, tin has been critical to human progress for at least 5,500 years. Sometime around 3500 BC, Sumerians living in modern day Turkey and Iran discovered that mixing a little tin with copper created bronze, an alloy that produced much more durable weapons and tools than those cast from copper alone. This cutting-edge discovery offered a strategic and...
From electric vehicles plugged into renewable energy to smartphones connected to 5G networks, new technologies take advantage of the special properties of a suite of critical minerals and metals that are often rare and in short supply. In addition to the rare earths, cobalt, lithium, and other technology metals that capture headline attention, this list includes even more obscure mined materials such as gallium, germanium, scandium, and tellurium. While scarce, these critical...
From jewelry at a black-tie soiree to scrubbing harmful emissions from the exhaust system of a farm truck, the six platinum group metals – platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, and osmium – are metals that are both precious and critical to the United States and Canada. Extremely rare, durable, and with a brilliance that does not tarnish, platinum and other metals in its group are a treasured choice for high-end jewelry that stands the test of time. Three of the...
An unsung war hero that saved countless American troops during World War II, an overlooked battery material that has played a pivotal role in storing electricity for more than 100 years, and a major ingredient in futuristic grid-scale energy storage, antimony is among the most important critical metalloids that most people have never heard of. While antimony may not be part of the common lexicon, humans have been using this semi-metal for more than 5,000 years. "For example,...
