Hydrogen-based thermal power produced using aluminum scrap

Staff Writer | March 17, 2023 | 

Found Energy’s process uses hard-to-recycle aluminum scrap grades such as foil. (Reference image by blikss, Flickr).

Boston-based startup Found Energy announced that it has successfully produced 20 kW of continuous, hydrogen-based thermal power in an experimental reactor using 1 kilogram of low-grade aluminum scrap such as foil as a fuel source.


According to the company, the scrap is treated with a proprietary catalyst that causes it to liberate hydrogen particles contained in a water bath, which can either be burned for thermal energy or stored in a fuel cell.

Once the reaction is over and the heat and hydrogen dissipate, aluminum hydroxide is left behind. Aluminum hydroxide is a chemical precursor to alumina that primary smelters use to make pure aluminum metal.

The reactor, capable of producing electricity in the kilowatt range, is the company’s initial offering. The plan in the third quarter is to begin testing a model capable of producing electricity in the megawatt range.

Found Energy hopes to market the low-emission power source to heavy industrial energy consumers such as aluminum smelters, long-haul trucking and ocean-going freighters, all fueled by oil-based products with more extensive carbon footprints.

The firm also expects ammonia producers for fertilizers – who typically use hydrogen extracted via steam methane reforming – to look into the new technology as it is an alternative solution capable of delivering hydrogen in a safer manner and with higher volumetric energy density.

With files from Argus Media.

GREENWASHING

Teck’s Trail Operations in British Columbia makes the Zinc Mark

INDUSTRY SELF REGULATION
Staff Writer | March 16, 2023 | 

Trail Operations is one of the world’s largest fully integrated zinc and lead smelting and refining complexes. (Image courtesy of Teck Resources.)

Teck Resources (TSX: TECK.A and TECK.B, NYSE: TECK) announced Thursday that Teck Trail Operations has committed to the Zinc Mark.


The Zinc Mark is part of the Copper Mark’s multi-metals approach, using an assurance framework that aims to promote responsible production practices and demonstrate commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Teck is one of the world’s largest producers of mined zinc, and Teck Trail Operations is one of the world’s largest fully integrated zinc and lead smelting and refining facilities.

“Zinc has a critical role to play in the transition to a low-carbon economy. It is used for renewable energy storage and galvanizes the steel needed in everything from transit lines to wind turbines, making clean infrastructure last longer – and therefore more sustainable,” Teck CEO Jonathan Price said in the statement.

“Participating in the Zinc Mark is part of our ongoing work to ensure responsible zinc production for our customers and local communities.”

To achieve the Zinc Mark, Teck’s Trail Operations was assessed and independently verified against 32 responsible production criteria this year.

“IZA is proud to see the Zinc Mark entering the market,” Andrew Green, executive director of the International Zinc Association said. “With the Zinc Mark, a full ESG assurance framework becomes available for all Zinc producers around the world to demonstrate their commitment to responsible zinc production and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.”

Newmont to study direct air carbon capture in its tailings

Henry Lazenby | March 16, 2023 | 

Yanacocha mine, in northern Peru’s Cajamarca region. (Image courtesy of Newmont.)

Newmont (TSX: NGT; NYSE: NEM), the world’s biggest gold miner, has partnered with the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to study a new approach for direct air sequestering of carbon in mine tailings.


The rapid electrochemical mineralization to form dolomite (REMineD) method will be explored in the three-year $4.3 million project. Co-funded by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management Technology Commercialization Fund, the project aims to advance the development of carbon dioxide removal technologies. It is seen as integral to meeting global climate goals.

The NREL will lead the work with partners, including the University of California Los Angeles, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Missouri University of Science and Technology. Newmont’s metallurgical services laboratory in Englewood, Colorado, and its innovation, energy and decarbonization, water and tailings and dams teams will provide strategic support to the effort.

According to Newmont, carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS) is an emerging process that can be used to carbon-neutralize hard-to-abate emissions. Sequestered in tailings, carbonate minerals can be converted into durable products that replace CO2-intensive concrete used in construction. And dolomite or pozzolans (such as silica) produced through the REMineD process reduces the CO2 footprint of concrete.

Newmont’s director of processing, Frank Roberto, says CCUS in tailings supports a long-term direction for the mining industry. “Waste rock and tailings are the largest components of residues from our mining operations, and the work for direct air capture of CO2 through tailings carbonation provides a unique opportunity to reduce our and others’ emissions throughout the value chain,” Roberto said.

The resources developed by REMineD can be deployed on-site at remote mining locations. The process can result in faster and more efficient ways to develop the dolomite aggregate from various tailings and generate additional revenue streams from further valuable rare earth elements recovery.

It will also result in the production of more sustainable building materials, Newmont says.

Direct air capture is a technology that captures carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and is a critical tool for counterbalancing hard-to-decarbonize sectors. It is shaping up to be a key component of meeting net-zero emissions goals in the US, according to the NREL

Germany in talks with coal giant to end mining eight years early

Bloomberg News | March 16, 2023 

Open-cast coal mine at Garzweiler, Germany. 

(Image by Herbert2512, Pixabay).

The German government is in talks with the country’s second-biggest coal miner to end production by 2030, eight years earlier than the company planned, according to people familiar with the matter.


Discussions between Economy Minister Robert Habeck and Thorsten Kramer, chief executive officer of LEAG, started after Habeck toured LEAG’s power plant near Spremberg last month and are continuing, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks aren’t public. Germany wants to phase out coal in 2030 — bringing forward an earlier target of 2038. Now it needs to get the companies to help it comply.

During Habeck’s visit on Feb. 22, Kramer pushed back against government pressure to meet the new timeline and insisted on sticking to the later date. The company — one of Europe’s top polluters — appears to be more flexible now, despite protests by some of its 7,000 employees, who fear losing their jobs.

The EPH Group, which owns 50% of LEAG’s shares, said it doesn’t comment on company operations. A ministry spokeswoman said talks with LEAG about its exit from coal are occurring at all levels.

Three years ago, Berlin promised LEAG €1.75 billion ($1.86 billion) to get out of coal by 2038, but the European Commission is investigating whether this state aid is legitimate. LEAG said in a company statement it’s in talks with the government about several issues, including this compensation and the infrastructure needed to convert power plants to using hydrogen.

In January, Kramer signaled in an interview with German broadcaster ntv that there could be scenarios under which the company would no longer burn coal by 2033.

The government reached an agreement in October with largest utility RWE AG to exit coal in 2030, when Europe’s biggest economy wants to cut carbon emissions by two-thirds and generate 80% of its power from renewable sources.

Germany boosted its reliance on the dirtiest fossil fuel after Russia curbed gas supplies in the fallout from its invasion of Ukraine. It even restarted some coal-fired plants that already were offline.

(By Petra Sorge and Gautam Naik)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$T ROBBER BARON

Elon Musk’s Starlink linked to illegal mining in Brazil

Jackson Chen | March 16, 2023 | 

SpaceX’s starlink satellites stream across the sky in Brazil. 

Image source: Wikipedia.

Perhaps not even the biggest Elon Musk detractors could have imagined one of his ventures being linked to unethical mining.


Reports this week by The Associated Press revealed that illegal gold miners in Brazil’s Amazon have been using Musk’s Starlink high-speed internet technology as a novel tool for illicit operations.

Launched in 2019 as a division of SpaceX, Starlink is a low latency, broadband internet system consisting of nearly 3,600 low-orbit satellites that aims to connect the underserved areas of the planet with the rest of the world.

In Brazil, this technology was made available last January as part of a government-led project to serve schools in rural areas and monitor the Amazon rainforest. While that project has failed to gain traction, the use of Starlink has only grown across a region populated by illegal mining groups, according to reports.

Illegal miners have long relied on internet as a means for communication, but the logistics involved in setup and the luck needed for it to work without getting caught by law enforcement, would have been a gamble. So Musk’s Starlink may have been seen as a safer bet.

In a federal raid on an illegal mining site Tuesday, agents from the Brazilian environment agency’s special inspection group and the federal highway police rapid response group found one Starlink terminal up and running next to a pit, Associated Press reported.

Apart from the Starlink terminal, some mercury, less than an ounce of gold, camping and storage units among other mining and transportation equipment were reportedly seized.

The SpaceX-operated satellite is able to provide fast, stable internet service for coordinating logistics, receiving warning of raids, and making payments without having to fly to a city. The equipment is also easy to install and transport, making it the perfect tool for mining the Amazon.

“The benefits of connectivity were immediately apparent to bad actors in the Amazon,” Hugo Loss, operations coordinator for IBAMA, Brazil’s environment agency, told the Associated Press.

“This technology is extremely fast and really improves the ability to manage an illegal mine. You can manage hundreds of mining sites without ever setting foot in one,” he told AP.

When he took officer earlier this year, Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vowed to crack down on illegal mining in the country, in particular Yanomami land, its largest Indigenous territory. In recent years, it is estimated that around 20,000 prospectors have contaminated the region’s vital waterways with mercury used to separate gold, according to the AP

.

Starlink is now available throughout Brazil. Credit: SpaceX

Over the past five weeks, the nation’s environment agency has seized seven Starlink terminals in Yanomami land, including the two during the recent raid, the agency’s press office said in an emailed statement to AP.

“An untold number of the highly portable Starlink terminals could have been taken with miners as they fled sites into the rainforest,” it added.

IBAMA told the AP via email that it, along with other federal bodies, is currently studying how to block Starlink’s signal in illegal mining areas.

“This measure is crucial to dismantling the logistics that sustain illegal mining in Indigenous territories,” IBAMA’s press office said.

Whether any further action taken by Brazil’s authorities remains to be seen. What’s for certain is Starlink’s presence in the Amazon is posing a big challenge to President Lula’s mission to eradicate illegal mining.

Related Article: How wildcat mining is behind the Yanomami crisis in Brazil

Glencore won’t renew Rusal aluminum deal as things stand

Bloomberg News | March 16, 2023 

Aluminum smelter.

 (Reference image by UC Rusal Photo Gallery, Wikimedia Commons).

Glencore Plc is willing to walk away from a $16 billion deal to buy aluminum from Russia’s No. 1 producer, in a move that would distance itself from one of its biggest rivals.


Under the company’s current policy of not doing any new business with Russia, it won’t renew a deal with United Co. Rusal International PJSC when that expires next year, according to Glencore chief executive officer Gary Nagle. The trading house introduced that policy a month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but continued to honor existing contracts.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Nagle said in an interview last week. The company has said it will only do new business with Russia if asked to by governments.

The ending of the contract would provide a rare opportunity for Glencore’s biggest rivals to gain greater sway in the global aluminum market, assuming they’re comfortable trading Russian metal that many consumers are refusing to buy. If Rusal can’t strike a new deal of an equivalent size, it may lead to increased deliveries of Russian aluminum into London Metal Exchange warehouses, which could add to pressure on global prices during a weak period for demand.

Still, Nagle said the company’s stance could change depending on how the situation unfolds in Ukraine. “You can’t foresee every single situation that involves a change of policies.”

“You review your policy based on what goes on in the world,” he said. “If there’s peace in Ukraine tomorrow, and the world is comfortable with people doing business with Russia again, yes, we’ll be involved.”

Nagle’s comments come just weeks after Bloomberg reported that one of its biggest trading rivals, Trafigura Group, is in talks about securing its own supply of metal from Rusal. Trafigura has said it will comply with sanctions. Rusal is not under Western sanctions.

Read More: Trafigura lines up Russia aluminum deal in challenge to Glencore

For Glencore, ending its relationship with the Russian giant would signal a major change as Rusal’s metal has for years underpinned its status as the dominant global aluminum trader. The agreement has been vital for Glencore as unlike many other commodities, such as copper and coal, it does not have its own producing assets.

In 2020, Rusal announced the $16 billion deal, under which it would sell about one-third of its production to Glencore. The deal would run until 2024, with an option to extend it through 2025, the Russian company said at the time.

Nagle said Glencore doesn’t need to cut new deals with Russia to deliver for its customers or shareholders, with energy driving record trading profits of $6.4 billion last year.

“Look how well we did last year with our policy,” Nagle said. “We had a fabulous year doing that by trading non-Russian material. So we provided a service to the world and we had a great return on our trading business.”

Glencore still owns a 10.6% stake in Rusal’s parent company EN+ Group International PJSC. It has previously said there is “no realistic way to exit” in the current environment.

(By Thomas Biesheuvel and Will Kennedy, with assistance from Mark Burton)

Related Article: Glencore CEO says his company is cheapest way to benefit from copper price boom

Vale scrubs coal from iron ore pellets for first time

Reuters | March 16, 2023 | 

Image courtesy of Vale SA

Brazilian miner Vale produced iron ore pellets on an industrial scale for the first time without adding coal, company executives told Reuters on Wednesday, in a major step toward reducing the company’s carbon footprint.


In pellet production, coal is usually mixed with iron ore before being heated in plant furnaces. In Vale’s pilot project, conducted in February in Minas Gerais state, the so-called biocarbon obtained from biomass replaced traditional coal, an especially dirty fossil fuel.

Industrial heavyweights like Vale face growing pressure to lower harmful emissions that contribute to global warming, from governments, activists as well as investors.

During Vale’s pilot, 15,000 tonnes of coal-free pellets were made with 100% biocarbon from certified supplies, according to the company. Biocarbon is a renewable energy source obtained through biomass carbonization, which results in much lower emissions.

Pellets are typically made by crushing and grinding low-grade iron ore and used as a key ingredient to make steel.

Pellet production is the most carbon-intensive process contributing to Vale’s direct emissions, with anthracite coal accounting for about half of its greenhouse gas emissions from making pellets, said Rodrigo Araujo, the miner’s head of decarbonization projects.

Overall, making pellets accounts for 30% of the firm’s direct emissions.

Vale will carry out further tests this year, aiming to permanently replace all coal used in its pellet plants by 2030.

“It was very important to confirm what we saw in the laboratory, which had no impact on the quality of the pellet, the first barrier we wanted to overcome, and also the entire test in relation to logistics, process, storage, material management and related risks,” said Araujo.

The project is part of Vale’s strategy to fulfill its commitment to net zero carbon emissions in direct and indirect emissions by 2050.

(By Marta Nogueira and Peter Frontini; Editing by David Alire Garcia)

BHP’s Project Dig unearths 100-million-year-old fossil in Western Queensland

Staff Writer | March 16, 2023 | 

Fossilized elasmosaur, a long-necked plesiosaur that co-existed with dinosaurs in the early Cretaceous Period. Image from BHP.

Project DIG, a partnership between Queensland Museum Network, BHP and BHP Mitsubishi Alliance has uncovered a rare new fossil from Western Queensland.


A team of palaeontologists, led by the Museum Network’s Dr. Espen Knutsen, has unearthed Australia’s first head and associated body of a 100-million-year-old elasmosaur, a long-necked plesiosaur that co-existed with dinosaurs in the early Cretaceous Period.

It is rare to find a preserved head and body together as these fragments are usually separated after death due to the elasmosaur’s long slender neck. Several other specimens, including fragments from an ichthyosaur were collected from the site in Western Queensland and will be transported to the Museum of Tropical Queensland in Townsville for further research, BHP said in a media release.

The discovery of these specimens combined with modern analytical methodologies may hold the key to unravelling the diversity and evolution of marine reptiles in Cretaceous Australia, the miner said.

With BHP and BMA’s support Project DIG is designed to transform how the museum stores, explores and shares the State Collection and research with communities worldwide

. Learn more about the rare fossil find from Western Queensland here.

Fortescue, NREL partner to boost green hydrogen development

Staff Writer | March 16, 2023 |

Andrew Forrest, chairman of Fortescue Future Industries. tours the outdoor Hydrogen Fueling Station and Bioreactor at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. (Image by Joe DelNero, courtesy of NREL).

West Australian Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), a subsidiary of Fortescue Metals Group, and the US’ National Renewable Energy Laboratory have partnered to develop a green hydrogen research center in Colorado.


The initial collaboration will be three years, but ultimately FFI expects to invest $80 million over a decade in research projects with NREL.

“It is exciting to contemplate how NREL can assist FFI and Fortescue in achieving their very aggressive Scope 1, 2, and 3 carbon emission reduction goals and help them build their clean hydrogen business,” Bill Farris, NREL’s associate laboratory director for innovation, partnering and outreach, said in a media statement.

“Over the next several years, we will work together on these goals and utilize a broad set of NREL capabilities ranging from energy systems integration and hydrogen fueling to PV and membrane materials and high-performance computing.”

Farris pointed out that the first FFI team members have arrived in Colorado and are getting settled in to collaborate with NREL on an initial set of projects, including an extensive R&D program for water electrolysis, in support of FFI’s electrolyzer manufacturing effort.

Other topics that are being explored are the use of hydrogen directly as a fuel or converted to sustainable fuels for applications like trucks, rail, ships, and aviation; blending hydrogen directly with natural gas in pipelines or used as a feedstock in processes to produce renewable natural gas; combining it with waste products such as carbon dioxide to form high-density liquid fuels and valuable chemicals; employing hydrogen to provide energy, heat, and chemical building blocks for industrial processes; and leveraging its capabilities as an energy storage medium, which is available even for long-duration seasonal storage, and can enable larger-scale deployment and use of renewable electricity.

The researchers will also have to address major challenges related to the cost, scale, durability, and manufacturability of green hydrogen.

Farris noted that NREL’s hydrogen research also supports the H2@Scale vision, the US Department of Energy’s vision for clean hydrogen to be a central component of a clean, sustainable, efficient, and economic energy system. This vision encompasses all aspects of hydrogen research: making it, moving it, storing it, and using it.

FFI leaders said they chose NREL in part because of the fertile ecosystem not only in the United States but particularly in Colorado. Alongside the NREL collaboration and establishment of its US center, FFI also intends to forge relationships with the Colorado School of Mines, University of Colorado, and Colorado State University, as well as other leading research labs and universities across the United States.

Northern Star halts Pogo gold mine in Alaska

Staff Writer | March 15, 2023 |

Pogo mine rests in the Tintina mineral belt, a 200km-wide province that stretches 1200km across much of Alaska through to the south-eastern Yukon. (Image from Pogo Mine’s website)

Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST) has temporarily halted gold production at its Pogo operation in Alaska while repairs are underway on the ball mill motor. Located 145 km southeast of Fairbanks, the Pogo operation covers around 17,080 hectares of mining and exploration leases.


Towards the end of a routine mill shutdown that commenced last week, the team discovered damage to the ball mill motor at Pogo which tripped during restart, Northern Star said in a news release on Wednesday.

At this stage, the company expects repair work to the ball mill motor to take up to six weeks. Cost management initiatives have been introduced and team efforts have been prioritized towards the mill repair so that gold production at Pogo can safely resume as soon as possible, it added.

As a result of this unplanned motor repair, Pogo’s production is likely impacted by 20,000-40,000 ounces in 2023. However, Northern Star’s full-year production guidance remains unchanged.

The Pogo mine entered commercial production in 2006 and was later acquired by the company in 2018. The deposit currently contains probable reserves totalling 1.8 million oz. from 6.6 million tonnes grading 8.5 g/t gold.