Menu Close

Articles on Mining

Displaying 41 - 60 of 545 articles

An ambitious clean energy transition requires more of the metals and minerals used to build clean energy technologies. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

How recycling could solve the shortage of minerals essential to clean energy

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.
Waterways and communities for miles around Idaho’s Bunker Hill mine were contaminated with lead after the 1973 fire. gjohnstonphoto/iStock/Getty Images Plus

50 years after the Bunker Hill mine fire caused one of the largest lead-poisoning cases in US history, Idaho’s Silver Valley is still at risk

A fire and decades of silver and lead mining created the largest contiguous Superfund site in the nation in what today is one of the fastest-growing states. It includes popular Lake Coeur d’Alene.
Lithium, essential for EV batteries, could be South America’s white gold. AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd

‘Global China’ is a big part of Latin America’s renewable energy boom, but homegrown industries and ‘frugal innovation’ are key

China is a major investor in Latin America’s renewable energy and critical minerals like lithium, but countries like Chile are also taking steps to secure their own clean energy future.
A Northern Territory lithium mine. Fleet Space Technologies/AAP

We could need 6 times more of the minerals used for renewables and batteries. How can we avoid a huge increase in mining impacts?

Nearly 400 new mines could open by 2035 to meet demand for the minerals used in global electrification. Better recycling can help with supply, but mining’s impacts will have to be better managed.
Shutterstock

Batteries are the environmental Achilles heel of electric vehicles – unless we repair, reuse and recycle them

The environmental impacts of electric vehicle batteries range from mining, and energy and water use to the hazards of discarded batteries. These issues can be resolved, but there’s no time to waste.
A highway loops around a tailings pond at the Syncrude facility in Fort McMurray, Alta. The proximity of such toxic wastewater ponds to nature threatens its biodiversity. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

As Alberta’s oilsands continue leaking toxic wastewater, aquatic wildlife face new risks

As toxic water continues to spill from tailings ponds across mining developments, decades of scientific research provides evidence of how wildlife will be affected.

Top contributors

More