Space tech start up discovers path to emission-free future for steel industry on earth

Staff Writer | June 28, 2022 

File image.

On its mission to develop onsite resources for the Moon, Israel-based space tech startup Helios stumbled across a novel approach to iron production.


The company’s technology, it says, is capable of producing iron with zero co2 emissions and has the potential to dramatically change the way to approach sustainable iron making.

Helios’ endevour to create an emission-free future for the steel industry will be fueled by $6 million in capital, thanks to a seed round led by At One Ventures, the “net positive to nature” investment firm, and Doral Energy-Tech Ventures. Deep tech investor Metaplanet and a global Top 5 mining company are also participating in the round, Helios said.

The company, led by founder and CEO Jonathan Geifman, did not set out to make green steel at a lower cost. Its original goal is to produce oxygen to sustain recurring missions to the moon by producing it on site. Helios’ proprietary technology extracts oxygen from lunar regolith, the mixture of powdery dust and broken rock on the surface of the moon.

Current methods of steel production emit large quantities of CO2 through the reduction of iron ore with carbon. For every tonne of steel, approximately 2 tonnes of CO2 are emitted, making the industry responsible for 8% of humanity’s carbon footprint.

Yet efforts to decarbonize the industry through methods like H2 injection, carbon capture, and electrolysis will increase the cost of production, making adoption by major manufacturers difficult to justify, the company said.

“On the moon we don’t have the luxury of using carbon for energy, and you also have to be extremely efficient – you cannot waste or emit anything,” Geifman said in a media release.

“The extraterrestrial environment really pushes your R&D to the extreme,” Geifman said. “You cannot be iterative; you must reinvent processes entirely. That is how we came up with this completely novel method of extraction that we soon realized would be beneficial for life on earth as well.”

“It’s fascinating to me that while Helios was focused on creating technologies to further sustainable Moon missions and habitation – literally taking its ‘moonshot’ – they stumbled across this brand-new process to benefit life on earth,” said Uri Oron, Director of the Israel Space Agency at the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology. “This is a great example of the close connection between space technology and its impact on our lives here on Earth,” he added.

Helios scientists discovered that the technology created for the reactor built to extract oxygen and iron from regolith could also be used to extract 99% pure iron from iron ore, using an entirely novel chemical process. The method requires 50% less energy than what is currently used in the industry, while operating at temperatures so low that a household oven will suffice to initiate the process.

In addition to the energy cost reduction, the process also eliminates 100% of the direct CO2 emissions, Helios said, adding that using renewable energy to heat the system will make the whole process carbon free.

USGS deploys satellite imagery in the global fight against illegal mining

Artisanal miners digging a mining pit using simple tools such as shovels, buckets and water pumps. This was taken in 2013 in Fourona in Côte d’Ivoire, Africa. Credit: Science for a Changing World.

POSTED BY: HENRY LAZENBY JUNE 28, 2022

The USGS has deployed its scientific capabilities and high-tech tools in the global fight against illegal mining.

The organization’s scientists are playing a leading role in a project involving a collaboration between the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development, United Nations and other governmental and non-governmental organizations working to address conflict mining.

“USGS science helps determine the extent and value of mineral production in conflict-prone regions,” said Peter Chirico, associate director of the USGS Florence Bascom Geoscience Center and special advisor to the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Threat Finance Countermeasures, in a statement to The Northern Miner.

“The USGS conducts field investigations, uses satellite imagery, creates geologic maps and publishes reports to pinpoint resource deposits, estimate mineral quantities and determine production capacity,” he says.

“The ability to use satellite imagery to acquire detailed information on artisanal mining activities is invaluable for researchers and policymakers, as it allows us to evaluate challenging and often difficult-to-access regions that also have associated conflict and safety concerns,” said Chirico.

Minerals are frequently mined by artisanal and small-scale miners, who commonly operate in the informal sector, meaning they are not licensed and don’t own the land on which they mine. They often transport and sell resources outside the legal flow chain in violation of local or national law.

Artisanal and small-scale mining involves individuals or groups of miners using simple tools such as picks and shovels and sometimes larger equipment to dig in river floodplains and sedimentary deposits across large stretches of terrain. Industrial-scale mining occurs at permitted and regulated sites and typically requires heavy infrastructure to extract resources.

The informality and sizeable geographic extent of artisanal and small-scale mining can lead to commodities being mined, sold and purchased through unofficial channels and potentially financing criminal or terrorist organizations. This can increase the risk of conflict, violence, and terrorism within a country and other nations, including the U.S.

Blood diamonds

USGS scientists also do on-the-ground fieldwork to study the deposits and small-scale mining pits to investigate artisanal and small-scale mining processes and determine the extent and quality of the resources.

The researchers also work to understand the miners’ viewpoint and their methods, tools, habits and organization. Scientists conduct interviews with artisanal miners to understand how much can be mined over a certain period, how they are organized and how frequently they move from site to site, according to the organization.

For example, USGS information assists the U.S. Department of State in implementing the Clean Diamond Trade Act, which prohibits the import or export of rough diamonds unless accompanied by a Kimberley Process certificate confirming that it is not a conflict diamond. The Kimberley Process is an international initiative to increase transparency and oversight in the diamond industry to eliminate trade in conflict diamonds.

“The USGS has been instrumental in supporting a fact-based approach to the Kimberley Process work on eliminating conflict stones from the rough diamond supply chain,” said George Cajati, a foreign affairs officer at the U.S. Department of State and the interim U.S. representative to the Kimberley Process.

“USGS has provided unsurpassed scientific analysis and expertise to inform U.S. policy in this high-profile international forum and earned the respect of international partners in the process,” he said.

The USGS has collaborated with several international organizations working to track and monitor illegal mining and armed groups funded by natural resources around the world.

In 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey was asked by the U.S. Department of State to help address illegal diamond mining in Africa.

The USGS regularly provides training to foreign governments, including collaborating with their ministry of mines, geological surveys and civil society organizations, ultimately enhancing their ability to assess and regulate resources. Training has been provided on remote sensing and mapping techniques, artisanal miner community surveys, artisanal mine site evaluation and geologic fieldwork methods to assess deposit potential.

Guyana artisanal mining

The USGS also assists programs that formalize and legalize the artisanal and small-scale mining sector, such as those implemented by USAID.

One example of the USGS has worked with the Guyana government to help improve their regulatory oversight and law enforcement for the artisanal mining sector.

Illegal mining and export of gold are concerns for the country of Guyana. At the government of Guyana’s request, the USGS and the U.S. Embassy began a project in 2021 to help document nationwide artisanal and small-scale gold mining. Work is being done in cooperation with Guyana’s Ministry of Natural Resources.

The effort includes using satellite imagery to identify mining sites and associated deforestation. Identifying unpermitted mining locations can also help the government address mercury contamination, as mercury is often used in the gold mining process but can pollute the environment and impact human health.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
JPMorgan spoofing cheated gold market, ex-trader says

Bloomberg News | July 12, 2022 | 

Stock image.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s gold trading and sales team was so focused on making money that they scammed the market for years with so-called spoofing trades, according to a former colleague who testified at the trial of three former bank employees charged with fraud.


“Our job was to do whatever it takes to make money,” and using spoof trades to manipulate prices for all sorts of precious metals was an almost daily method for generating profit, said John Edmonds, who worked as a trader at the bank until 2017. “Everyone at the time did it on the desk and it worked.”

Edmonds is testifying against his former boss, Michael Nowak, the longtime head of the trading desk, gold trader Gregg Smith and hedge funds salesman Jeffrey Ruffo. Edmonds told a federal jury in Chicago on Tuesday that the team wasn’t just buying and selling precious metals, but systematically cheating to help themselves and their top clients over the course of the decade that Edmonds worked as a trader.

Edmonds described how he learned to spoof at JPMorgan. If he wanted to sell at a higher price, he’d put orders in above the current market price, and then place a huge orders to buy at higher prices that he’d cancel before they could be executed. “I wanted to drive the price where I wanted it to go” by creating a false indication of demand, he said.

While the technique didn’t always work, it was successful enough that everyone on the trading desk used it several times a week, Edmonds said.

“If we wanted to buy low, we could,” he said. “If we wanted to sell high, we could.”

Edmonds is the first of a handful of cooperators slated to testify that prosecutors say will bolster their claim that Nowak, Smith and Ruffo participated in a racketeering enterprise from 2008 to 2016. Edmonds was the first on the precious-metals desk to admit to crimes and secretly cooperated against former colleagues. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy and commodities fraud charges related to spoofing in 2018.

Traders on Nowak’s desk engaged in spoofing as a core business practice, doing it more than 50,000 times over nearly a decade, prosecutors allege, though the jury will only hear about a tiny portion of those. Lawyers for the three said the government’s case is based on a misreading of evidence and the reliance on witnesses, like Edmonds, who are testifying in order obtain light punishments. If convicted of all charges, the three face decades in prison.

Edmonds, a Brooklyn native with a degree from St. Johns University in Queens, New York, joined JPMorgan’s precious-metals desk in 2009 at a salary of about $80,000. Edmonds’s supervisors and more senior members on the desk showed him how to layer trades, he told the jury, adding that it was understood on the desk that this was the way to trade precious-metals futures.

“I saw people trading for 20 years doing this,” Edmonds said. “How could I not do it?” Among members of the team, the use of spoofing techniques “was expected,” he said, adding that he watched both Smith and Nowak execute spoof trades to fill client orders at favorable prices.

Edmonds said he never reported anyone for violating the bank’s compliance policy on trading. When asked why not, he told the jury: “I would have been fired. This was my dream job.”

Prosecutors on Friday described the trading desk as a small area with no walls or doors where Nowak, Edmonds and the others sat shoulder to shoulder, just a few feet from one another. Lucy Jennings, a Justice Department fraud prosecutor, told the jury that everyone on the team “could see and hear what everyone is doing.”
‘Didn’t cut it’

David Meister, a lawyer for Nowak, told the jury that Edmonds was “eager to please” but that his trading skills “didn’t cut it” and his job was eliminated.

Edmonds was notable even among the JPMorgan traders. At times he had placed orders with as many as 400 contracts on the opposite side of a genuine one. Edmonds pleaded guilty for transactions involving silver futures.

Earlier on Tuesday, jurors heard testimony from Christopher Jackman, a consultant at Monument Economics Group LLC who was hired by the DOJ for $1.4 million to analyze CME data and document what the government claims are spoof trades, along with chat logs from members of the JPMorgan precious-metals desk.

Jackman described on instance in 2010, when CME data show Smith placed buy orders for five gold futures contracts at 50 cents below the best bid price, and then quickly followed with another 170 sell orders. At the time, Smith’s sell orders represented more than half of the visible order book on the market, Jackman said. Prices fell, Smith executed his five buy orders, and then canceled all 170 sell orders before they could be executed, all in the span of about three seconds, Jackman said.

In data from January 2012, data show Nowak put in orders to sell five gold contracts valued at around $800,000, followed by orders to buy 80 contracts valued at $13 million, which at the time accounted for more than a third of the orders visible to the market, Jackman said. After prices rose, Nowak executed all five sell orders and canceled all the buy orders, Jackman said, adding that the entire episode lasted less than 15 seconds.

The case is US v. Smith et al, 19-cr-00669, US District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago)

(By Tom Schoenberg and Eddie Spence, with assistance from Alex Nguyen)

MAMMON

NO DEEP SEA MINING
CSIRO contracted to plan environmental monitoring for deep-sea nodule collection

Staff Writer | July 12, 2022 | 

Pilot collector vehicle. (Image provided by The Metals Company)

The Metals Company (Nasdaq: TMC) announced Tuesday that its Australian subsidiary, The Metals Company Australia Pty Ltd., has entered into a research funding agreement with a consortium of institutions led by Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to create a framework for the development of an ecosystem-based management and monitoring plan (EMMP) for its proposed deep-sea polymetallic nodule collection operations in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) of the Pacific Ocean.


Mining international waters is in the spotlight as companies and countries are looking at minerals concentrated on the ocean floor that can be used in batteries for smart phones and electric vehicles. Last year, TMC said the nodule resource is now estimated at four megatons (Mt) measured, 341Mt indicated and 11Mt inferred mineral resources.

The CSIRO-led consortium, which includes leaders in the development and application of effective EMMPs in a diversity of marine areas, will leverage TMC’s environmental baseline data — acquired in the NORI project area in the CCZ — to help develop appropriate indicators and tolerance limits to create safe parameters for collecting seafloor nodules, the company said in a news release.

The work will form the scientific foundation of TMC’s future Adaptive Management System (AMS), a predictive system that will use environmental and operational data to enable the company to mitigate operational impacts in the deep-sea environment as much as possible.

A core component of this system, the company said, will be the Digital Twin, which is expected to provide scenario testing of seafloor mine plans, monitoring of nodule collection operations and a dashboard for review by stakeholders.

“Last year our subsidiary, NORI, completed environmental baseline studies in partnership with leading marine research institutions,” Gerard Barron, CEO of The Metals Company, said in the statement.

“We’ve now got one of the world’s most extensive deep-sea datasets to hand over to the CSIRO-led consortium, experts with the practical experience we need to develop a scientifically robust framework for a marine ecosystem-based management program for NORI-D.”

Environmentalists have called for a ban on deep-seabed mining that would extract resources including copper, cobalt, nickel, zinc, lithium, and rare earth elements from nodules on the ocean floor.

Development of technologies to collect polymetallic nodules first began in the 1970s when oil, gas and mining majors including Shell, Rio Tinto (Kennecott) and Sumitomo successfully conducted pilot test work in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) of the Pacific Ocean, recovering over ten thousand tonnes of nodules, TMC said.

The polymetallic nodule fields in the CCZ of the Pacific represent the largest known, undeveloped nickel resource on the planet.

The Metals Company said it has invested significant resources in its deep-sea environmental baseline program, and in November 2021 the company entered into an agreement with Kongsberg Digital to develop a Digital Twin.

As TMC prepares for pilot nodule collector system trials in the CCZ later this year, the CSIRO-led research project will propel the development of a management plan focussed on the cumulative impacts of collecting nodules at a regional scale within the CCZ to enable TMC to operate within safe ecological limits, it said.

The company expects to employ the science-based framework developed by the CSIRO-led consortium in the Adaptive Management System — which will also draw on expert opinion and machine learning to improve operational efficiencies and reduce the uncertainty of environmental impacts over time — ahead of planned commercial operations expected to commence in 2024.

Energy crisis is hastening end of fossil fuel era, says India
Bloomberg News | July 13, 2022 | 7

Wind turbines in South Africa. (Image by Lollie-Pop, Flickr).

The global energy crisis is accelerating a shift to renewable sources and hastening the end of the dominance of fossil fuels, according to India’s Power and Renewable Energy Minister Raj Kumar Singh.


Renewables paired with energy storage are now cheaper than coal after the fuel’s price surged in recent months, while fossil sources are also experiencing a lack of investment in new production, Singh said Wednesday in a speech at the Sydney Energy Forum.

“This will actually hasten the energy transition,” Singh said. “Once you have round-the-clock renewables, that’s renewables plus storage, that are viable, then that’s the end of the story for fossil fuels.”

Turmoil in the global energy sector that’s triggered shortages in some nations and sent power and fuel prices soaring has multiple causes, and is not only the result of Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to Singh.

“This is a crisis which has been in the making for some time” and exacerbated by issues including under-investment in supply and a push by producers to raise margins, he said.

The energy crisis began about half a year before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with shortages of coal, natural gas and then oil as a result of “preemptive underinvestment,” Daniel Yergin, vice chairman at S&P Global Inc., said at the conference.

“The next few months could get far worse,” Yergin said. “Partly because markets are so tight” and also because Vladimir Putin seeks to use natural gas as a weapon to create economic hardship, strengthen populist parties and weaken the alliance against his invasion of Ukraine, he said.

(By David Stringer)

Glencore expands coal mining in an Australian methane hotspot

Bloomberg News | July 13, 2022 |

Hail Creek mine is located 120 km southwest of Mackay in central Queensland and supplies international markets with hard coking and thermal coal. (Image courtesy of Rio Tinto.)

Glencore Plc is expanding a coal mine that scientists have estimated leaks so much planet-wrecking methane each year it has the same warming impact as the annual emissions from millions of cars.

New activity at the Hail Creek Mine involves digging up coal from gas-rich seams through surface mining — an approach for which the company has said there’s no reliable way to halt fugitive methane from escaping during operation. Steep declines in the dirtiest fossil fuel are needed to meet global climate goals, and activists argue curbs should prioritize the worst methane-spewing mines.

“If coal mining companies continue to argue that fugitive methane management is too hard for open-cut coal mines, then the obvious and material solution is to cease opening new mines,” said Naomi Hogan, strategic projects lead with Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility Inc. “And for the known very gassy mines to seriously consider early closure options.”

Methane is the primary component of natural gas but it’s often produced alongside oil and coal. The invisible, odorless greenhouse gas is extremely potent and traps more than 80 times the heat of carbon dioxide during its first 20 years. Halting leaks and intentional releases of the gas from fossil fuel operations are viewed as some of the lowest hanging fruit in the fight against climate change.

New surface mining activity is visible in satellite observations of the mine’s northeast corner, an area for which the mine got approval to expand when it was majority owned by Rio Tinto Group. Rio sold its stake in the mine in 2018 to Glencore, which declined to comment for this story.


An environmental authority amendment application, made in 2014 and approved the following year, for the northeast expansion area on file with Queensland authorities also suggest the site’s coal seams have a high methane content. The document, which sought approval for both new surface and underground mining activities, explains how extensive work would be needed to clear the flammable gas for a potential underground expansion to make it safe for workers.

“Given the gaseous nature of the target and deeper underlying coal seams, it is anticipated that drainage of gas prior to, during and after mining activities would be required,” according to the amendment application. The document was obtained by the ACCR through a freedom of information request and shared with Bloomberg News.

An environmental authority permit that went into effect March 15 for the Hail Creek mine makes no mention of the methane content of its coal seams.

Geologically older, deeper coal deposits typically contain more methane than shallower seams near the surface. Yet, satellite observations are shedding new light on the climate impact from open-cut mines. There are well-known approaches for capturing methane from underground mines through boreholes or ventilation systems, but Glencore told the Financial Times this month there are no practicable technologies or methods for capturing fugitive methane emissions from operating surface mines.

That’s particularly problematic for open-cast coal operations in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, in which Hail Creek mine is located, and where satellite data suggests the geology is particularly gaseous. For every ton of coal produced in the region an average of 7.5 kilograms of methane is released, according to an estimate using satellite observations from French geoanalytics Kayrros last year. That’s roughly 40% higher than global levels, based on data from the International Energy Agency.

The age of coal is the same across a seam, according to Christian Lelong, director climate solutions at Kayrros, who also has experience working in Australia’s mining sector. Deep coal seams with sufficient incline can get close enough to the surface to be accessible through surface mining.

“If the coal seam is gassy in an underground mine, the same coal seam will also be gassy if the mine is open-cast,’’ he said.

Glencore also filed an additional exploration permit linked to Hail Creek in June 2020 that is still being assessed by the Queensland government. That’s raised red flags for environmental groups concerned that more coal mining activity threatens Australia’s 2030 emissions reduction targets and its 2050 net zero pledge.

“We have significant public interest concerns with respect to this exploration application,’’ said Carmel Flint, a coordinator for Lock the Gate Alliance, a climate activist group. “Particularly due to the extremely high emissions recorded from the existing mining operations and the incompatibility of further exploration and expansion activities with Glencore’s climate change and emissions reductions commitments.’’

Glencore is targeting a 15% reduction in its emissions by 2026 and a 50% cut by 2035, from 2019 levels. It’s also promised to cap coal production and slowly curtail output until closing the mines by 2050, but the company has given little detail about those plans and how quickly the mines will be phased out. It’s also unclear how those plans could be disrupted if the company’s Australia reserves are emitting far more methane than what is reported.

Glencore has leaned into coal production even as many of its rivals have exited the sector amid concern over the fuel’s contribution to climate change. The price of the fossil fuel has surged due to supply disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The company’s embrace of coal has the firm on course for bumper profits this year, but there’s also been a softening of investor support for Glencore’s climate plans. Influential advisory firms Glass Lewis & Co. and Institutional Shareholder Services urged shareholders to vote against the company’s climate change strategy at its April investor meeting.

The Hail Creek mine spewed between 123,000 and 263,000 metric tons of methane last year, according to an estimate from scientists at the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research who also used satellite data. That much methane would have the same short-term warming impact as the annual emissions from anywhere between about 2.2 million and 4.8 million US cars.

Hail Creek’s reported emissions don’t come anywhere close to that. Glencore said the mine had net emissions of 503,591 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in the year ended June 2020. If that figure were translated to just methane emissions, it’d be somewhere between 6,000 and 18,000 tons — far short of the SRON estimate.

Glencore has said previously that its Bowen Basin coal business reports emissions in line with Australian requirements and that there are “concerns and questions” about using satellite technology to measure methane emissions from mines. But the basis for many of the emissions reports Australia’s miners file with regulators, which can rely on state-determined emissions factors, are themselves under scrutiny.

In February, Australia said it was revising the method used to calculate methane pollution from open-cut coal mines. The change means total national emissions were on average 0.3% higher than previously stated for each year since 1990. That revision was prompted by the emergence of satellite datasets, which “catalysed a departmental review of inventory methods for open-cut coal mines in Queensland,” the government said.

(By Aaron Clark)

London court to decide who controls $1 billion of Venezuelan gold

Bloomberg News | July 13, 2022 | 

Venezuelan gold bars. File image.

A London court is finally set to decide who controls more than $1 billion of Venezuelan gold stored in the Bank of England’s vaults.


Opposition leader Juan Guaido, who’s won a series of legal clashes in the UK, is pushing for a judge to assert his right to control the bullion, saying London courts can disregard decisions taken by Venezuelan judges. The trial comes after the British government recognized Guaido as the Venezuelan president.

Maduro’s lawyers meanwhile say the judge needs to take into account the rulings from Venezuelan courts regarding Guaido’s appointments to the nation’s central bank, saying she “should not sit in judgment on what a foreign court has decided.”

The long-running London litigation has been one of the few bright spots for Guaido, who’s seen his support falter as President Maduro continues to hold on to power. His lawyers said Wednesday the Venezuelan courts demonstrated “systemic partiality and lack of independence.”

Maduro’s attorneys insisted that if the London court recognized Venezuelan decisions, the gold reserves can be used to assist with the nation’s Covid-19 relief efforts. Guaido’s camp claimed it will be used for future generations of Venezuelans.

The ruling is expected after a hearing that’s set to run four days.

(By Olivia Fletcher)

Perpetua Resources begins early cleanup activities at historic Stibnite mine in Idaho
Staff Writer | July 13, 2022 | 

Groundbreaking ceremony to mark the beginning of early cleanup activities at the Stibnite mining district. Credit: Perpetua Resources Corp.

Focused on site restoration and redevelopment of gold-antimony-silver deposits in the Stibnite-Yellow Pine district of central Idaho, Perpetua Resources (NASDAQ: PPTA; TSX: PPTA) has initiated work to improve the water quality at the historic Stibnite mine site, which, after 100 years of mining activity, has seen millions of tonnes of unconstrained tailings and mine waste left behind by previous operators.


The company was joined by community members, government officials and local business leaders at a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the beginning of early cleanup activities and water quality improvements at the historic Stibnite mining district. The ceremony marked the start of a multi-year, multi-million-dollar investment designed to improve environmental conditions at the mine site.

Perpetua has worked with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for more than three years to receive permission to conduct time critical, early action cleanup activities. After consultation with other interested parties, including the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, Perpetua, the EPA and USDA signed an administrative settlement agreement and order on consent in 2021, paving the way for the company to address legacy issues in key areas of the Stibnite district.

Related: How a gold-stibnite restoration in Idaho could add antimony to US supply chain

The first four-year phase of the project includes removing 325,000 tonnes of legacy waste and tailings away from the river and rerouting streams to keep clean water clean. High-ranking elected officials from across the state agree that the work being done by Perpetua is a model for private investment to help address legacy environmental issues at historic mine sites.

“We did not cause the contamination that has worsened water quality in the historic Stibnite mining district for decades, but we are part of the solution,” Laurel Sayer, CEO of Perpetua, said in a media release.

“Idaho’s natural resources can contribute a steady domestic supply of the materials we need to advance our economy,” said Idaho Governor Brad Little at the groundbreaking ceremony. “At the same time, cleanup projects like you see here at Stibnite are a critical part of the future of responsible mining in Idaho.

“These time critical actions are long overdue and will focus on addressing the most immediate needs to improve water quality. This work proves that Perpetua is committed to leaving the abandoned mine site better than they found it,” Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson added.

Mining activity in the Stibnite district first started in 1899. The historic Stibnite mine then gained national significance during World War II when the US government commissioned antimony and tungsten production from the site to help with the war effort. In fact, Stibnite produced the majority of both minerals used by the US during the war, and the US Munitions Board credited the mine for shortening World War II by a year and saving a million American lives.

However, most of the mining that occurred at Stibnite took place long before modern protections and regulations were established. As a result, the site was never fully reclaimed. Today, about 10.5 million tonnes of unlined tailings and waste leach arsenic and antimony into ground and surface water. Perpetua has proposed a redevelopment plan to mine the site for gold and the critical mineral antimony, while concurrently restoring the environment. Early cleanup actions have now begun.

As for the Stibnite mine project, it is currently under regulatory review. The Stibnite project is considered one of the highest-grade, open-pit gold deposits in the US, with 6 million oz. of gold grading 1.42 g/t contained in 132.3 million tonnes of measured and indicated resources. Over the 12 years projected mine life, Stibnite is expected to recover more than 4 million oz. of gold. It also has the largest known antimony resource in the country, containing 205.9 million lb. measured and indicated.

A 2020 feasibility study gave the project an after-tax net present value (5% discount) of $1.35 billion and an internal rate of return of 22.3%, with a capex payback period pegged at 2.9 years.

US says it will back miners to stop China’s weaponization of battery metals
Bloomberg News | July 13, 2022 

|
Baotou City: Epicentre of China’s rare earth industry. (Image by Matthew Stinson)

Developers of battery metals projects can win support from the US government as it seeks to counter the dominance of China in clean-technology supply chains, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said.


Nations including the US have raised concerns over the global concentration of refining and production capacity for key materials like lithium, rare earths and cobalt, prompting President Joe Biden to invoke the 1950 Defense Production Act to encourage domestic production.

“Our concern is that critical minerals could be vulnerable to manipulation, as we’ve seen in other areas, or weaponization,” Granholm said Wednesday in a meeting in Sydney with companies including BHP Group, Rio Tinto Group and Lynas Corp. “We are very serious about establishing strong relationships with Australia, and with you and with your potential customers for offtake.”

Producers in nations including Australia can also access support through agencies including the Department of Energy’s loan programs office, Granholm said at the Wednesday meeting.

China accounts for almost three-quarters of manufacturing capacity for lithium-ion batteries needed for electric vehicles and renewables energy storage, and dominates steps throughout the supply chain, including the processing of a suite of key metals. The nation is also the world’s dominant supplier of solar power equipment, and is seeking to build out its market share in the emerging clean hydrogen sector.

Syrah Resources Ltd., a Melbourne-based graphite producer with facilities in Mozambique and Louisiana, in April won a $107 million commitment from the loan programs office.

Rare earths producer Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. in June signed a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to establish a plant in Texas.

(By David Stringer)

US says it is concerned critical minerals vulnerable to manipulation

Reuters | July 12, 2022 | 

Stock image.

US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the government is concerned that supplies of critical minerals, used widely in clean energy technology, could be subject to weaponization as oil and gas have been amid the Ukraine conflict.


“Our concern is that critical minerals could be as subject or vulnerable to manipulation as we’ve seen in other areas, or weaponisation,” Granholm said at the start of talks with Australia’s resources minister and executives from 14 mining companies at the Sydney Energy Forum.

“I think it’s healthy and from a national security perspective for both of our nations to diversify supply chains and make sure that these minerals are available to get to the ultimate goal of net zero,” she said.

Companies at the meeting included global giant Rio Tinto, rare earths producer Lynas Rare Earths, mineral sands miner Iluka Resources, graphite miner Syrah Resources and rare earths developer Arafura Resources.

“We are very serious about establishing strong relationships with Australia and with you and with your potential customers for offtake,” Granholm said.

Lynas recently won a $120 million contract from the US defense department to build a heavy rare earths separation plant in Texas.

(By Sonali Paul; Editing by Chris Reese)

Ecuador court endorses environmental permits for Dundee’s Loma Larga gold project
Cecilia Jamasmie | July 13, 2022 |

The Loma Larga gold-silver-copper project is located in southern Ecuador. (Image courtesy of former owner IVN Metals.)

Canadian miner Dundee Precious Metals (TSX: DPM) has scored a win in Ecuador as a local court upheld the validity of the company’s environmental permits for exploration at its Loma Larga gold underground project.


The Judicial Labour Unit of the southern city of Cuenca also reaffirmed Dundee’s mining concessions, by ruling that the mining ministry had not violated certain rights relating to the protection of water and nature in granting Dundee’s permits.

Non-government organizations and local agencies had filed a constitutional protective action against Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition by non-government organizations and local agencies, claiming the authority had breached community rights.

“This is a positive step forward for the Loma Larga project,” president and CEO David Rae said in the statement.

Dundee added the court’s oral decision determined the company will have to include the local indigenous populations in its consultation process before proceeding to the exploitation phase.

The company noted it had already planned to do so as part of project development.

The court’s written verdict is expected to be delivered within a week’s time, Dundee said, after which the claimants will have three days to file an appeal. During this time, the company’s drilling activities will remain paused, pending its assessment of the written decision and the impact of any appeals that are filed.

Dundee’s added Loma Larga to its portfolio in 2021 after acquiring junior miner IVN Metals. The deal handed the company other four concessions in Ecuador — Carolina, La Rebuscada, Las Peñas and Tierras Coloradas.

Other than its Ecuador assets, the company’s current asset portfolio includes two mines in Bulgaria, a copper smelter in Namibia and the Timok gold project in Serbia.