Mining News

June 17, 2025

Top Headlines

Earth's Core Mystery Solved: How Solid Rock Flows 3,000 Kilometers Beneath Us

June 8, 2025 — Beneath Earth s surface, nearly 3,000 kilometers down, lies a mysterious layer where seismic waves speed up inexplicably. For decades, scientists puzzled over this D' layer. Now, groundbreaking ...

A Cheap and Easy Potential Solution for Lowering Carbon Emissions in Maritime Shipping

May 29, 2025 — Reducing travel speeds and using an intelligent queuing system at busy ports can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from oceangoing container vessels by 16-24%, according to researchers. Not only ...

EV Battery Recycling Key to Future Lithium Supplies

May 29, 2025 — Lightweight, powerful lithium-ion batteries are crucial for the transition to electric vehicles, and global demand for lithium is set to grow rapidly over the next 25 years. A new analysis looks at how new mining operations and battery recycling ...

The Ocean Seems to Be Getting Darker

May 27, 2025 — Scientists, who have spent more than a decade examining the impact of artificial light at night on the world's coasts and oceans, have shown that more than one-fifth of the global ocean -- an area spanning more than 75 million sq km -- has been the ...

Ox-Eye Daisy, Bellis and Yarrow: Flower Strips With at Least Two Sown Species Provide 70 Percent More Natural Enemies of Pests

May 26, 2025 — Planting flower strips in a field with at least two species can increase the number of natural enemies of pests by 70 percent. The more flower species, the better the effect, according to a new ...

A New Approach Could Fractionate Crude Oil Using Much Less Energy

May 22, 2025 — Engineers developed a membrane that filters the components of crude oil by their molecular size, an advance that could dramatically reduce the amount of energy needed for crude oil ...

Tapping Into the World's Largest Gold Reserves

May 22, 2025 — Earth's largest gold reserves are not kept inside Fort Knox, the United States Bullion Depository. In fact, they are hidden much deeper in the ground than one would expect. More than 99.999% of Earth's stores of gold and other precious metals lie ...

Heat-Tolerant Symbionts a Critical Key to Protecting Florida's Elkhorn Coral from Bleaching During Marine Heatwaves

May 16, 2025 — A new study reveals that heat-tolerant symbiotic algae may be essential to saving elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) -- a foundational species in Caribbean reef ecosystems -- from the devastating ...

Scientists Use Fossils to Assess the Health of Florida's Largest Remaining Seagrass Bed: Surprisingly, It's Doing Well!

May 16, 2025 — A new study shows that seagrass ecosystems along the northern half of Florida's Gulf Coast have remained relatively healthy and undisturbed for the last several thousand ...

Metals and Hormone-Disrupting Substances Pose Real Threat to Sustainable Agriculture and Water Management in Europe

May 9, 2025 — Metals and hormone-disrupting substances such as estrogens present a genuine risk to the sustainability of agriculture and water management in Europe. This research provides new insights into the ...

Bacterium Produces 'Organic Dishwashing Liquid' to Degrade Oil

May 9, 2025 — The marine bacterium Alcanivorax borkumensis feeds on oil, multiplying rapidly in the wake of oil spills, and thereby accelerating the elimination of the pollution, in many cases. It does this by producing an 'organic dishwashing liquid' which it ...

Study of Türkiye Gold Mine Landslide Highlights Need for Future Monitoring

May 8, 2025 — A new analysis of a fatal landslide that occurred on 13 February 2024 at the pler Gold Mine in Turkiye reveals that the site of the landslide had been slowly moving for at least four years prior to the ...

Latest Headlines

updated 3:10am EDT

Database Reveals Vital Ocean Links to Aid Conservation

May 8, 2025 — Scientists have launched an interactive global map to show the migratory patterns of more than 100 marine species in an effort to protect at-risk ...

Cracking the Code: Deciphering How Concrete Can Heal Itself

May 7, 2025 — Lichen is an understated presence in our everyday world, often found clinging to trees and rocks. Its true beauty lies in its unique symbiotic system of fungi and algae, or cyanobacteria, that form a ...

Breakthrough in Fuel Cell Recycling Turns 'Forever Chemicals' Into Renewable Resources

May 6, 2025 — A new technique that uses soundwaves to separate materials for recycling could help prevent potentially harmful chemicals leaching into the ...

Are at-Home Water Tests Worth It? New Study Shows Quality Can Vary Widely

May 5, 2025 — For the cautious -- or simply curious -- homeowner, an at-home water testing kit may seem reassuring. But there are high levels of variability between test kits' abilities to detect potential ...

Extreme Monsoon Changes Threaten the Bay of Bengal's Role as a Critical Food Source

May 4, 2025 — New research has revealed that expected, extreme changes in India's summer monsoon could drastically hamper the Bay of Bengal's ability to support a ...

Juvenile Salmon Roam Between Salt and Fresh Water While Exploring Coast and Rivers, New Research Finds

May 2, 2025 — The well-known salmon life cycle has long been described as going only one way at a time. Juvenile salmon hatch and swim down rivers to the ocean, ...

Lava Flow Jigsaw Puzzle Reveals the Secrets of Shifting Continents

May 1, 2025 — Analysing lava flows that solidified and then broke apart over a massive crack in the Earth's crust in Turkey has brought new insights into how continents move over time, improving our understanding ...

Oil Cleanup Agents Do Not Impede Natural Biodegradation

Apr. 22, 2025 — Biodegradation is an important natural process during oil spill cleanup. A new study revealed that using spill treating agents does not negatively impact naturally occurring ...

From Research to Real-World, Startup Tackles Soaring Demand for Lithium and Other Critical Minerals

Apr. 21, 2025 — Based on fundamental research, a new startup is upending decades-old approaches for the way the world extracts lithium and other ...

What If Mother Earth Could Sue for Mistreatment?

Apr. 21, 2025 — The study highlights the transformative potential of the Rights of Nature, which views nature as a rights-bearing entity, not merely an object of regulation and subjugation by extractive industries. ...

Growing Wildflowers on Disused Urban Land Can Damage Bee Health

Apr. 15, 2025 — Wildflowers growing on land previously used for buildings and factories can accumulate lead, arsenic and other metal contaminants from the soil, which are consumed by pollinators as they feed, a new ...

Colombia's Peatlands Could Be a Crucial Tool to Fight Climate Change: But First We Have to Find Them

Apr. 15, 2025 — Researchers conducted three years of extensive fieldwork to develop the first data-driven map of both newly documented and predicted peatlands across Colombia's eastern ...

Fishing for Cephalopod DNA Allows for Efficient Marine Surveying

Apr. 14, 2025 — New DNA probes allow for efficient surveying of the hidden lives of squids and octopuses in the deep sea. This development provides an effective tool for marine ecological research and conservation ...

Deep-Sea Mining Risks Leads Study to Urge Shift to Circular Solutions

Apr. 14, 2025 — Deep sea mining operations are expected to increase the negative impact on environmental indicators by up to 13 per cent, a change categorized as having 'great' significance, relative to ...

Missing Nitrogen: A Dramatic Game of Cosmic Hide-and-Seek Deep Within Our Planet

Apr. 11, 2025 — Earth's rocky layers are mysteriously low in nitrogen compared with carbon and argon. A scientific team explored our planet's molten youth using advanced quantum mechanical simulations, ...

Global EV Adoption Fails to Cut CO2

Apr. 10, 2025 — The transition to electric vehicles won't reduce carbon emissions unless countries clean up their electricity ...

New Study on Natural Oil Seeps in the Deep Sea

Apr. 10, 2025 — What is the role of dissolved organic matter in the deep sea? In a study relating to this question, researchers have investigated the composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in detail. Their ...

Tree Rings Track Atmospheric Mercury Cheaply

Apr. 9, 2025 — Wild fig tree rings offer a cheap method for tracking toxic atmospheric mercury, a byproduct of gold mining in the Global South, according to a new ...

Mapping Mercury Contamination in Penguins of the Southern Ocean

Apr. 9, 2025 — In 1962, when environmentalist and author Rachel Carson penned 'Silent Spring,' alerting the world to the dangers of the pesticide DDT, it was the reproductive threat to birds -- the bald ...

Decarbonization Improves Energy Security for Most Countries

Apr. 9, 2025 — Researchers analyzed trade-related risks to energy security across 1,092 scenarios for cutting carbon emissions by 2060. They found that swapping out dependence on imported fossil fuels for increased ...

Serendipitous Discovery Could Lead to More Efficient Catalysts

Apr. 9, 2025 — Preparing catalysts by sending hot, steamy car exhaust over them could improve their efficiency and reduce the amount of rare and expensive metals required in vehicle catalytic converters and many ...

Rocky Mountain Snow Is Contaminated, Study Shows

Apr. 1, 2025 — Mountain snowpacks accumulate snow throughout the winter, building up stores of water that will supply communities across the American West throughout the long dry season. Now, a new study shows that ...

Surprising Number of Environmental Pollutants in Hedgehogs

Apr. 1, 2025 — Lead, pesticides, brominated flame retardants, plastic additives, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and heavy metals. This is what researchers found when they collected dead hedgehogs to investigate ...

We Know Nanoplastics Are a Threat -- This New Tool Can Help Us Figure out Just How Bad They Are

Apr. 1, 2025 — While the threat that microplastics pose to human and ecological health has been richly documented and is well known, nanoplastics, which are smaller than one micrometer (1/50th the thickness of an ...

Scientists Pioneer Method to Tackle 'Forever Chemicals'

Mar. 31, 2025 — Researchers have developed an innovative solution to a pressing environmental challenge: removing and destroying per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly called 'forever ...

Technology Makes Pesticides Stick to Plant Leaves

Mar. 25, 2025 — Technology makes pesticides stick to plant leaves. With the system, farmers could significantly cut their use of pesticides and fertilizers, saving money and reducing ...

3D Nanotech Blankets Offer New Path to Clean Drinking Water

Mar. 24, 2025 — Researchers have developed a new material that, by harnessing the power of sunlight, can clear water of dangerous ...

EPA Regulations Cut Power Sector Emissions but Miss Opportunities for Deeper Reductions

Mar. 19, 2025 — Regulations finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2024 could cut emissions from the power sector by 51% over 2022 levels, compared to only 26% without the rules, according to a new ...

Red Coral Colonies Survive a Decade After Being Transplanted in the Medes Islands

Mar. 18, 2025 — The red coral colonies that were transplanted a decade ago on the seabed of the Medes Islands have survived successfully. They are very similar to the original communities and have contributed to the ...

Reusing Old Oil and Gas Wells May Offer Green Energy Storage Solution

Mar. 18, 2025 — Moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources like wind and solar will require better ways to store energy for use when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing. A new study by ...