Aerial view of the Pinto Valley copper mine, located on private and U.S. national forest lands in Gila County, Ariz.
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Hard rock minerals like gold, silver, copper and lithium on public lands belong to the American public, but under a 150-year-old law, the US gives them away for free.
The search for the room-temperature superconductor continues.
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Claims about the discovery of a coveted room-temperature superconductor peppered the news in 2023. We pulled three stories from our archives on what superconductivity is and why scientists study it.
Steel production in an electric arc furnace.
Norenko Andrey/Shutterstock
The demand for the minerals needed to build clean energy technology currently exceeds the available supply. If this issue continues, governments may find it hard to reach their clean energy targets.
Heavy metals can be toxic to plants - and humans, too.
Andrii Yalanskyi/Shutterstock
While iron and calcium are the metals that get the most attention, zinc is also important for human health and function.
Factory robots could soon acquire a range of skills, including the ability to choose how to make things.
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Custom fabrication involves taking measurements, choosing tools, deciding on sequences of steps and ordering from a menu of materials. AIs under development promise to take humans out of the loop.
While people may be familiar with precious metals, which are often at the heart of conflicts, there are also metals that are essential to good health.
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Iron fights anemia. Bismuth relieves gastric problems. Lithium acts against depression and gold can treat rheumatoid arthritis. Metals are precious tools for good health.
Manganese nodules on the Atlantic Ocean floor off the southeastern United States, discovered in 2019 during the Deep Sea Ventures pilot test.
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration
Companies are eager to mine the deep ocean for valuable mineral deposits. But scientists are concerned about impacts on sea life, including creatures that haven’t even been discovered yet.
Artisanal small-scale gold mining polluted this stream and deforested sections of the Madre de Dios area of Peru.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Small-scale gold mining operations in developing countries are major sources of toxic mercury pollution, using techniques that haven’t changed much since the California Gold Rush 150 years ago.
Pictured is a slag pile at Broken Hill in New South Wales. Slag is a man-made waste product created during smelting.
Anita Parbhakar-Fox
Manufacturing minerals is an expanding field of study. Making more of them could help alleviate various pressures faced by our growing population. But how are they made, and where can they be used?
The Bingham Canyon open-pit copper mine in Utah has operated since 1903.
David Guthrie/Flickr
China, which recycles much of the world’s waste material, is slashing its scrap imports. This move could force the United States and Europe to boost recycling instead of shipping trash overseas.
Identifying mine waste materials as economic resources will help support global demand for critical metals, boosting the mining industry during the downturn. All with environmental benefits.