The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Researcher Lana Alagha received $875,000 from Rio Tinto to explore gallium and germanium recovery from copper waste streams. In a landmark development for critical minerals recovery, global mining company Rio Tinto has granted Missouri University of Science and Technology professor Lana Alagha $875,000 for a two-year project that seeks to pioneer novel techniques for extracting the highly sought after critical minerals gallium and germanium from waste generated in copper...
Car and battery manufacturers are getting in on the critical minerals mining business. There has been an increasing trend of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for electric vehicles, and the batteries that power them are moving upstream in the global metals supply chain to secure deals for their own feedstocks of critical minerals – entering into mineral offtake agreements directly with mining companies, investing in mining projects, and joint mining ventures. Until r...
Centauri-6 delivers upgrades and optimizations to constellation of satellites that enable Fleet Space's ExoSphere mineral exploration tech. The payload of SpaceX Falcon 9 launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 7 included a next-generation Centauri-6 satellite that will upgrade and expand upon Fleet Space Technologies' constellation of low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites that are playing a vital role in exploring Earth for the minerals needed for the clean...
Canadian province signs strategic minerals partnership with France; Saskatchewan Research Council secures rare earths feedstock for Saskatoon processing plant. Saskatchewan's strategy to become a North American hub for the minerals and metals critical to clean energy and other future-leaning technologies was bolstered by two agreements signed on Monday. The first agreement was a letter of intent signed with France to explore, develop, and cooperate on new strategic mineral...
Recent studies pay off with major improvements in charging times and conductivity in solid-state lithium-sulfur battery technology. A flurry of scientific advances from Australia to California in recent months could soon propel lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries into direct competition with their lithium-ion cousins. Researchers at the University of Adelaide, Tianjin University in China, and the Australian Synchrotron recently reported results of a study that suggests the next...
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...
Materials scientists identified europium as an ideal element for a new material that is a strong candidate for use in quantum memory. Pioneering into the frontiers of technology has scientists venturing deeper into the periodic table to discover elements with properties required for tomorrow's innovations. This is especially true for quantum computers and networks, which demand very specific and unique attributes that require a scientific expedition into unexplored chemical re...
NRCan invests $5 million in SRC's REE separation plant. With a C$5 million (US$3.7 million) investment into Saskatchewan Research Council's (SRC) rare earth processing and separation facility in Saskatoon, Sask., Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is doubling down on its support of technologies that will help bolster Canada's leadership in responsible production of critical minerals needed for the clean energy and digital economy. "Separating these rare earths is instrumental in...
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 car...
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...
Shenghe acquires ore stockpile that symbolized a shift away from China for REEs critical to North America's green energy and high-tech sectors. High-grade ore dug up from a small open pit at Vital Metal Ltd.'s Nechalacho project in the summer of 2021 marked the start of Canada's first rare earth elements mine and the first link in an REE supply chain that was envisioned to be completely independent of China. "The combination of our efforts clearly work together towards the...
Agency founded to fight terrorism views mining and critical minerals as vital to economic, national security of the homeland. For most Americans, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security conjures up images of an intelligence agency borne from the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon that employs TSA airport screenings, border checkpoints, and internet monitoring to protect Americans from terrorist threats, both foreign and domestic. And these airport, border,...
DOE finishes NEPA review needed to build demo plant that will process a high-grade rare earth sample from the Bear Lodge project north of Upton, Wyoming. Clearing another hurdle on its path to offering a reliable domestic alternative to China for the rare earths needed to propel the clean energy transition, Rare Element Resources Ltd. Nov. 16 announced that the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has finalized its National Environmental...
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...
Vital Metals turns to Chinese firm to fund Nechalacho, home to first REE mine in Canada. Drifting further away from the original vision of establishing a rare earths supply chain in Canada that would help to break the West's heavy reliance on China for this suite of tech elements, Vital Metals Ltd. has turned to Shenghe Resources Holding Co., Ltd. for funding that will allow the Australia-based REE mining company to move forward with its plans for a larger mine at its...
Liquid metal again displays an almost magical ability to become a catalyst for lowering CO2 in the atmosphere A liquid metal with semiconductor properties that make it an essential ingredient in next-generation smartphones, telecommunication networks, and solar technologies, gallium already lives at the edge of science fiction and science reality. Working at this threshold, Australian scientists are demonstrating that gallium may also be a major catalyst for the green energy f...
Following gallium, germanium curbs, China announces plan to restrict its exports of critical lithium-ion battery material on Dec 1. Three months into its restrictions on exports of the critical computer chipmaking metals gallium and germanium, China announced that it will also be limiting global shipments of graphite, the largest single ingredient in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. On Oct. 20, China's Ministry of Commerce posted notices that the exports of nine...
Inching closer to the completion of North America's first battery-grade cobalt sulfate refinery, Electra Battery Materials Corp. issued an update for potential stakeholders as it seeks to secure additional funding to complete this much-needed link in a future EV battery supply chain. Starting out the month with an announcement that it would continue its black mass recycling operations following an extremely successful trial that saw roughly 40 metric tons of black mass...
The minerals commodities industry may be worth trillions, but it has lost billions in less than a decade to fraud perpetrated by industry insiders due to roughly half of the world's mining companies and their warehousing networks still relying on paper documents. This industrial blind spot has been made public by a series of news reports of fraud in metals trading, with the latest incidents having revealed devastating inadequacies in the records and storage systems of...
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 foo...
Delegates agree on six actions to strengthen and diversify critical energy mineral supply chains. The rapid transition away from the fossil fuels that powered the world through the 20th century and toward lower-carbon sources such as wind and solar is creating enormous new demands for critical minerals and metals like cobalt, copper, lithium, and nickel. This interdependency was highlighted during the first-ever International Energy Agency Critical Minerals and Clean Energy...
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...
Seeking to curb the United States' heavy dependence on imports for critical minerals, the U.S. Department of Energy is investing $150 million to support the domestic production of these mined materials essential to clean energy, high-tech manufacturing, and the nation's general economic well-being. "The investments announced today enhance national security by reducing our reliance on foreign sources-while strengthening an existing mining and energy workforce to develop...
The United States has rich deposits of copper, cobalt, graphite, lithium, nickel, rare earths, and other mined commodities needed to build the clean energy future. The often decade-long mine permitting timeline in the U.S., however, means that many of these domestic critical mineral sources will be hard-pressed to get developed in time to help meet the climate goals laid out by the White House. This extraordinarily long federal permitting process for large projects has global...
Everyone agrees that historically enormous quantities of copper are essential to wiring a world in which low-carbon electricity delivered via powerlines supplants fossil fuels pumped through pipelines as the energy solution of choice. The federal entity charged with compiling the list of minerals critical to the United States, however, disagrees with nearly every company, organization, and person associated with the clean energy supply chain on the criticality of the...
