Florence Copper launches 1st new U.S. major copper operation in 20 years in Arizona

Good news! A renaissance of mining in the US!

"Florence Copper marked an historic moment as the company officially launched commercial production at its Florence facility on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

The move is the first new U.S. major copper operation in nearly 20 years and the world’s first commercial‑scale in‑situ copper recovery project. 

For Arizona, a state built on the “Five Cs” — copper, cattle, cotton, citrus and climate — the milestone signals both a technological leap forward and a reaffirmation of copper’s place in the region’s economic identity.

An in-situ copper recovery (ISCR) or in-situ leaching (ISR) project extracts copper directly from underground ore deposits without open-pit mining, underground tunnels, blasting, rock crushing, waste rock piles or traditional tailing impoundments. ...."

Florence Copper launches 1st new U.S. major copper operation in 20 years

Florence Copper launches 1st new U.S. major copper operation in 20 years

A company intends to mine uranium from the oceans

Good news!

"... The ocean has over 4 billion metric tons of uranium in it, enough for 50,000 years or so. ...

Fluxnium’s technology uses specially made polymer fibers that attract the uranium that’s dissolved in seawater. The company licensed the chemistry from the Department of Energy, and it has continued to work on the production and configuration of the fibers themselves.

The key has been to increase the surface area of the fibers, ... When the technology was demonstrated at a national lab, it could extract uranium at more than $200 per pound, which is more than twice the price of Western suppliers today. But by increasing the surface area, Fluxnium has been able to draw more uranium out of the water, bringing costs down. ..."

Clean tech startup Fluxnium found a way to tap 50,000 years' worth of nuclear fuel | TechCrunch

Bedrock Robotics' first operator-free retrofitted excavator deployments take off at job sites

Good news!

"Bedrock Robotics Inc. has deployed fully autonomous, retrofitted heavy excavators onto active infrastructure projects in Texas and Nevada. These AI-driven heavy equipment projects directly address the construction industry’s severe labor shortages, safety hazards, and cost overruns. ..."

"... The excavators use Bedrock’s Operator system, which retrofits existing fleets with a sophisticated sensor and compute suite to perform excavation without onboard operators, according to the company. ..."

Bedrock Robotics' first operator-free excavator deployments take off - The Robot Report

Bedrock Robotics deploys fully autonomous excavators on jobsites "The company said its retrofit tech, which digs without an operator, is now active on infrastructure projects for firms such as Sundt Construction and Zachry Construction."

Milei's Latest Gamble to Save Argentina's Economy by opening up Argentina to mining and more federalism

Recommendable! Is it a gamble? I don't think so! It makes a lot of business sense!

The video points out e.g. that neighboring Chile has a lot more mining activity than Argentina although Argentina has plenty of natural resources as well to be mined.

Will It Work? Milei's Latest Gamble to Save Argentina's Economy | VisualPolitik EN - YouTube

Copper is new king for Australia's BHP as profit jumps 30%

Headline of the day! Good news!

Copper is new king for Australia's BHP as profit jumps 30% - Nikkei Asia "Red metal overtakes iron ore in full-year earnings of world's largest listed miner"

BHP has copper smelting and refining operations at Olympic Dam in South Australia, where it mines significant deposits of the red metal, as well as uranium. 

China Hunts For Rare Earths In Iran

Serious stuff! When China gets into bed with a rogue state!

(241) Xi's China Hunts For Rare Earths In China | Vantage on Firstpost | 4K - YouTube

US Geological Survey recently estimated that there are over 2 million metric tons of undiscovered, economically recoverable lithium in the Appalachian Mountains

Good news!

"The United States Geological Survey recently estimated that there are over 2 million metric tons of undiscovered, economically recoverable lithium in the Appalachian Mountains, enough to supply the country for centuries at current levels of consumption."

"“The southern Appalachians hold an estimated 1.43 million metric tons of lithium oxide, concentrated in the Carolinas, and

the northern Appalachians hold an estimated 900,000 metric tons, concentrated in Maine and New Hampshire, according to estimates in a new USGS scientific paper published in Natural Resources Research. The lithium is present in pegmatites, large-grained rocks similar to granite. ..."

Doomslayer: Progress Roundup - by Malcolm Cochran

Lithium in Eastern States Could Replace Imports for a Century

https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/lithium-eastern-states-could-replace-imports-a-century-or-more

Trump launches 10 BILLION dollar minerals reserve to counter China with Maria Bartiromo

Recommendable!

Interview with Export-Import Bank of the United States president and chairman John Jovanovic.

(255) CHINA COMPETITION: Trump launches 10 BILLION dollar minerals reserve to counter China - YouTube

Alkali Treatment Implications for Microwave-Assisted Rare Earth Elements Extraction from Coal Mine Tailings

Good news! Rare earth elements are not rare!

"... discovered a new way to extract rare earth elements out of coal tailings, the cast-off soil and rock left behind by coal mining. Using a chemical treatment and a specially designed microwave reactor to control the temperature, the researchers have doubled the extraction levels previously possible. ..."

"... Pennsylvania alone, where the tailings for their experiment were harvested, contains an estimated 2 billion tons of coal tailings, according to their paper. ..."

From the abstract:

"Coal tailings represent a promising secondary resource of rare earth elements (REEs), yet efficient extraction is limited by their complex mineralogy. This study investigated the impact of alkali pretreatment on aluminosilicate structures in coal tailings and its implications for REE extraction via acid digestion. Precombustion coal refuse was treated with 5 M NaOH at varying solid-to-liquid (S/L) ratios (5, 50 g/L) and reaction times (5, 15 min), including a multistep (five-cycle) treatment under microwave conditions. At 180 °C, XRD, 29Si NMR, and thermodynamic modeling showed kaolinite transformed to hydrosodalite at high S/L ratios, while kaolinite completely dissolved at low S/L ratios.

Quartz maintained crystallinity but slowly transformed to amorphous silica during prolonged alkaline treatment. Compared to untreated tailings, light REE extraction was enhanced by a factor of ∼3 when kaolinite dissolved and by ∼2 when it converted to hydrosodalite; heavy REE extraction increased by ∼2 and ∼1.5, respectively.

Extending pretreatment time produced minimal additional enhancement, indicating that under microwave conditions, kaolinite concentration in alkaline solutions and hydrosodalite solubility in acidic solutions are the primary factors controlling REE release. Alkali pretreatment also promoted uranium removal prior to acid digestion, while REE extraction correlated strongly with Mg, Ca, Fe, and Ti release."

Scientific Breakthrough Could Double Rare Earth Elements Extraction : ScienceAlert

Rare earth element extraction can be doubled with this new technique (original news release) "New Northeastern research has identified a method of extracting rare earth elements from the mining waste product that is two to three times more efficient than previous approaches."

Alkali Treatment Implications for Microwave-Assisted Rare Earth Elements Extraction from Coal Mine Tailings (open access)

Graphical abstract

US mining comes back after DECADES of dependence, example graphite mining in New York state with Maria Bartiromo

Good news!

Saudi Discovers Massive Gold Reserves

Good news! Rare earth minerals too!

How rare-earth mining in Texas could help US break ties with China

Good news! Round top! Maybe one of the largest deposits in the world!

Jaw-Dropping $1.5 Trillion Lithium Find at the Oregon-Nevada border

Good news! However, these news were already reported back 9 months ago or even 2 years ago.

Grr, I don't particularly like it when news is regurgitated like this without proper credits or checks! Shoddy/sloppy journalism!

"A newly confirmed, high-grade lithium deposit valued at approximately $1.5 trillion has been discovered along the Oregon-Nevada border, potentially a massive domestic source for electric-vehicle batteries and grid storage."

"... Core samples point to lithium hosted in zinnwaldite, a mica‑type mineral that can be processed with more targeted techniques than many clay‑rich deposits. The surrounding formation appears to be the weathered remnant of a caldera, where volcanic fluids circulated and left behind concentrated veins over geologic time. ..."

Jaw-Dropping $1.5 Trillion Lithium Find in an Unlikely U.S. Location - PlusNews

Credits: The Flyover

Alaska’s new antimony mining rush

Good news!

"Until recently, antimony, which is often found in gold mines, was treated as detritus by gold miners. But that began changing last year, when China put in place heavy restrictions on exports of the element. That has led to prices quadrupling from two years ago, squeezing defense companies, which use antimony to harden bullets and strengthen armor-penetrating projectiles. Now, miners are dusting off sites that last produced antimony during the 20th century."

The Wall Street Journal What's news

A stibnite specimen is shown. Stibnite is the predominant ore mineral of antimony, according to the United States Geological Survey. (Source)

Illegal Gold Mining, Mercury in the Amazon and children with neurological disorders

There is one well known remedy to illegal mining of precious metals! Make it legal and thereby more safe and protect the environment!

According to Google: "Roughly half of the Amazon is covered by some form of management and protection, including protected areas and indigenous territories."

Notice that the report does not say whether indigenous people themselves are involved in some of the illegal gold mining. If yes, maybe they should be educated or trained to do it safely. The noble savage myth and/or all indigenous people are victims propaganda?

"Brazilian researchers are finding mounting proof that mercury from illegal Amazon gold mining is linked to neurological disorders and disabilities among Indigenous children. 

 

Background: As illegal mining has proliferated in the region, rivers—key to the livelihoods of Indigenous people—have become contaminated with mercury, as have the fish eaten as staple food.  

 

Emerging evidence: In recent years, health officials have reported dozens of patients in the region—mostly children—with neurological disorders.  

While scientists have long suspected mercury as the culprit, a groundbreaking study tracking 176 pregnant women and their babies aims to find more definitive answers. 

Already, preliminary findings show that the mothers have mercury levels 5X higher than considered safe."

Global Health NOW: Gold Mining, Mercury, and the Amazon’s Mothers; and Dispatches from Bogotà: ICFP 2025

Scientists Try to Prove Link Between Amazon Gold Mining and Disabilities in Babies

Membrane extracts lithium with precise selectivity and minimal environmental impact

Good news!

"A new membrane marks an important step toward more efficient extraction of lithium which is needed for reusable batteries. The design can also be used to extract other essential elements like cobalt and nickel. ...

The membrane developed by the team extracts lithium using considerably less energy, while maintaining higher selectivity. 

The membrane collects lithium through a process called electrodialysis. An electrical current is applied to the brine which pushes lithium ions to pass through the membrane, whilst other elements like sodium, calcium and magnesium get left behind. ...

The team were able to create such an effective membrane by inserting nanoparticles of lithium titanium oxide (LTO) into it. The crystal structure of LTO is the perfect size for lithium ions to move across without allowing for other elements to pass through. ..."

"... the researchers demonstrated near-perfect lithium selectivity by repurposing solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) as membrane materials for aqueous lithium extraction. While originally designed for the rapid conduction of lithium ions in solid-state batteries — where there are no other ions or liquid solvents — the highly ordered and confined structure of SSEs was found to enable unprecedented separation of both ions and water in aqueous mixtures. ..."

From the abstract:

"Precise separation of ions of the same polarity and similar valence and size remains a critical need in resource recovery from waste streams. Here, we report the rational design and scalable fabrication of a thin film nanocomposite (TFN) cation exchange membrane to achieve precise selectivity for lithium over competing cations.

The precise selectivity is realized by an ultrathin polyamide (PA) layer incorporated with amine functionalized β-monoclinic lithium titanium oxide (N-LTO) nanoparticles using a scalable interfacial polymerization process that allows high N-LTO loading while minimizing interfacial defects.

The TFN membrane demonstrates superior Li+ permeability, with Li+/Ca2+ and Li+/Na+ selectivity reaching 173.90 and 13.58, respectively. The Li+/Na+ selectivity is attributed to the Li+-exclusive transport pathway in the layered structure of the N-LTO, while size exclusion by the highly cross-linked N-LTO-PA also contributes to the Li+/Ca2+ selectivity.

Molecular dynamics simulation shows that the electrical field drives Li+ dehydration and accelerates the migration of the dehydrated Li+ while Na+ is blocked due to its larger size than the Li+ cavity. The high Li+ selectivity and permeability enable energy-efficient, precise, and chemical-free lithium extraction using the electrodialysis process. The TFN membrane architecture also allows simple and scalable fabrication of a multi-functional polymer-inorganic nanocomposite membrane."

Membrane extracts lithium with minimal environmental impact

Rice researchers develop efficient lithium extraction method, setting stage for sustainable EV battery supply chains (original news release) "Solid-state electrolyte membranes revolutionize lithium harvesting with near-perfect selectivity"

A rationally designed scalable thin film nanocomposite cation exchange membrane for precise lithium extraction (open access)

Fig. 1: TFN-CEM with high and uniform loading of N-LTO.

US to Take 10% Trilogy Metals (a Canadian company) Stake to Tap Alaska Mining

Good news! When a businessman becomes the president of the US!

Morocco Discovers High-grade Gold Worth Billions of Dollars

Good news!

South Africa’s mining ministry moves to legalize artisanal mining

I suppose, this is good news!

Saskatchewan remains Canada’s most attractive jurisdiction for mining investment

Good news!

It ranks seventh according to the annual global mining survey.

Annual Survey of Mining Companies, 2024 | Fraser Institute