Mining News

December 22, 2024

Top Headlines

A Greener, Cleaner Way to Extract Cobalt from 'Junk' Materials

Dec. 10, 2024 — As the demand for lithium-ion batteries escalates with the proliferation of mobile phone, electric vehicles and even pacemakers, key components in these powerhouses, like cobalt, face significant ethical and environmental concerns related to their ...

Mystery of Uruguay's Amethyst Geodes: New Model to Explain Amethyst Formation

Oct. 2, 2024 — Amethyst is a violet variety of quartz which has been used as a gemstone for many centuries and is a key economic resource in northern Uruguay. Geodes are hollow rock formations often with quartz ...

Metal Exposure Can Increase Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Sep. 18, 2024 — Metal exposure from environmental pollution is associated with increased calcium buildup in the coronary arteries at a level comparable to traditional risk factors, according to a new study. The findings support that metals in the body are ...

How Plant Communities Change When Conquering Uninhabited Ground

Sep. 17, 2024 — Some plants are able to take over uninhabited spaces like sand dunes, volcanic substrates and rockfall areas. The first colonizers have specific traits that allow them to grow in such hostile environments. Other plants lack such traits but will soon ...

Latest Headlines

updated 3:50pm EST

Ripples of Colonialism: Decarbonization Strategies Perpetuate Inequalities in Human Rights

Oct. 25, 2024 — A new study of a city in the Democratic Republic of Congo finds that the necessary process of decarbonization is repeating and recreating colonial ...

Study Shows How Oceans Are Key to Addressing Global Challenges

Sep. 4, 2024 — Research shows how oceans can be used to help address major challenges such as the shortage of antimicrobial medicines, solutions for plastic pollution and novel enzymes for genome ...

Oxygen Produced in the Deep Sea Raises Questions About Extraterrestrial Life

Aug. 26, 2024 — Rocks are generating 'dark oxygen' in an area being explored for deep-sea ...

Environmental Laws Failing to Slow Deforestation

Aug. 20, 2024 — Australia's environmental laws are failing to stop high rates of tree clearing to make way for agriculture, development and ...

Thousands of Birds and Fish Threatened by Mining for Clean Energy Transition, Study Finds

July 26, 2024 — Our increasing demand for metals and minerals is putting over four thousand vertebrate species at risk, with the raw materials needed for clean ...

Researchers Warn of Unprecedented Arsenic Release from Wildfires

July 23, 2024 — The wildfire season of 2023 was the most destructive ever recorded in Canada and a new study suggests the impact was unprecedented. It found that four of the year's wildfires in mine-impacted areas ...

Deep-Ocean Floor Produces Its Own Oxygen

July 22, 2024 — An international team of researchers has discovered that metallic minerals on the deep-ocean floor produce oxygen -- 13,000 feet below the surface. Discovery challenges long-held assumptions that ...

A Breakthrough in Inexpensive, Clean, Fast-Charging Batteries

July 3, 2024 — Scientists have created an anode-free sodium solid-state battery. This brings the reality of inexpensive, fast-charging, high-capacity batteries for electric vehicles and grid storage closer than ...

Near Chromosome-Level Genome of the Mojave Poppy Bee

July 2, 2024 — Scientists have developed a near chromosome-level genome for the Mojave poppy bee, a specialist pollinator of conservation ...

Trout in Mine-Polluted Rivers Are Genetically 'Isolated'

May 30, 2024 — Trout living in rivers polluted by metal from old mines across the British Isles are genetically 'isolated' from other trout, new research ...

Despite Progress, China Remains Tethered to Coal as Climate Change Pressures Mount

Oct. 8, 2024 — A new paper details how China faces numerous political, economic and technological obstacles as it tries to transition away from coal while balancing the need to combat climate change with the need ...

Just How Dangerous Is Great Salt Lake Dust? New Research Looks for Clues

Sep. 6, 2024 — Scientists determine sediments from the lake's growing exposed playa have elevated 'oxidative potential,' indicating greater risk to human health compared with sediments from other ...

Can Coal Mines Be Tapped for Rare Earth Elements?

May 20, 2024 — A team of geologists analyzed 3,500 samples taken in and around coal mines in Utah and Colorado. Their findings open the possibility that these mines could see a secondary resource stream in the form ...

Scientists Develop New Geochemical 'Fingerprint' to Trace Contaminants in Fertilizer

May 17, 2024 — An international team of scientists has revealed high levels of toxic metals in global phosphate fertilizers using a isotopic variants of the element strontium as a tracer to uncover metals in soil, ...

Copper Can't Be Mined Fast Enough to Electrify the US

May 15, 2024 — Copper cannot be mined quickly enough to keep up with current U.S. policy guidelines to transition the country's electricity and vehicle infrastructure to renewable energy, according to a new ...

Making Batteries Takes a Lot of Lithium: Some Could Come from Gas Well Wastewater

May 15, 2024 — A new analysis suggests that if it could be extracted with complete efficiency, lithium from the wastewater of Marcellus shale gas wells could supply up to 40% of the country's ...

Final Dust Settles Slowly in the Deep Sea

May 15, 2024 — 'Dust clouds' at the bottom of the deep sea, that will be created by deep-sea mining activities, descend at a short distance for the biggest part. Yet, a small portion of the stirred-up ...

Getting Dirty to Clean Up the Chemical Industry's Environmental Impact

May 9, 2024 — The global chemical industry is a major fossil fuel consumer and climate change contributor; however, new research has identified how the sector could clean up its green credentials by getting ...

Origin of Roman Lead

May 7, 2024 — Three ingots from the site of Los Escoriales de Do a Rama (Belmez) and dating from the Roman era demonstrate the importance of lead production and exportation in northern ...

Critical Minerals Recovery from Electronic Waste

Apr. 23, 2024 — A nontoxic separation process recovers critical minerals from electronic scrap ...

Warming Climate Is Putting More Metals Into Colorado's Mountain Streams

Apr. 23, 2024 — Warming temperatures are causing a steady rise in copper, zinc and sulfate in the waters of Colorado mountain streams affected by acid rock drainage. Concentrations of these metals have roughly ...

For Mining in Arid Regions to Be Responsible, We Must Change How We Think About Water

Apr. 3, 2024 — In an unprecedented study of the South American 'Lithium Triangle,' hydrologists discover that not all water responds the same way to environmental change and human ...

Demand for Critical Minerals Puts African Great Apes at Risk

Apr. 3, 2024 — A recent study shows that the threat of mining to the great ape population in Africa has been greatly ...

Pairing Crypto Mining With Green Hydrogen Offers Clean Energy Boost

Mar. 25, 2024 — Pairing cryptocurrency mining -- notable for its outsize consumption of carbon-based fuel -- with green hydrogen could provide the foundation for wider deployment of renewable energy, such as solar ...

Major Environmental Benefits Recycling Gold With Biodiesel

Mar. 25, 2024 — Researchers have developed an environmentally friendly method for recycling and purifying metals. Using gold earrings from a pawnshop in Gothenburg and biodiesel from the nearest filling station, the ...

Even Inactive Smokers Are Densely Colonized by Microbial Communities

Mar. 15, 2024 — Everything is everywhere -- under certain conditions microbial communities can grow and thrive, even in places that are seemingly uninhabitable. This is the case at inactive hydrothermal vents on the ...

Streams Connected to Groundwater Show Improved Detoxification and Microbial Diversity

Feb. 23, 2024 — Streams with ample connections to shallow groundwater flow-paths have greater microbial diversity and are more effective at preventing toxic forms of metals -- often products of upstream mining -- ...

Potassium Depletion in Soil Threatens Global Crop Yields

Feb. 19, 2024 — Potassium deficiency in agricultural soils is a largely unrecognized but potentially significant threat to global food security if left unaddressed, finds new ...

Coal-Based Product Could Replace Sand in Concrete

Jan. 26, 2024 — A new study found that graphene derived from metallurgical coke, a coal-based product, through flash Joule heating could serve not only as a reinforcing additive in cement but also as a replacement ...

Unexpected Biodiversity on the Ocean Floor

Jan. 25, 2024 — Hydrothermal vents and manganese nodule fields in the deep oceans contain more biodiversity than ...