All articles tagged with #mining
A slope collapse at an open-pit gold mine near Policarpa in Colombia's Nariño region killed 13 workers and left seven injured; officials said the incident was a landslide rather than an explosion, and many workers were part of informal mining operations, including members of the Quillacinga Indigenous group, highlighting safety risks in artisanal mining.
Democrats plan aggressive scrutiny of the Trump administration’s multi‑billion‑dollar push into domestic critical minerals, citing possible conflicts of interest with the Trump family and Cantor Fitzgerald as they demand records and consider subpoenas. With hundreds of deals and billions in federal backing aimed at reshoring supply chains, lawmakers are probing firms like Vulcan Elements, USA Rare Earth, and Kaz Resources, while the White House defends the program as vital to national security and industry cautions about chilling investment.
Barrick and Newmont have ended a long-running dispute by agreeing to fold Barrick’s Fourmile asset into the Nevada Gold Mines JV and allowing Barrick’s planned North American IPO, with Newmont paying about $2 billion to reflect Fourmile’s value; the deal includes governance changes at NGM and Barrick plans to float 10-15% of the North American business, while Barrick’s shares fell about 8% on the news.
Terawulf signs a 20-year lease with Anthropic to build a ~401 MW AI data-center campus at Justified Data in Hawesville, KY, potentially generating about $19 billion in revenue, sending Bitcoin mining stocks higher (including Terawulf, IREN, Hut 8, Cipher Digital) as the company pivots toward AI infrastructure; concurrently, Terawulf agrees to sell its 50.1% stake in the Abernathy Joint Venture to a Fluidstack-led group for roughly $450 million, monetizing its investment with first-phase online in late 2027 and full capacity by early 2028.
Lode Gold Resources has begun engineering studies at the Fremont Gold Mine in Mariposa County, estimating an inferred 1.98 million ounces of gold—worth about $8.2 billion at 2026 prices—and only about 8% of the resource has been mined. The project aims to establish a technical baseline and move toward a comprehensive mine plan with near-term production, contributing to a broader resurgence of mining along California’s historic Mother Lode and boosting local life in Mariposa County.
An eastern Congo gold town, Mongbwalu in Ituri, is believed to be the outbreak’s birthplace, with Ebola then spreading to Bunia and beyond; the Bundibugyo strain was confirmed on May 15 after genomic sequencing; as of June 20, Congo logged about 1,003 confirmed cases, including 220 in Mongbwalu, though aid workers say the true toll is higher; transmission has been fueled by poverty and a mobile mining workforce, while distrust of responders and delays in testing complicate containment.
A senior banker pressed Pope Leo XIV to consider rare-earth mining as a path to development, recounting a private audience with mining executives; weeks later, the Vatican launched a divestment push and urged dialogue with Indigenous communities about extraction, underscoring the tension between mineral wealth and environmental and social costs as Leo prepares a Peru visit.
China warns that Indonesia’s recent nickel regulations—lowered mining quotas and a new pricing mechanism—could jeopardize about $50 billion in Chinese investment, with $30 billion in existing projects and $20 billion in planned investments at risk and up to 400,000 jobs affected, as higher production costs disrupt operations; Jakarta also tightens export controls and expands state oversight, drawing pushback from Chinese officials and companies seeking policy stability.
A Bundibugyo strain Ebola outbreak in eastern DR Congo has escalated into a regional crisis, driven by illegal gold mining and deforestation that bring workers into contact with wildlife; with hundreds infected and cases spilling into Uganda, WHO has declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern as armed conflict and mistrust hinder containment and no approved vaccines exist for this strain.
MIT researchers report a low-temperature, acid-free method to extract lithium from hard rock spodumene by dissolving the silicate matrix with ammonium fluoride, freeing lithium and aluminum for purification. Tested on 17 ore sources with >95% Li recovery, the process is closed-loop and avoids roasting, potentially lowering costs and carbon waste compared with traditional brine evaporation or hard-rock mining. A pilot via spinout Rock Zero is planned, but industrial-scale testing is still needed and could address the looming lithium supply challenge while reducing mining’s environmental footprint.
China’s Liushenyu coal mine disaster toll in Shanxi was revised downward to 82 dead from an earlier figure of 90, with 247 workers underground at the time, 128 injured, and two still unaccounted for. All four mines owned by Shanxi Tongzhou Coal Coking Group have been closed and executives detained as authorities call for safety reforms and order an investigation, making this the deadliest Chinese mining accident since 2009.
A gas explosion at the Liushenyu coal mine in Changzhi’s Qinyuan County, Shanxi Province, China, killed 90 people, according to state media, as rescuers continue to work at the scene.
In Changzhi, northeast China, carbon monoxide levels in the Liushenyu coal mine exceeded safe limits, killing four workers and trapping 90 underground; 247 were underground at the time of the incident, and by early Saturday about 157 had been evacuated, with around 16 in critical condition as rescuers press on.
Honduran authorities arrested former Tocoa mayor Adan Funez along with two accomplices on suspicion of masterminding the 2024 assassination of environmental defender Juan Lopez, a critic of a local iron-oxide mining project. Prosecutors say the trio were the intellectual authors of the killing; the case underscores ongoing environmental and political tensions in the region, with the trial slated to begin next June.
Barrick's Q1 2026 results show gold production of 719,000 oz (above the 640,000–680,000 oz guidance) and copper 49,000 t, driving operating cash flow of $2.55B and attributable free cash flow of $1.21B; net earnings were $1.60B and adjusted $1.65B, with 2026 gold guidance unchanged at 2.90–3.25 Moz. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.175 and authorized a $3.0B share buyback, while advancing growth projects (Fourmile, Lumwana) and pursuing a North American IPO planned for year-end.