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| =====Constructing soils for climate-smart mining=====
| | [[Mining Effects]] |
| [https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-00862-x by Francisco Ruiz, José Lucas Safanelli, Fabio Perlatti, Maurício Roberto Cherubin, José A. M. Demattê, Carlos Eduardo Pellegrino Cerri, Xosé Luis Otero, Cornelia Rumpel & Tiago Osório Ferreira 19/06/2023 Communications Earth & Enviroment] | | |
| Surface mining is inherently linked to climate change, but more precise monitoring of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is necessary. Here we combined the geolocation of mine sites and carbon stock datasets to show that if all legal active mining sites in Brazil are exploited over the next decades, 2.55 Gt of CO2 equivalent (CO2eq) will be emitted due to the loss of vegetation (0.87 Gt CO2eq) and soil (1.68 Gt CO2eq). To offset these emissions, we propose constructing soils (Technosols) from mine and other wastes for mine reclamation. We show that this strategy could potentially offset up to 60% (1.00 Gt CO2eq) of soil-related CO2 emissions. When constructed with suitable parent materials, Technosols can also restore important soil-related ecosystem services while improving waste management. The construction of healthy Technosols stands out as a promising nature-based solution towards carbon-neutral mining and should, therefore, be considered in future environmental policies of major mining countries.
| | [[Logging Effects]] |
| =====For The Navajo Nation, Uranium Mining's Deadly Legacy Lingers=====
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| [https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/04/10/473547227/for-the-navajo-nation-uranium-minings-deadly-legacy-lingers by Laurel Morales 10/4/16 npr] | | ===== Cost to clean up toxic PFAS pollution could top £1.6tn in UK and Europe ===== |
| The federal government is cleaning up a long legacy of uranium mining within the Navajo Nation — some 27,000 square miles spread across Utah, New Mexico and Arizona that is home to more than 250,000 people.
| | [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/14/cost-clean-up-toxic-pfas-pollution-forever-chemicals by Leana Hosea 14/1/25 The Guardian] |
| =====Strip Mining Worsened the Severity of Deadly Kentucky Floods, Say Former Mining Regulators. They Are Calling for an Investigation=====
| | The cost of cleaning up toxic forever chemical pollution could reach more than £1.6tn across the UK and Europe over a 20-year period, an annual bill of £84bn, research has found. |
| [https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07082022/strip-mining-flooding-kentucky/ by James Bruggers 7/8/22 Inside Climate News]
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| In past flooding, hydrologists have calculated runoff 1,000 times greater than without mining. Scientists say climate change will intensify heavy rains.
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| =====Deep-Sea Mining—Bonanza or Boondoggle?=====
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| [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/deep-sea-mining/ by Brooke Jarvis 25/6/13 PBS]
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| This is the world of deep sea hydrothermal vents, geothermally active fissures that are often miles beneath the ocean’s surface. It’s also, improbably, the next frontier of the mining industry—the future home of what some are calling a new gold rush.
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| =====Seven Mining, Metals Companies Partner on Responsible Sourcing with World Economic Forum=====
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| [https://www.weforum.org/press/2019/10/seven-mining-metals-companies-partner-on-responsible-sourcing-with-world-economic-forum/ by Amanda Russo 25/10/19 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM] | |
| The Mining and Metals Blockchain Initiative will pool resources and cost, increase speed-to-market and improve industry-wide trust that cannot be achieved by acting individually. It aims to be a neutral enabler for the industry, addressing the lack of standardization and improving efficiency. The intention is to send out a signal of inclusivity and collaboration across the industry. The group will look to develop joint proof-of-concepts for an inclusive blockchain platform. Over time, this could help the industry collectively increase transparency, efficiency or improve reporting of carbon emissions.
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| =====The Wartime Mining Boom Exporting Rare Earths, and Toxins=====
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| [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/world/asia/myanmar-mining-thailand-china.html by Hannah Beech 11/6/25 The New York Times] | |
| Unregulated rare earth mining in Myanmar, directed by Chinese enterprises, is poisoning the Kok and at least three other rivers that flow through Thailand. For months, levels of arsenic and other toxic metals have spiked to dangerous levels in Thai waterways, including the Mekong, government data shows.
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| =====Trump May Approve Strip Mining on Tennessee’s Protected Cumberland Plateau=====
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| [https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13022020/tennessee-coal-mining-trump-administration-cumberland-plateau/ by JAMES BRUGGERS 13/2/20 Inside Climate News]
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| LAFOLLETTE, Tennessee—Even as the nation’s demand for coal tumbles, the Trump administration is considering a permit that would allow strip mining on protected ridgelines in Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau over the objection of environmental groups and the state’s Republican attorney general.
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| =====How mountaintop mining affects life and landscape in West Virginia===== | |
| [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/mountaintop-mining-affects-life-landscape-west-virginia by Miles O'Brien 3/5/17 PBS NEWS]
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| Deep layers of underground coal are all but gone in West Virginia after 200 years of relentless mining, leaving thinner seams of coal on top of the state's beautiful mountains. But surface mining carries a huge cost: nothing less than mountains themselves. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien reports on how the Appalachian landscape is being fundamentally and irrevocably changed.
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| =====Sago: The Anatomy of Reporting Gone Wrong=====
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| [https://www.npr.org/2006/01/04/5126627/sago-the-anatomy-of-reporting-gone-wrong by David Folkenflik 4/1/06 npr]
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| National news organizations flooded the small mining community of Sago, W. Va., to cover the trapped miners. But mistaken information from seemingly authoritative sources allowed good news to outrace the truth.
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| =====Biden’s order to increase mining to power electric vehicles raises contamination concerns=====
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| [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/bidens-order-to-increase-mining-to-power-electric-vehicles-raises-contamination-concerns by Matthew Daly 30/4/22 PBS NEWS]
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| Biden’s action, part of his efforts to find alternatives to fossil fuels and combat climate change, does not waive or suspend existing environmental and labor standards, the White House said. Nor does it address the chief hurdle to increased domestic extraction of so-called critical minerals: the years-long process needed to obtain a federal permit for a new mine.
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| =====In Southern Arizona, Community Opposition to Mining Grows in Towns That Once Depended on the Industry=====
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| [https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08052025/southern-arizona-sky-islands-mining-opposition/ by Wyatt Myskow, Yana Kunichoff 8/5/25 Inside Climate News]
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| A rush of proposals to mine the state’s famed “sky islands” with water drawn from overtaxed aquifers is drawing opposition from people who know the industry’s boom and bust cycles.
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| =====Gold mining leaves heart of Peruvian Amazon a wasteland=====
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| [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/gold-mining-leaves-heart-of-peruvian-amazon-a-wasteland by Leo Schwartz 21/9/19 PBS NEWS] | |
| A decade of illegal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon has left thousands of acres of rainforest a wasteland. Unpermitted miners cleared vast sections of trees near Peru's border with Brazil and infused the land with mercury, causing an environmental disaster. But some miners have fled after Peruvian troops moved in. Special correspondent Leo Schwartz reports in the first of a two-part series.
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| =====In Philippines, workers toil among hazards in compressor mining=====
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| [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/in-philippines-workers-toil-among-hazards-in-compressor-mining by Richard C. Paddock 27/1/14 PBS NEW]
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| He works on a floating wooden platform in shallow Mambulao Bay in what is one of the world’s most dangerous professions: compressor mining.
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| =====Natural capital accounts: What are they and how can mining companies use them to measure and value nature=====
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| [https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/11/mining-companies-can-measure-and-value-nature-this-is-how/ by Mischa Traynor 23/11/23 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM]
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| The World Bank estimates that the production of energy-critical minerals will increase 500% by 2050 to meet the growing demand for clean energy infrastructure, such as wind power and electric vehicles.
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| =====In Philippines, workers toil among hazards in compressor mining=====
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| [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/in-philippines-workers-toil-among-hazards-in-compressor-mining by Richard C. Paddock 27/1/14 PBS NEWS]
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| “Sometimes, I am scared to go down because of the possibility it will collapse,” said Brian, the fourth of nine children in his family. “But I like the job because I get money. I give the money to my parents for food.”
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| =====Natural capital accounts: What are they and how can mining companies use them to measure and value nature=====
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| [https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/11/mining-companies-can-measure-and-value-nature-this-is-how/ by Mischa Traynor 23/11/23 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM]
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| The increasing need for more minerals and metals requires more mining activity, and this can lead to pressure on ecological systems and the environmental, social and economic benefits they support. More than half of the world’s economic output – $44 trillion of economic value generation – is highly or moderately dependent on nature and the biodiversity that underpins our natural systems. Rapid declines in biodiversity, therefore, represent a significant threat to humanity and economic stability.
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| =====Corruption and Rights Abuses Are Flourishing in Lithium Mining Across Africa, a New Report Finds=====
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| [https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15112023/lithium-mining-africa-human-rights-violations-corruption/ by Katie Surma 15/11/23 Inside Climate News]
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| A subsistence miner, he had been searching for chunks of ore in a rubble pile when a security guard at the mine site fired his weapon without warning, family members and local human rights activists said in interviews. Vito died a week later from his injuries.
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| =====How can innovation make mining more sustainable?=====
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| [https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/04/sustainable-mining-uplink-radio-davos-podcast/ by Robin Pomeroy 30/4/24 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM]
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| “Whether it's semiconductors or cars or cellphones or the toothpaste that you use to brush your teeth in the morning, it all depends on the mining industry in one way or the other,” says Vivek Salgaocar, director of the Vimson Group and Prospect Innovation. “So if we can actually tackle these issues at the source, we're truly then greening our supply chain. I think that has very, very far reaching ramifications.”
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| =====Backed by International Investors, Mining Companies Line Up to Expand in or Near the Amazon’s Indigenous Territories=====
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| [https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22022022/backed-by-international-investors-mining-companies-line-up-to-expand-in-or-near-the-amazons-indigenous-territories/ by Katie Surma 22/2/22 Inside Climate News]
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| U.S.-based financial institutions are among their top funders, according to a new report by Amazon Watch and the Association of Brazil’s Indigenous People, or APIB. In the past, those mining companies caused environmental damage that sickened Indigenous communities, stirred social discontent and contributed to the “trail of destruction” of the Amazon rainforest.
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| =====7 ways the mining sector can prepare for the coming economic era=====
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| [https://www.weforum.org/stories/2020/11/mining-and-metals-new-economy/ by Jordan Calderon 9/11/20 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM]
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| The mining and metals industry is facing an unprecedented paradigm shift as it begins to implement new technologies while also managing climate and social challenges. Through raising awareness of these issues, and by focusing on new digital solutions, growing material demand, and investor pressures, the industry can strengthen its foundational role in a rapidly evolving global economy.
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| =====New Ghana mining laws to shorten licence periods, boost community investment=====
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| [https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/new-ghana-mining-laws-shorten-licence-periods-boost-community-investment-2025-07-23/ by Reuters 23/7/25]
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| ACCRA, July 23 (Reuters) - Ghana plans to shorten mining licence durations and mandate direct revenue-sharing with local communities in its most sweeping mining law reforms in nearly two decades, details of which were announced by a government minister on Wednesday.
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| =====Trump Executive Order Streamlines Mining Permits. Environmentalists Fear What Comes Next=====
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| [https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21032025/trump-order-streamlines-mining-permits/ by Wyatt Myskow 21/3/25 Inside Climate News]
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| President Donald Trump signed an executive order behind closed doors on Thursday that aims to fast-track mining projects across the country and prioritize mineral production on public lands with suitable resources—a decision natural resource lawyers and environmentalists say has the potential to dismantle protected landscapes like national monuments as well as threaten endangered species, waterways and local communities.
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| =====4 ways blockchain will transform the mining and metals industry=====
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| [https://www.weforum.org/stories/2018/07/4-ways-blockchain-will-transform-the-mining-and-metals-industry/ by Max Weiland 10/7/18 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM]
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| The mining and metals industry is a critical component of the global economy. However, many operational and commercial practices remain inefficient and antiquated, leading to critical data omissions, security vulnerabilities and even corruption.
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| =====These Tribal Activists Want Biden To Stop A Planned Lithium Mine On Their Sacred Land=====
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| [https://www.npr.org/2021/09/02/1031726626/these-tribal-activists-want-biden-to-stop-a-planned-lithium-mine-on-their-sacred by Kirk Siegler 2/9/21 npr]
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| McKinney, a Shoshone-Paiute tribal member from the Duck Valley Reservation in Nevada, wears black sunglasses and an American Indian Movement ski hat and tank top, exposing his tattooed, muscled arms. He's one of a dozen or so tribal and environmental activists who started camping here early this year, a peaceful occupation, they say, in protest of a planned lithium mine on federal Bureau of Land Management land.
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| =====Chile's Codelco halts mining projects after reporting second worker death=====
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| [https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/chiles-codelco-halts-mining-projects-after-reporting-second-worker-death-2022-07-20/ by Reuters 20/7/22]
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| On Monday, the company announced it would keep construction of its Rajo Inca project halted after reporting the death of one worker after a truck driven by a contractor slid off a platform at a dump while the operator was outside of the control cabin. The truck then slid 40 meters (131 feet) down a slope killing the operator. read more It reported another death at its Chuqui Subterranea project, an expansion of the historical Chuquicamatamining, earlier on Wednesday. | |
| =====Fighting the legacy of mining in Lesotho=====
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| [https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2016/6/27/fighting-the-legacy-of-mining-in-lesotho by Caelainn Hogan 27/6/16 ALJAZEERA]
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| Lesotho – On a hard shoulder of the God Help Me Pass, a road snaking through the vast peaks of Lesotho, a landlocked mountain kingdom in southern Africa, men who worked for years underground line up in the bright sun outside a cluster of tents.
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| =====Drilling, Mining Boom Possible But Unlikely Under Trump’s Final Plan for Southern Utah Lands=====
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| [https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07022020/national-monument-extraction-emissons-bear-ears-grand-staircase-escalante/ by Judy Fahys 7/2/20 Inside Climate News]
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| As ominous as it might seem, the Trump administration’s plan to reverse limits on new mining, drilling and development across a vast swath of federal land in southern Utah is unlikely to unleash a fossil fuel bonanza anytime soon.
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| =====Innovation can disrupt the mining industry. These sustainable start-ups are leading the way=====
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| [https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/11/13-innovations-making-the-mining-and-metals-industry-more-sustainable/ by Miranda Barker 29/11/24 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM]
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| The increasing population and the reliance on technology, such as electric vehicles, energy systems and advanced electronics, has raised the demand for minerals and metals like lithium, cobalt, rare earth elements, and copper. This transition necessitates an even greater reliance on these minerals compared to conventional methods. For instance, an electric car requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional car.
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| =====U.S. mining sites dump 50 million gallons of fouled wastewater daily=====
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| [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/u-s-mining-sites-dump-50-million-gallons-of-fouled-wastewater-daily by Matthew Brown 20/2/19 PBS NEWS]
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| The pollution is a legacy of how the mining industry was allowed to operate in the U.S. for more than a century. Companies that built mines for silver, lead, gold and other “hardrock” minerals could move on once they were no longer profitable, leaving behind tainted water that still leaks out of the mines or is cleaned up at taxpayer expense.
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| =====Forget about rare earth minerals. We need more copper=====
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| [https://www.npr.org/2025/03/16/nx-s1-5327095/copper-rare-earth-minerals-mining-electronics by
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| Scott Neuman 16/3/25 npr]
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| In recent weeks, you've likely heard a lot about rare-earth substances, thanks to President Trump's stalled efforts to secure a minerals deal with Ukraine and his talk of annexing Greenland. These vital substances fuel the growing renewables and electric-vehicle industries. However, many experts warn that the shortage of another crucial metal, used in electronics, wiring and even plumbing could be just as concerning.
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| =====Trump signs executive order boosting deep-sea mining industry=====
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| [https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/trump-expected-sign-deep-sea-mining-executive-order-thursday-sources-2025-04-24/ by Ernest Scheyder and Jarrett Renshaw 24/4/25 Reuters]
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| April 24 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at boosting the deep-sea mining industry, marking his latest attempt to boost U.S. access to nickel, copper and other critical minerals used widely across the economy.
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| =====How 'modern-day slavery' in the Congo powers the rechargeable battery economy=====
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| [https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893248/red-cobalt-congo-drc-mining-siddharth-kara by Terry Gross 1/2/23 npr]
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| Smartphones, computers and electric vehicles may be emblems of the modern world, but, says Siddharth Kara, their rechargeable batteries are frequently powered by cobalt mined by workers laboring in slave-like conditions in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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| ======Panama celebrates court order to cancel mine even as business is hit======
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| [https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/11/30/panama-celebrates-court-order-to-cancel-mine-even-as-business-is-hit by Michael Fox 30/11/23 ALJAZEERA]
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| The country’s Supreme Court of Justice ruled that Panama’s new mining contract with the Canadian company First Quantum was unconstitutional.
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| =====Mining Critical to Renewable Energy Tied to Hundreds of Alleged Human Rights Abuses=====
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| [https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07062023/mining-clean-energy-human-rights/ by Katie Surma 7/6/23 Inside Climate News]
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| The Business and Human Rights Resource Center said the alleged abuses involve global mining for copper, lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel and zinc, all used in critical renewable technologies like solar panels, vehicle batteries and windmills.
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| =====Arizona Residents Fear What the State’s Mining Boom Will Do to Their Water=====
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| [https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09082024/arizona-copper-mining-water-impact/ by Wyatt Myskow 9/8/24 Inside Climate News]
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| MAMMOTH, Ariz.—Overlooking a ridge in the Galiuro Mountains, one of Arizona’s famed Sky Islands that provide refuges for wildlife in the hot Sonoran Desert, Melissa Crytzer Fry and her husband, Steve, stand above what could one day become an underground mine.
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| =====As the US Rushes After the Minerals for the Energy Transition, a 150-Year-Old Law Allows Mining Companies Free Rein on Public Lands=====
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| [https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13032022/as-the-us-rushes-after-the-minerals-for-the-energy-transition-a-150-year-old-law-allows-mining-companies-free-reign-on-public-lands/ by Jim Robbins 13/3/22 Inside Climate News]
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| A new open pit lithium mine was approved last year at Thacker Pass in Nevada, on publicly owned land managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management, to tap into this country’s largest known deposit of the mineral, worth nearly $4 billion.
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| =====Why innovation in the mining sector is critical for the energy transition=====
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| [https://www.weforum.org/stories/2022/11/why-innovation-in-the-mining-sector-is-critical-for-the-energy-transition/ by Vivek Salgaocar 2/11/22 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM]
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| Amid our global energy transition, corporations and governments are conscientiously building pathways to decarbonize our energy sources. These efforts hinge on how readily we embrace renewable energy sources, yet even renewable-based technologies require a massive input of materials, including metals and minerals. Conversely, they are more material intensive than traditional fossil-fuel-based systems, which creates a vital caveat in the global push to decarbonize.
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| =====In a Deep Red State, a Mining Regulator Is Wary of Possible Trump Cuts to Its Budget=====
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| [https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13062025/alabama-mining-regulator-wary-of-possible-trump-cuts/ by Lee Hedgepeth 13/6/25 Inside Climate News]
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| The Department of Interior makes that clear, or at least that is how she reads Title V of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. And “nobody wants that,” said Love, who heads the Alabama Surface Mining Commission. She met Thursday with commissioners and explained some of the budget woes still brewing in Washington.
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| =====Indigenous mining complicates Brazil's fight against illegal gold=====
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| [https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/indigenous-mining-complicates-brazils-fight-against-illegal-gold-2024-12-02/ by Ricardo Brito and Adriano Machado 2/12/24 Reuters]
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| JACAREACANGA, Brazil, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The involvement of Indigenous people in illegal gold hunting, lured by the prospect of easy money due to record prices, has made Brazil's task of cracking down on wildcat mining in the Amazon far harder, environmental agents and police say.
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