The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Ames Lab scientists confirm the first ever unconventional superconductor found in nature. Scientists at the Ames National Laboratory in Iowa have made a world's first discovery – a naturally occurring mineral with superconducting properties similar to the high-temperature superconductors that could revolutionize energy, transportation, and electronics. Superconductive materials can conduct electricity without energy loss. Scientists have already created superconductors in the...
This week, Norway's parliament, with cross-party support, voted 80 to 20 in favor of opening roughly 108,000 square miles of Arctic seabed to mineral exploration and potential mining between Norway and Greenland near the Svalbard archipelago. Energy transition minerals cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, and manganese can all be found in greater quantities than in our terrestrial mines as potato-sized nodules scattered across the abyssal depths of the seafloor. These accretions are...
Graphite One will utilize DPA Title III funds to finalize a feasibility study to develop a mine at Graphite Creek deposit in Alaska. To accelerate the development of a domestic supply chain for the enormous quantities of graphite needed in the lithium batteries for electric vehicles and renewable energy storage, the U.S. Department of Defense has awarded Graphite One Inc. $37.5 million to help complete a feasibility study for an advanced graphite material supply chain that wil...
Powering a remote zinc mine located roughly 600 miles northwest of Anchorage, Alaska, is a Herculean task. Governments and industry have taken a particular interest in remote arctic mining locations, not only because of the region's vast mineral resources but also because of shipping routes that are opening through the ice due to climate change. Still, getting energy to those locations is extremely difficult. First, a tanker must transport diesel fuel to a port on the Arctic...
Colorado School of Mines thesis confirms that the germanium values in Alaska deposit have long been underreported. In addition to hosting 6.3 billion pounds of copper and 88 million lb of cobalt critical to the energy transition, the Bornite deposit in Alaska's Ambler Mining District may also be a significant source of the germanium essential to both clean energy and high-tech. "Germanium is an important metal with numerous applications, particularly in the manufacture of...
Every electric vehicle rolling off an assembly line increases the demand for graphite by an average of around 160 pounds. With more than 30 million EVs expected to hit global highways each year by 2030 and upwards of 45 million by 2045, the transition to e-mobility will require up to eight times more graphite than was mined globally during 2022. While graphite has not received the attention of other EV battery ingredients such as cobalt, lithium, and nickel, this highly...
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...
Interoperability is key to company's vision of a fully automated mine; works with Toyota to sync light trucks into future mines. From the Arctic regions of northern Sweden to the Andes Mountains in Chile and hot desert climates of Western Australia, 650 mining trucks equipped with Komatsu Ltd.'s FrontRunner autonomous haulage system have transported more than 6.2 billion metric tons of material at 22 mine sites in five countries. Self-driving haul trucks, however, are just...
The challenge of reducing emissions from the mining industry as a whole is ongoing and especially vital for the metals needed in renewable power and de-carbonized transportation. Taking center stage in this push, the electric vehicle space is being tasked to evaluate the overall environmental impact of EV battery life cycles. Scalable solutions are needed by 2030 for the anticipated first wave of batteries soon reaching end-of-life to keep them out of the toxic waste stream....
Tungsten could be held ransom unless domestic mines open Tungsten, or wolfram, is the 74th element on the periodic table of elements and, like many other metals that have found their way onto critical mineral lists in Canada, Europe, and the United States, this sturdy metal is vulnerable to supply disruption. Tungsten has been known since prehistoric times, and as far back as 350 years ago, Chinese porcelain makers were using this element as a pigment to incorporate a unique...
Powering its ambition to become a fully electric automaker by 2030, Volvo Cars has teamed up with Northvolt to build a 50-gigawatt-hour-per-year battery gigafactory in Gothenburg, Sweden. "Our battery cell partnership with Northvolt is key to our strategic ambitions in electrification," said Volvo Cars Chief Executive Håkan Samuelsson. "We are committed to becoming a leader in the premium electric car segment and selling only pure electric vehicles by 2030." Toward this commit...
Sweden-based Kaunis Iron, in collaboration with Vattenfall, Volvo Trucks, ABB and Wist Last & Buss have come together for a unique pilot project to develop a sustainable logistics system, free from fossil fuels. Managing one of the largest iron mines in Sweden, Kaunis Iron has a vision of being the world's most sustainable supplier of iron ore. One of the highest hurdles to achieving this objective is reducing the carbon dioxide emissions from the heavy equipment transporting...
COSM Advanced Manufacturing Systems is in the final stages of developing and building electron beam 3D metal printing systems that will allow space robots to print parts in the vacuum of space, as well as future lunar and Martian outposts. "Producing large metal parts autonomously to verifiable specifications and quality in-space will be an enabling part of man's permanent presence on the Moon and further missions to Mars," said COSM Advanced Manufacturing Systems President...
Canada-based VanadiumCorp Resource Inc. is working with researchers in Germany and Australia to develop a vanadium bromide electrolyte that could contribute to a vanadium redox flow battery with enough energy density it could be used to power heavy-duty vehicles such as ships and trains. Vanadium redox flow batteries hold several advantages in terms of lifespan and scalability that has them competing with lithium-ion batteries for grid-scale energy storage but are at a...
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...
Many workers at the Gahcho Kué diamond mine in Canada's Northwest Territories would have never imagined that they would be working alongside a robot dog. Yet, the distinctive steady rhythm produced as the four-legged Boston Dynamics Spot robot makes its rounds is now becoming routine at the arctic operation. "Most express amazement that walking robots in the workplace are now a reality, even though they may have envisioned it as a child," De Beers Group penned in a news releas...
Extremely hard and with the highest melting point of all the metals, tungsten's toughness is legendary. Like many of the other metals that have found their way onto critical mineral lists in Canada, Europe, and the United States, this durable metal is vulnerable to Chinese control. "World tungsten supply was dominated by production in China and exports from China," the U.S. Geological Survey inked in its 2021 mineral commodities report. It is estimated that mines in China...
