The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Toward its goal of reducing carbon emissions from its operations by 33% by 2030 and being a completely carbon-neutral mining company by 2050, Teck Resources Ltd. has entered into an agreement with Caterpillar Inc. to develop, pilot, and ultimately deploy 30 zero-emissions large haul trucks to its mines. "Teck is already one of the world's lowest carbon intensity producers of copper, zinc and steelmaking coal, and now we are taking further action to develop and implement the te...
Using a technology initially intended to recover rare earths from recycled magnets, Geomega Resources Inc. subsidiary Innord Inc. has received sizable funding toward an unexpected benefit of the technology, to extract value from and reduce the environmental footprint of aluminum waste from refineries. Awarded a C$1.5 million funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada, this accelerates Geomega's plans toward the construction of a pilot plant and the completion of a...
The United States Department of Energy is investing $2.2 million to explore the holy grail of clean energy projects – a domestic mine that helps to supply the nickel and copper needed to achieve America's electric vehicle and renewable energy ambitions while also pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it as a mineral in rocks for geological periods of time. Global mining company Rio Tinto is contributing another $4 million and is leading this three-year r...
On the heels of Rio Tinto's order for four battery-electric locomotives to pull trains of iron ore in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, BHP has placed an order for four of its own battery-electric locomotives to be trialed on its Western Australia Iron Ore rail network. Both of these global miners see electrification of mining and transport equipment as an important facet of achieving their steep carbon dioxide emission reduction targets moving forward. "Replacing...
As the competition for supplies of the minerals and metals needed to build electric vehicles heats up, Tesla Inc. has cut a deal to secure the nickel for the lithium-ion batteries to power its future EVs from Talon Metals Corp.'s Tamarack project in Minnesota. Located 54 miles west of Duluth, the Tamarack project is slated to produce roughly 28 million pounds of nickel, plus 17 million lb of copper, per year over the first nine years of mining. Talon's commitment to reducing t...
Taking a large step toward its goal of halving the carbon emissions at its iron mines in the Pilbara region of Western Australia by 2030, Rio Tinto has placed an order with Wabtec Corp. for four FLXdrive battery-electric locomotives. "Our partnership with Wabtec is an investment in innovation and an acknowledgment of the need to increase the pace of our decarbonization efforts," said Rio Tinto Iron Ore Managing Director of Port, Rail and Core Services Richard Cohen. The...
Teck Resources Ltd. has committed to Copper Mark, a voluntary assurance framework to promote responsible production practices and demonstrate the industry's commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Initiated by the International Copper Association, the Copper Mark was founded in 2019 to act as an independent entity and is the first and only comprehensive social and environmental assurance system for copper production. Copper producers that have been...
Rio Tinto and Caterpillar have entered into an agreement to develop and deploy around 35 Cat 793 zero-emissions autonomous haul trucks to Gudai-Darri, an already technically advanced iron ore mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. "Our ambition to reach net-zero emissions across our operations is a priority," said Rio Tinto Chief Commercial Officer Alf Barrios. "Reaching this ambition will require new and innovative solutions and partnerships with supplier partners...
With the goal of producing 58,000 metric tons of the lithium carbonate needed for the batteries powering electric vehicles and storing renewable energy each year, global miner Rio Tinto has committed US$2.4 billion to the development of Jadar in Serbia, one of the world's largest greenfield lithium projects. "Serbia and Rio Tinto will be well-positioned to capture the opportunity offered by rising demand for lithium, driven by the global energy transition and the project will...
The Australian federal government July 12 announced grants of more than A$5.6 million (US$4.2 million) toward demonstrating how blockchain technology can support supply chain solutions and help ease regulatory burdens as part of its wider Australian Blockchain Roadmap. "The Blockchain Pilot Grants will demonstrate the potential for blockchain to help businesses to save money and cut red tape by improving processes such as tracking products throughout the supply chain and trans...
As a part of their commitment to lowering carbon emissions, many global mining companies would like to transform their large haul trucks from diesel to electric. This transition, however, has one big hurdle – the time it takes to charge up these enormous earthmovers takes away from productivity or requires mining operations to buy more of these multi-million dollar electric trucks to do the same work as their diesel counterparts. To find solutions to this dilemma, three of t...
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...
University of Adelaide's Centre for Energy Technology just announced potential pathways to divert the production of heavy industry emissions through the use of green energy methods instead of fossil fuels. Through the High Temperature Minerals Processing (HiTeMP) Outlook #2 Report, published by Adelaide following the second HiTeMP Forum, a world-leading think tank, international specialists from industry, research, government, and community have charted a path for the heavy...
Rio Tinto has made the first sale of aluminum-scandium alloy from its plant in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, offering a North American supply of scandium, a metal deemed critical to the United States and Canada. This first batch of aluminum-scandium alloy from Rio Tinto's Quebec operations will be delivered to Amaero, an Australian-based company known for manufacturing large-format complex components in metal with laser-based metal 3D printing. This alloy is to be made from the...
With solar panel production driving up the demand for tellurium, Rio Tinto plans to recover roughly 20 metric tons of this critical mineral per year from its Kennecott copper mine near Salt Lake City, Utah. One of the rarest stable elements on the periodic table, tellurium is almost always recovered as a byproduct of refining other metals it is associated with. "Most rocks contain an average of about 3 parts per billion tellurium, making it rarer than the rare earth elements...
Metals and mining giant Rio Tinto has begun a campaign of transparency and traceability for the aluminum industry with the launch of START, a blockchain-powered "nutrition label" for responsible aluminum. In the growing metals, minerals and rare earths market for all your favorite electronic gadgets and gizmos, the demand for ethically sourced materials has grown as well. With a world of information at their fingertips, smart consumers have begun to explore the trail of...
Global governments and industries are setting increasingly ambitious targets for the phasing out of fossil fuel-burning automobiles in favor of electric vehicles charged with green energy. Achieving these grand climate objectives, however, is going to require an equally bold strategy to ensure there are plentiful supplies of the new generation of energy minerals and metals critical to building this revolution in the way the world generates and uses energy. The World Bank...
LAS VEGAS – The machinery is enormous, and the ambitions are even larger for the global mining equipment companies unveiling the very latest technologies they have to offer at the National Mining Associations' MINExpo 2021 being held from Sept. 13-15 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Held every four years, with the current exception of a one-year delay in 2020 due to COVID-19, the MINExpo is hailed as the largest mining event on Earth. Considering the fascinating a...
Considering the almost unfathomable quantities that will be needed to power the global shift to low-carbon energy and electric mobility, copper is the most critical of the minerals and metals that have not been deemed critical by the United States or the European Union. How much demand will it take to push an abundant and widely produced metal like copper to the level of criticality? A doubling of current demand would likely be sufficient, and many analysts are forecasting...
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...
Lightweight, strong, and resistant to corrosion, titanium is best known for the properties it lends to rockets, aircraft, and high-performance sports equipment. Only about 3% of the more than 8 million metric tons of titanium minerals mined each year globally, however, go into high strength-to-weight ratio and corrosion-resistant alloys. What does drive the mass majority of the demand for this critical mineral is "enwhitening." According to the United States Geological...
Scandium is an adopted brother to the family of 15 lanthanides that make up the suite of elements known as rare earths. While it may not have quite as strong a chemical bond to its adopted lanthanide siblings as they do to each other, scandium does possess similar characteristics and is almost always found at the same geological gatherings (deposits) as the rest of its rare earth family. Beyond its close chemical and geological ties to rare earths, scandium is considered a...
Amongst the rarest of the stable elements on the periodic table and an important ingredient in the emerging thin-film solar panel sector, tellurium embodies what it means to be a critical metalloid – an element that possesses the properties of both a metal and non-metal. "Most rocks contain an average of about 3 parts per billion tellurium, making it rarer than the rare earth elements and eight times less abundant than gold," the United States Geological Survey wrote in a 2...
Global mining company Rio Tinto Group and heavy equipment manufacturer Komatsu Ltd. have partnered to fast-track the development and implementation of zero-emission mining haulage solutions, with Rio offering a mine site for testing and Komatsu allowing first picks from its future lineup of power-agnostic trucks. "Rio Tinto and Komatsu have a shared history of partnership on innovation going back to when we built the world's largest Komatsu autonomous haulage fleet in 2008,"...
Scandium, one of 35 minerals identified as being critical to future production of high-tech and industrial technologies in the West, is seeing a surge in mining and extraction activity in response to increasing demand for the soft, silvery metallic element. Scandium is not particularly rare – its occurrence in crustal rocks is around 22 parts per million. It is generally more plentiful than lead, mercury, and precious metals. Yet scandium rarely concentrates in nature, so t...
