Taliban push deep into Afghanistan's holdout Panjshir Valley

Issued on: 05/09/2021

The Panjshir Valley is the last major pocket of resistance in Afghanistan against the Taliban 

Ahmad SAHEL ARMAN AFP/File


Kabul (AFP)

Taliban fighters have advanced deep into Afghanistan's holdout Panjshir Valley, with resistance fighters saying they are keeping the Islamists at bay, but analysts warned they are struggling.

Italian aid agency Emergency, which runs a hospital in Panjshir, said Taliban forces had reached the village of Anabah, where they run a surgical centre.

"Many people have fled from local villages in recent days," Emergency said in a statement Saturday, adding it was continuing to provide medical services.

"There has so far been no interference with Emergency's activities," it said.

"We have received a small number of wounded people at the Anabah Surgical Centre."

Anabah lies some 25 kilometres (15 miles) north inside the 115-km-long valley, but unconfirmed reports suggested the Taliban had seized other areas too.

Bill Roggio, managing editor of the US-based Long War Journal, said Sunday that there was still a "fog of war" with unconfirmed reports the Taliban had captured multiple districts -- but that "it looks bad".

Both sides claim to have inflicted heavy losses on each other.

"The Taliban army has been hardened with 20 years of war, and make no mistake, the Taliban trained an army," Roggio tweeted Sunday, adding that "the odds were long" for the Panjshir resistance.

"The Taliban army was injected with a massive amount of weapons and munitions after the US withdrawal and collapse of the ANA" (Afghan National Army), he added.

Fighters in Panjshir held out for a decade against the Soviet military and also the Taliban's first regime from 1996-2001.

Ali Maisam Nazary -- who is not in Panjshir but remains a spokesman for the resistance -- boasted Sunday that the resistance "will never fail".

But former vice-president Amrullah Saleh, who is holed out in Panjshir alongside Ahmad Massoud -- the son of legendary anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud -- warned of a grim situation.

Saleh in a statement spoke of a "large-scale humanitarian crisis", with thousands "displaced by the Taliban onslaught".

Pro-Taliban social media have boasted of capturing swathes of the valley, but Nick Waters from the investigative website Bellingcat said the posts did not include verifiable photographs to back up the claims.

"It will be quite easy to verify a video showing Taliban within the Panjshir valley," Waters said.

The Panjshir Valley, surrounded by jagged snow-capped peaks, offers a natural defensive advantage, with fighters melting away in the face of advancing forces, then launching ambushes firing from the high tops down into the valley.

© 2021 AFP

Afghan resistance group vows to keep fighting Taliban

The head of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan has said his fighters will not give up the battle for the holdout province of Panjshir. Rumors had spread that the region had fallen to the Taliban.



Resistance fighters said Taliban claims of victory in the holdout province of Panjshir are 'propaganda'


The leader of a resistance faction fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan's last holdout province announced Saturday that they would continue fighting.

The statement by the head of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan Ahmad Massoud came in apparent response to unconfirmed reports that Panjshir — north of the capital, Kabul — had fallen to the hard-line Islamists.

The Taliban have also claimed they are on the verge of forming a new government after seizing Kabul on August 15.

What did Ahmad Massoud say?

"We will never give up the fight for God, freedom and justice," Massoud, the leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, wrote on Facebook.

"The fight, like Panjshir, who has stood strong until now and ... shows that people have not given up on their demands and fight for the truth," he added.

"Our people will never get tired of trusting God and will move forward to building a prosperous, free and independent Afghanistan."

Massoud is the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, a major opposition figure against the Taliban's previous regime, who was killed in a suicide bombing just two days before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Has Panjshir fallen to the Taliban?

Sources close to the Taliban claimed Friday that they had seized the Panjshir Valley, but it was not immediately possible to verify the claim.

US public broadcaster NPR cited another National Resistance Front spokesperson, Ali Maisam Nazary, as denying the capture, calling the rumors "propaganda."

The Panjshir Valley "has not been breached," Nazary said from a location in the US. "The Taliban are facing fierce resistance."

Franz Marty, a journalist in Kabul, told DW on Saturday the Taliban had made no official declaration of victory, although there was some celebratory gunfire in Kabul.

"No one has confirmed this officially and resistance leaders have denied it," Marty said. "It's difficult to confirm the situation inside the valley because they have switched off the phone networks, so my contacts are unreachable."

Who is the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan?

The group is an alliance of anti-Taliban fighters loyal to the ousted government run out by the Islamist group nearly three weeks ago.

The faction has de facto control over Panjshir, the only province in Afghanistan that is not under Taliban rule. They are engaged in fierce fighting to retain control of the province.

Afghanistan's TOLO TV cited ousted Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who has claimed the role of acting president, as saying the fighting in recent days had been intense and fighters on both sides had died.

Meanwhile, brief talks to try to find a peaceful solution have failed.

The Taliban has offered Massoud a position within their government, but he has rejected it, according to Fahim Dashti, a spokesman for the resistance organization.

The group is demanding the fair political participation of all ethnic groups as well as the protection of women's rights, freedom of speech and elections.

When will the Taliban announce a new government?

The Taliban are due to form a government within days, perhaps as early as this weekend.

The Islamists face the enormous challenge of shifting gears from insurgents to a governing power of a war-ravaged country that is heavily reliant on international aid.

Qatar's ambassador to Afghanistan said Saturday that Kabul airport was able to be reopened for international assistance, according to Doha-based news channel Al-Jazeera.

Both The Associated Press and Reuters news agencies also reported Saturday that General Faiez Hameed, the head of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency, had visited Kabul to possibly assist the Taliban in reorganizing the Afghan military.

The Taliban have promised an inclusive government that represents Afghanistan's complex ethnic makeup and under a less extreme form of Islam than when they last ruled the country from 1996 to 2001.

Taliban leaders have repeatedly declared they will not carry out revenge attacks on opponents and that women will have access to education and some employment.

But many Afghans are deeply skeptical and fear a rollback of rights gained over the last two decades.

mm, wd/sms (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)

Taliban fire into air, use tear gas to break up Afghan women’s protest in Kabul


Issued on: 05/09/2021 -

Afghan women demonstrate for women's rights in Kabul on September 4, 2021.

 © France 24 screengrab

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Taliban special forces in camouflage fired their weapons into the air Saturday, bringing an abrupt and frightening end to the latest protest march in the capital by Afghan women demanding equal rights from the new rulers.

Also on Saturday, the chief of Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agency, which has an outsized influence on the Taliban, made a surprise visit to Kabul.

Taliban fighters quickly captured most of Afghanistan last month and celebrated the departure of the last U.S. forces after 20 years of war. The insurgent group must now govern a war-ravaged country that is heavily reliant on international aid.

The women's march — the second in as many days in Kabul — began peacefully. Demonstrators laid a wreath outside Afghanistan's Defense Ministry to honor Afghan soldiers who died fighting the Taliban before marching on to the presidential palace.

“We are here to gain human rights in Afghanistan,” said 20-year-old protester Maryam Naiby. “I love my country. I will always be here.”

As the protesters' shouts grew louder, several Taliban officials waded into the crowd to ask what they wanted to say.

Flanked by fellow demonstrators, Sudaba Kabiri, a 24-year-old university student, told her Taliban interlocutor that Islam's Prophet gave women rights and they wanted theirs. The Taliban official promised women would be given their rights but the women, all in their early 20s, were skeptical.

As the demonstrators reached the presidential palace, a dozen Taliban special forces ran into the crowd, firing in the air and sending demonstrators fleeing. Kabiri, who spoke to The Associated Press, said they also fired tear gas.

The Taliban have promised an inclusive government and a more moderate form of Islamic rule than when they last ruled the country from 1996 to 2001. But many Afghans, especially women, are deeply skeptical and fear a roll back of rights gained over the last two decades.

>> Afghan women’s groups eye uncertain future under vague ‘Islamic framework’

For much of the past two weeks, Taliban officials have been holding meetings among themselves, amid reports of differences among them emerging. Early on Saturday, neighboring Pakistan's powerful intelligence chief Gen. Faiez Hameed made a surprise visit to Kabul. It wasn’t immediately clear what he had to say to the Taliban leadership but the Pakistani intelligence service has a strong influence on the Taliban.

The Taliban leadership had its headquarters in Pakistan and were often said to be in direct contact with the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency. Although Pakistan routinely denied providing the Taliban military aid, the accusation was often made by the Afghan government and Washington.

Faiez' visit comes as the world waits to see what kind of government the Taliban will eventually announce, seeking one that is inclusive and ensures protection of women's rights and the country's minorities.

The Taliban have promised a broad-based government and have held talks with former president Hamid Karzai and the former government's negotiation chief Abdullah Abdullah. But the makeup of the new government is uncertain and it was unclear whether hard-line ideologues among the Taliban will win the day — and whether the rollbacks feared by the demonstrating women will occur.

‘It is a woman’s country too’

Taliban members whitewashed murals Saturday that promoted health care, warned of the dangers of HIV and even paid homage to some of Afghanistan’s iconic foreign contributors, like anthropologist Nancy Dupree, who singlehandedly chronicled Afghanistan’s rich cultural legacy. It was a worrying sign of attempts to erase reminders of the past 20 years.

The murals were replaced with slogans congratulating Afghans on their victory.

A Taliban cultural commission spokesman, Ahmadullah Muttaqi, tweeted that the murals were painted over “because they are against our values. They were spoiling the minds of the mujahedeen and instead we wrote slogans that will be useful to everyone.”

Meanwhile, the young women demonstrators said they have had to defy worried families to press ahead with their protests, even sneaking out of their homes to take their demands for equal rights to the new rulers.

Farhat Popalzai, another 24-year-old university student, said she wanted to be the voice of Afghanistan's voiceless women, those too afraid to come out on the street.

“I am the voice of the women who are unable to speak.” she said. “They think this is a man's country but it is not, it is a woman's country too.”

Popalzai and her fellow demonstrators are too young to remember the Taliban rule that ended in 2001 with the U.S.-led invasion. The say their fear is based on the stories they have heard of women not being allowed to go to school and work.

Naiby, the 20-year-old, has already operated a women's organization and is a spokesperson for Afghanistan's Paralympics. She reflected on the tens of thousands of Afghans who rushed to Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport to escape Afghanistan after the Taliban overran the capital on Aug. 15.

"They were afraid," but for her she said, the fight is in Afghanistan.

(AP)

 

Wild cockatoos observed making and using tools to eat sea mango pits

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A team of researchers from the University of Vienna working with a colleague at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences has observed wild Goffin's cockatoos making and using tools to crack open and eat sea mangos—the first-ever example of a wild non-primate making and using a set of tools. They've published their observations in the journal Current Biology.

To learn more about wild cockatoos, the researchers captured multiple wild specimens and placed them in a temporary aviary on one of Indonesia's islands. This allowed them to study the birds in the wild without having to venture into the jungle. As part of their observation process, they offered their captured birds sea mangos, a fruit that is toxic to humans. The birds are the only known creatures that eat sea mangos, and notably, also crack open its hard pit and eat the pulpy material inside.

As they observed the birds, several of the older members of the group grabbed a sea mango and flew up into a tree with it. Then, the birds used their tongues and beaks to break off strips of wood from tree branches and then to fashion them into tools. The researchers found that the birds actually made three different types of tools, each with a different purpose.

One strip was sharpened and then used like a knife to cut open the pit covering. Another was formed into a wedge—the bird would drive it into a natural crack in a pit, forcing it to widen. Next, the bird would craft a spoon-shaped tool which it used, quite naturally, to dig out the pulpy material inside and then to drop its contents into its mouth. After watching the birds in action, the researchers collected several of the discarded tools and brought them into their lab for study

First observation of tool use. Credit: Current Biology (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.009

The researchers noted also that only the older members of the group created and used the tools—the younger members ate the fruit without cracking open the pit. This, the researchers suggest, indicates that tool-making in wild cockatoos is a behavior learned from other, presumably older, cockatoos. The team also witnessed another cockatoo in a tree near the aviary pushing a twig against a sea mango, apparently attempting to mimic the older birds in the aviary. They also found discarded tools when they scanned the ground beneath wild birds in the jungle.

Manufacture of three tool types and tool use behavior. Credit: Current Biology (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.009

Differences in manufacture by splitting and severing. Credit: Current Biology (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.009

Goffin's cockatoos can create and manipulate novel tools

\More information: Mark O'Hara et al, Wild Goffin's cockatoos flexibly manufacture and use tool sets, Current Biology (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.009\

Journal information: Current Biology 

© 2021 Science X Network

 

Examining the link between body image and income

by Lucie Rutherford, University of Virginia

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

What started as a casual dinner conversation between two very different researchers in 2016—one a data scientist and engineer, the other an expert in economic models—has since turned into a journal article quantifying the effects of the "beauty premium," the notion that those who are more physically attractive tend to have a greater income.

The research team's engineer is Stephen Baek, an associate professor of data science at the University of Virginia, while the econometrician is Suyong Song, an associate professor of economics and finance at the University of Iowa. Five years ago, the two found that their research interests overlapped more than they initially realized, causing an unexpected idea to spark.

Baek began his collaboration with Song as a researcher at Iowa before joining the UVA School of Data Science faculty in August 2021. In his previous work, Baek analyzed and modeled human body shapes for engineering applications such as product design, virtual fashion, garment design and ergonomics. Song, on the other hand, brought expertise studying economic models that suffer from measurement and reporting error.

Compared to previous publications on the beauty premium, Baek and Song's research methods are novel, due to the nature of their data set, sourced from the 2002 Civilian American and European Surface Anthropometry Resource project, or CAESAR. In addition to self-reported height and weight measures—which have been used in previous studies—the project also gathered 3D body-scanned data, extensive information on demographic and family income, as well as tape-measure and caliper body measurements from nearly 2,400 civilians. With this data, the two researchers could provide a richer story of physical appearance and socio-economic variables.

"The issue with previous works was that people were oversimplifying the parameters to describe body shape," Baek said. "The traditional processes for determining physical appearance, such as stature, weight and BMI, are imperfect processes, and therefore not capable of capturing all the dimensions of human body shape."

Using a novel machine-learning algorithm called a "graphical autoencoder" or "deep machine learning," the 3D scans were inputted to encode geometric features of human body shape. After the machine was introduced to thousands of individual scans, the algorithm reduced the data's dimensionality—from a few hundreds of thousands of points down to a few important features –characterizing each human body shape using numerical values. Baek and Song then visualized the features to determine which body parts the algorithm was referencing and estimated their relations with socio-economic variables. Using this scientific approach, the causal effects of physical appearance could be quantified

For male and female subsamples, stature and obesity were both important features, while hip-to-waist ratio was an additional unique feature in the physical appearance of women. The empirical results found that greater stature in males was correlated to higher family income, while greater obesity in women was correlated to lower family income.

In addition to their findings regarding the beauty premium, Song's expertise in economic models added another layer to their findings: the negative role that survey and measurement error play in studies utilizing body measurements. According to his calculations—made possible by the fact that the 2002 data also included self-reported body measurements—Song found that reporting error highly correlated with true weight and height. On average, lighter-weight individuals tended to over-report their weight, whereas heavier individuals tended to under-report. The findings proved that survey errors regarding these measurements are substantial, and that previous studies utilizing self-reported survey data likely suffer because of it. Song explained that when regression models are run in which economic variables suffer from survey or measurement error, the estimation becomes biased, blurring the correct relationship.

"To address the issue of error, many economists assume that these errors are negligible or they are zero on average," Song said. "However, our study showed that they are not negligible and they are not zero on average, but rather showed that they are correlated with true height or weight, which alarms many studies using survey data."

Initially, Song anticipated a target audience of economists and statisticians, but with these findings, has since realized the topic's broader impact on fields like engineering, computer science, biology and social science.

Three years after its initial submission, the research paper, "Body Shape Matters: Evidence from Machine Learning on Body Shape-Income Relationship," was published in the open-access journal, PLOS One.

With heightened publicity, not only do Baek and Song hope to present the extent of error in previous body shape studies that relied on self-reported survey data, but also to bring awareness to the issue of beauty premiums.Breakthrough in 3D scanning leads to 4500% more accurate results

More information: Suyong Song et al, Body shape matters: Evidence from machine learning on body shape-income relationship, PLOS ONE (2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254785

Journal information: PLoS ONE 

Provided by University of Virginia 

 

Degassing data suggests Mt. Etna began showing signs of pressure buildup months before 2018 eruption

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A team of researchers from the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, in Italy, has found evidence showing that magma pressure had begun building up deep in Mt. Etna's reservoir several months before the 2018 eruption. They also found evidence of degassing. In their paper, published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes their study of data from gas monitors situated on the famous volcano.

Back in 2018, Mt. Etna, one of the world's most active volcanoes, erupted in a dramatic fashion on Christmas Eve, spewing ash into the air and forcing closure of airspace. Two days later, a magnitude 4.9 earthquake shook the area around the volcano wreaking damage and injuring four people. In this new effort, the researchers suggest that degassing inside the volcano for approximately six months before the eruption could have been a warning of what was about to happen.

Over the years, scientists have placed a host of sensors on and around the volcano, each of which give some clues about the processes involved. Some of those sensors measure gasses that are emitted by the volcano. Prior research has shown that the ratios of gasses change over time as the volcano undergoes changes. In their work, the researchers looked at ratios of sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, hydrochloric acid and helium isotopes—gasses that have been associated with the buildup of magma in the volcano's reservoir. Prior research has also suggested that pressure buildup of magma can be a signal suggesting that the volcano is on a path toward eruption. The researchers found that ratios of helium isotopes at five sites near vents on the volcano began increasing, up to a year before the eruption. They also found that the volcano began emitting more carbon dioxide approximately six months before the eruption and that there were fluctuations in many other gasses as well. They suggest that together the changes in degassing ratios could be an indication of magma pressure buildup leading to an eruption. They conclude their paper by suggesting that the eruption in 2018 was inevitable, because the volcano was extremely over-pressurized in the weeks before it blew.

Scientists detect earthquake swarm at Hawaii volcano

More information: Intense overpressurization at basaltic open-conduit volcanoes as inferred by geochemical signals: The case of the Mt. Etna December 2018 eruption, Science Advances (2021). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abg6297

Journal information: Science Advances 

© 2021 Science X Network

• 
  

Unified theory explains how materials transform from solids to liquids

by Lois Yoksoulian, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The mucus layer on the underside of a snail foot is one example of a soft material that 

yields to stress up to a certain point, then flows. This behavior, simplified in a new study

 from researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is what helps the snail

 move without unwieldy sliding, similar to that of many other natural and synthetic materials

, from mud to the additives that make toothpaste flow when squeezed.

 Credit: Rodrigo Quarteu

Years of meticulous experimentation have paid off for researchers aiming to unify the physics that defines materials that transition from solids to liquids. The researchers said a new theoretical model could help develop new synthetic materials and inform and predict civil engineering and environmental challenges such as mudslides, dam breaks and avalanches.

The study, led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Simon Rogers, unveils a unified mathematical expression that defines how soft-yet-rigid materials transition from a solid into a liquid flow when they exceed their specific stress threshold. The findings are published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

"The behavior of yield-stress fluids has traditionally been defined by trying to combine the physics of two different types of materials: solids and liquids," said lead author Krutarth Kamani, a chemical and biomolecular engineering graduate student at Illinois. "But now, we have shown that these physical states—solid and liquid—can exist together in the same material, and we can explain it using one mathematical expression."

To develop this model, the team performed numerous studies that subjected a variety of different soft materials to stress while measuring the individual solidlike and liquidlike strain responses using a device called a rheometer.

"We were able to observe a material's behavior and see a continuous transition between the solid and liquid states," said Rogers, who is also an affiliate at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the U. of I. "The traditional models all describe an abrupt change in behavior from solid to liquid, but we were able to resolve two distinct behaviors that reflect energy dissipation via solid and fluid mechanisms."

The study reports that this development gives researchers a simple model to work with, making it easier to make large-scale calculations like those needed to model and predict catastrophic events like mudslides and avalanches.

"The existing models are computationally expensive, and researchers need to struggle with the numbers to get the calculations to be as accurate as possible," Rogers said. "Our model is simple and more accurate, and we have shown that through many proof-of-concept experiments."

The researchers said complex yield-stress studies of fluids are a hot topic for those investigating geophysical flows, waste remediation and industrial processes like new materials development, 3D printing and the minimization of waste transport costs. "Our model defines a basic example of solid-to-liquid behavior, but I think it will serve as a jumping-off point for researchers to make significant progress in defining the more complex yield-stress fluid phenomena."

New approach to soft material flow may yield way to new materials, disaster prediction

More information: Krutarth Kamani et al, Unification of the Rheological Physics of Yield Stress Fluids, Physical Review Letters (2021). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.218002

Journal information: Physical Review Letters 

Provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

ROBO TRUCK
Vale launches self-driving trucks at its largest mine

Reuters | September 2, 2021 

(Image courtesy of Vale)

Brazilian miner Vale SA said on Thursday it had begun using self-driving trucks for the first time at its Carajas complex, its largest iron ore mining operation, as it continues to expand its use of the driverless technology.


Vale expects to boost productivity and safety by using the trucks to haul iron ore, said Pedro Bemfica, the executive heading the autonomous technology program.

The miner’s six self-driving vehicles at Carajas are nearly twice as tall and more than three times as wide as a conventional trucks and capable of holding 320 tonnes of iron ore.

The behemoths will operate alongside its fleet of about 120 normal offroad vehicles at Carajas, which is located in the northern Amazon state of Para. The company plans to add four additional self-driving trucks by year’s end.


THE COMPANY’S ENTIRE FLEET OF 13 OFFROAD VEHICLES IN THE BRUCUTU MINE IN SOUTHEASTERN MINAS GERAIS STATE IS AUTONOMOUS

The company forecasts that the trucks, which operate constantly and at a higher speed, will cut fuel consumption by about 5% and help Vale’s plans to cut its greenhouse gas emissions.

Costs related to wear-and-tear should also be lower with less spending needed on lubricant and tires.

“The principle objective is really to bring safety,” said Bemfica. “We launched this technology in trucks with the objective of removing people from inherent risk.”

The company’s entire fleet of 13 offroad vehicles in the Brucutu mine in southeastern Minas Gerais state is autonomous, and there has not been a single accident since the technology was first introduced there in 2016, he said.

The executive said the company intends to invest $64 million in expanding its fleet of self-driving trucks to 37 units at Carajas, although he did not give a clear timeframe for when that would be completed.

Vale also has four autonomous drilling rigs at Carajas and plans to add another three by the year’s end, Bemfica said.

(By Marta Nogueira and Jake Spring; Editing by David Evans)

Offshore drilling ban and mining curbs edge closer to passage

Bloomberg News | September 2, 2021 | 

Alaska Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Aerial with mountains and Ivishak River. 

Stock Image.

Legislation to block oil drilling in most U.S. waters and Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge edged closer to passage Thursday, as the House Natural Resources Committee rejected more than a dozen changes sought by Republicans.


The bill would slap new fees on oil and mining companies and effectively block the proposed Resolution Copper mine in Arizona while doling tens of billions of dollars to climate resilience, drought relief, conservation and other programs.

LEGISLATION WOULD ABOLISH A FOUR-YEAR-OLD REQUIREMENT THAT THE GOVERNMENT SELL DRILLING RIGHTS IN THE ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE’S COASTAL PLAIN

The committee is expected to approve the bill next week after spending roughly nine hours considering the measure Thursday. Congressional Democrats then would fold the measure into the broader $3.5 trillion tax-and-spending legislation they are developing to expand the government’s role in health care, combat climate change and fulfill much of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.

On Thursday, panel Democrats united in party-line votes to reject Republican-backed amendments to eliminate proposed fees and restrictions on oil operations, among other changes. More amendment votes are expected when the committee resumes considering the bill on Sept. 9.

The legislation would bar the sale of new oil and gas leases in Pacific and Atlantic waters as well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico. It also would abolish a four-year-old requirement that the government sell drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain while voiding nine leases issued in that northeast Alaska region earlier this year.

Other provisions would rule out domestic uranium production near the Grand Canyon, create annual fees of up to $10,000 per mile on offshore pipelines and effectively block the Resolution Copper Co. mining project proposed by Rio Tinto Plc and BHP Group Plc in Arizona.

(By Jennifer A. Dlouhy)

Native Americans lose bid to halt digging at Nevada lithium mine site
Reuters | September 3, 2021 | 

(Photo courtesy of LAC)

A U.S. federal judge ruled on Friday that Lithium Americas Corp may conduct excavation work at its Thacker Pass lithium mine site in Nevada, denying a request from Native Americans who said the digging would desecrate an area they believe holds ancestral bones and artifacts.


The ruling from Chief Judge Miranda Du was the second victory in recent weeks for the project, which could become the largest U.S. source of lithium, used in electric vehicle batteries.

The court is still considering the broader question of whether former President Donald Trump’s administration erred when it approved the project in January. That ruling is expected by early 2022.

Du said the Native Americans did not prove the U.S. government failed to properly consult them during the permitting process. Du in July denied a similar request from environmentalists.

THE COURT IS STILL CONSIDERING THE BROADER QUESTION OF WHETHER FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S ADMINISTRATION ERRED WHEN IT APPROVED THE PROJECT IN JANUARY

Du said, though, that she was not dismissing all the Native Americans’ arguments, but felt bound by existing laws to deny their request.

“This order does not resolve the merits of the tribes’ claims,” Du said in her 22-page ruling.

Vancouver-based Lithium Americas said it would protect and preserve tribal artifacts.

“We’ve always been committed to doing this the right way by respecting our neighbors, and we are pleased today’s ruling recognizes our efforts,” Lithium Americas Chief Executive Jon Evans told Reuters.

No digging can take place until the U.S. Bureau of Land Management issues an Archeological Resources Protection Act permit.

The Burns Paiute Tribe, one of the tribes that brought the lawsuit, noted that the bureau told the court last month that the land holds cultural value for Native Americans.

“If that’s the case, well then there’s going to be harm if you start digging into the landscape,” said Richard Eichstaedt, an attorney for the Burns Paiute.

Representatives for the bureau and two other tribes who sued were not immediately available to comment.

(By Ernest Scheyder; Editing by David Gregorio and Rosalba O’Brien)

Centerra says 40 metres of water at Kumtor pit a threat to workers, environment

Cecilia Jamasmie | August 31, 2021 | 

Centerra says this photo, taken in August, indicates there may be at least 40 meters (131 feet) of water at the bottom of the Kumtor central pit (Image courtesy of Kumtor Gold Company.)

Canada’s Centerra Gold (TSX: CG) said on Tuesday there are at least 40 meters of water at the bottom of its seized Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan and “abnormally” large amounts running down the pit walls, which it said could lead to catastrophic events.


The Toronto-based miner said that in the three months the former soviet nation has been running the mine, the pit has flooded with more water than they ever saw collect in the over 25 years of the operation under its control.

While the government-controlled Kumtor Gold Company (KGC) said the mine is stable and running at full speed, Centerra said it has photographic evidence suggesting the contrary. They include a video posted on August 15 on KGC’s Facebook page.

“Based on these images, Centerra believes at least 40 meters of water may be at the bottom of the Kumtor central pit (…) This has put the entire mine and its workers at risk of potentially catastrophic events, not to mention the real harm to the environment.,” the company said in an emailed statement.

The mine under Centerra’s operation (left) and current on right. (Courtesy of Centerra Gold.)

The miner believes urgent action is needed to address critical safety and operational issues.

“This is massive and the entire situation presents an imminent danger at many levels, not just the water in the pit, but also the tailings storage facility due to glacier melt”, Lindsay Newland Bowker, executive director of World Mine Tailings Failures told MINING.COM.

“The Kyrgyz government has zero capacity and no money to take on a proper assessment or correction of this problem,” she added.

The mine pit slices through two glaciers — Lysyi and Davidov. This vicinity and the practice of storing waste rock directly on the glaciers represents a risk to the enormous natural ice sheets, according to data compiled by Bankwacht Network.

In response to Centerra’s allegations, KGC the water levels in the pit were normal. To support this allegations, it included in its statement photos of similar amounts of water in the pit dating back to 2010, when Centerra operated the mine. “We believe that all the information presented in [theCenterra] press release is untrue and contains elements of destructive panic,” KGC said.

Water is a danger in pits in several ways, including affecting slope stability and a potential leak of the metal-rich water stored there, known as mine drainage, says Geoff Beale from Piteau Associates, a Canadian geotechnical and water management consultancy.

“WATER IS A DANGER IN PITS IN SEVERAL WAYS, INCLUDING SLOPE STABILITY AND A POTENTIAL LEAK OF THE METAL-RICH WATER STORE THERE, KNOWN AS MINE DRAINAGE

”GeofF Beale, Piteau Associates

In an online seminar last year, Beale — who is also co-editor of the CSIRO Guidelines for Evaluating Water in Pit Slope Stability — noted the amount of water contained in a pit can be an accident catalyzer.

“Water changes the resistive forces of a slope and creates driving forces. It’s a very simple concept. It’s two forces acting at the same time— the downward pressure of the rocks that holds the material together and the other is the upper pressure of the water that can break the rock. The less water, the more resistance,” he said.

Centerra chief operating officer Dan Desjardins, who managed the mine for five years as the president of Kumtor Gold until January 2020, urged the mine’s current management to hire independent experts to assess the condition of the mine and to publish the findings.

“Clean glacial water is flowing uncontrolled into the pit. This is dangerous and we are worried about the safety of workers,” he said. “When we operated the mine, nearly all of the glacial melt water was intercepted before it reached the pit.”

One of the most well-known landslide in an open pit is the one that happened at Rio Tinto’s Bingham Canyon copper mine in Utah in 2013. The incident did not claim victims, but it damaged equipment, a building structure, slowed output, and took at least three years to repair.

Resource nationalism

The Kyrgyz’s parliament passed in early May a law allowing the state to temporarily take over Kumtor gold mine, the country’s biggest industrial enterprise.

Kyrgyzstan’s move came after a court fined Centerra’s unit Kumtor Gold Company (KGC) more than $3 billion for allegedly dumping mining waste on glaciers near the mine 4,000 meters above sea level. A state commission also recently alleged that KGC owed more than $1 billion in unpaid taxes.

Kumtor is the largest of Centerra’s three gold mines, accounting for over 50% of the company’s total output. Since the seizure, Centerra’s Kyrgyz subsidiaries have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company has also sued the new external manager of the mine, alleging that he conspired to steal the asset while he was a director.

Centerra said at the time that KGC and the Kumtor Operating Company CJSC (KOC) were solvent, with total assets (including the Kumtor mine) above $1.1 billion and no external bank debt.

Kumtor Gold Company’s video:





The Canadian miner is not a party to or affected by the Chapter 11 filing and remains with more than $883 million in cash and almost $1.3 billion in liquidity as of June 30, 2021, it said earlier this month.

The mine has produced more than 13.2 million ounces of gold between 1997 and the end of 2020. Last year’s output was slightly over 556,000 ounces. Centerra guided in January for Kumtor to produce 470,000 to 510,000 ounces of gold, with improving grades and production expected towards year-end.

The operation is considered by analysts a classic example of the risks tied to resource nationalism, as it has been for years the subject of both renegotiations protracted legal battles.

Centerra is currently seeking to hold the Kyrgyz government and Kyrgyzaltyn responsible for all losses and damages that result from their coordinated campaign to seize the gold mine in violation of longstanding investment agreements and without compensation to Centerra.

The company also seeks to prevent the Kyrgyz government and Kyrgyzaltyn from taking any further actions to nationalize the mine or improperly dispose of it.

Its two units, KGC and KOC, filed last week a motion in a US Bankruptcy Court seeking penalties of $1 million a day against the Kyrgyzstan government.