Mining

• [New] Post-COVID-19 investments in infrastructure, combined with demand to sustain the energy transition, will drive significant growth in the mining and metals sector over the next three to five years.
• [New] If BitCoin mining and transactions continued to grow at the frenetic pace they did in 2017-2019, the total power consumed would be more than the entire world uses today for all of human existence, by 2022.
• [New] Biden's once-in-a-generation effort to tackle climate change and create jobs could kill jobs, too, specifically the steady, fixed-location work provided by coal mines and power plants.
• [New] In recent years Serbia has started selling its mining resources to foreign companies, despite opposition by local residents who had warned that increased ore exploration could cause greater pollution.
• [New] Greenland Minerals, the company behind the mining project, says that it has the potential to become the most significant western world producer of rare earths and could be a globally significant supplier of rare earths for many decades.
• [New] Labor groups are already growing nervous that Biden's plan will eliminate the kind of steady, fixed-location jobs provided by coal mines or fossil fuel power plants, and instead will lead to temporary construction jobs that require mobility.
• [New] The underground expansion will push annual production to nearly 500,000 tonnes per year, making it among the world's biggest copper mines.
• [New] China's energy consumption from Bitcoin mining in 2024 will exceed total energy consumption of countries like Italy and Saudi Arabia, and the carbon emissions will exceed annual greenhouse emissions of countries including the Netherlands, Spain, and Czech Republic.
• [New] The halt to the Kuannersuit mine project gives the US just that, since it puts an abrupt end to China's hopes of getting access to Greenland's rare earths.
• [New] The Baralaba South coal mine is expected to produce five million tonnes per year of a type of coal that is mostly used in steel-making but can also be used for power.
• [New] Carbon emissions from Chinese bitcoin mines are accelerating rapidly and will soon exceed energy consumption levels of Italy and Saudi Arabia if urgent action is not taken.
• [New] The NSW government's Strategic Statement on Coal Exploration and Mining makes clear that while a move to a lower carbon economy will see a reduction in demand for coal domestically, the demand for coal exports will remain strong for decades to come.
• [New] The motives for China's intensive bitcoin mining could go beyond making money (bitcoin's value has soared from $7,000 to almost $60,000 in the last year).
• [New] Miami presents the unique opportunity to not only pull some of the market share of mining back to the US, but also to do so in a place where much of its power is derived from a nuclear power plant.
• [New] Lithium Americas Corp received final federal approval in January for a Nevada lithium mine that will produce 20,000 tonnes annually once operational in 2023.
• [New] Unchecked, China's bitcoin mines will generate 130.5m metric tons of carbon emissions by 2024 - close to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of Italy or oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
• [New] As Bitcoin achieves mass market scale and becomes a significant global reserve asset, naturally the process of mining will tend towards the most energy efficient form it can find.
• [New] The energy consumption from Bitcoin mining will peak in 2024 and will generate around 130 million metric tons of carbon emissions.
• [New] Carbon emissions from Bitcoin mining in China could exceed the total emissions of an entire European country within the next three years.
• [New] Bitcoin mining in China will outstrip the energy consumption of European countries by 2024.
• [New] The carbon emissions associated with mining bitcoin have accelerated rapidly in China, and they will soon outstrip the total annual emissions of mid-sized European countries.
• [New] By connecting how machine and man work together, estimates say that Industry 5.0 will mean that over 60% of manufacturing, logistics and supply chains, agri-farming, and the mining and oil and gas sectors will employ chief robotics officers by 2025.
• [New] Mason has the potential to more than double Hudbay's current copper production levels, and if brought into production, Mason is expected to become the third largest copper mine in the United States.

Last updated: 16 April 2021