President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday safeguarded millions of acres in Alaska from fossil fuel drilling and mining — the latest in a frenzy of environmental actions in recent weeks that have drawn praise from green groups and condemnation from industry and Republican lawmakers. The Interior Department finalized a rule that bars oil and gas … Read more
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“Just like we do research with corn, wheat, soybean, getting these plants to be more efficient in taking up nutrients—nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium—well, there needs to be this research that goes into understanding the mechanisms of metal hyperaccumulation,” says McNear. “And then enhancing that, whether it be through gene editing or whatever.” ARPA-E is eying a … Read more
Two of Blue Origin’s earliest employees, former president Rob Meyerson and chief architect Gary Lai, have started a company that seeks to extract helium-3 from the lunar surface, return it to Earth, and sell it for applications here. The company has been operating in stealth since its founding in 2022, but it emerged on Wednesday … Read more
A truck makes its way over the Victoria Falls bridge, spanning over the Zambezi River, linking Zambia and Zimbabwe, in Livingstone, Zambia, on Sunday, May 8, 2022. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images KoBold Metals, a California-based metals exploration company backed by billionaires including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, said that it has discovered a … Read more
ROTTERDAM, SOUTH HOLLAND, NETHERLANDS – 2022/02/08: The deep-sea creatures on board the Luciana and the mining vessel Hidden Gem seen in the background, during the demonstration. Ocean Rebellions protest The Deep Sea Says No Why the deep sea? The deep seabed is largely unexplored, many areas have unique marine life (an estimated 10-million life forms … Read more
A small plane carrying Rio Tinto workers has crashed on its way to a diamond mine in Canada, “resulting in fatalities”. The mining giant confirmed a small plane was carrying “a number of our people” before it went down near Fort Smith, in the country’s Northwest Territories. The number of people on board and whether … Read more
Japan recently became the fifth nation to successfully complete a soft landing on the moon’s surface, joining a select few countries — the U.S., Russia, China and India — in accomplishing this feat. But moon landings are likely to become more common over the next few years. Globally, more than 100 lunar missions, both by … Read more
But deep-sea mining is considered a risky business not just because of environmental concerns. Norway’s startups are betting on an industry that doesn’t yet exist. “It could end up not becoming an industry at all because the resources are not there or the technology’s not good enough,” says Håkon Knudsen Toven, spokesperson for the industry … Read more
In a memo published in November 2023, Norwegian law firm Wilkborg Rein said that passing the bill with an inadequate environmental assessment could violate not only the country’s own laws on environmental protection, but also European and international laws. Local communities or NGOs could therefore sue, says Elise Johansen, a partner at the firm who … Read more
Saudi Arabia nearly doubled the estimate for the value of its mineral resources and is seeing lucrative deals signed during its Future Minerals Forum held in Riyadh this week, ministers told CNBC. Estimates for the kingdom’s untapped mineral reserves have jumped from $1.3 trillion in a 2016 forecast to $2.5 trillion, according to Saudi Mineral Resources … Read more
