Skip to main content

Home/ Mining News/ Group items tagged U.S.

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Felix Gryffeth

BP eyes Kevin Costner-backed oil clean-up tech | Green Tech - CNET News - 0 views

news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20007591-54.html

BP oil spill gulf

shared by Felix Gryffeth on 16 Jun 10 - Cached
  • Felix Gryffeth on 16 Jun 10
     
    The energy giant has ordered 32 oil-water separators from Ocean Therapy, a company spun out of U.S. national labs and funded by actor/environmentalist Kevin Costner. Read this blog post by Martin LaMonica on Green Tech.
Arabica Robusta

Daily Kos: State of the Nation - 0 views

www.dailykos.com/...-The-state-of-lithium

mining latin america extractive industries lithium

shared by Arabica Robusta on 15 Jun 10 - Cached
  • Chile exports 50 percent of the world's lithium, mostly through a formerly state-owned company called SQM. The company mines lithium at the huge Atacama Salt Flat, tapping an estimated 2.5 million metric tons in lithium reserves. Julio Ponce Lerou is the son-in-law of the brutal military dictator, Augusto Pinochet, and is the man in control of formerly state-owned SQM.
  • Larou's control of Chilean lithium is a classic story of corruption common wherever privatization schemes have unfolded.
  • Unfortunately, Bolivia does not have the money to mine, refine and add value to lithium this way. Morales has stated that he is actively seeking private investment, but that Bolivia wants "partners, not bosses." This approach has scared away foreign investment, compounded by Morales' closeness to Venezuelan President and U.S. antagonist Hugo Chavez. There are also significant infrastructure problems. The Uyuni flats are remote and inaccessible by road and train, whereas the Atacama flats are very easy to reach. Bolivia has established a state-owned lithium company, and even has met local resistance. The local folk of Uyuni insist on sharing the benefits of mining. Bolivian leaders believe that increasing global demand for lithium will help trump these challenges and will allow the country to become the dominant producer.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • China is also stepping up its domestic mining and refining of lithium believing it to be the "oil" of the 21st Century. China's domestic reserves are also limited, with only 540,000 tons.
  • China continues improving warm relations with Bolivia, recently signing new trade aggrements. China is looking for Bolivian immigrants while the U.S. is cracking down on immigration. These developments are likely to impact international politics as nations scramble to secure alternatives to oil production. The global competition for resources continues unabated, whether it's petroleum or lithium at stake.
Steven O'Sullivan

U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan - 0 views

www.miningne.ws/...hes-of-minerals-in-afghanistan

Afghanistanm copper gold lithium iron minerals mining miner mine US exploration news

shared by Steven O'Sullivan on 14 Jun 10 - Cached
  • Steven O'Sullivan on 14 Jun 10
     
    The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter...
Steven O'Sullivan

miningne.ws: Gold falls below $900 on U.S. dollar; focus on Fed - 0 views

www.miningne.ws/...-900-on-us-dollar-focus-on-fed

gold markets commodity gold price mine mining

shared by Steven O'Sullivan on 28 Apr 09 - Cached
  • Steven O'Sullivan on 28 Apr 09
     
    Gold dipped below $900 on Tuesday, off a near four-week high hit the previous day.
Arabica Robusta

Like Water for Gold in El Salvador | The Nation - 0 views

www.thenation.com/...water-gold-el-salvador

mining news mine gold rare miner environment earth latin america newmont social movements intervention human development rights corporate industry

shared by Arabica Robusta on 17 Jul 11 - No Cached
  • ADES (the Social and Economic Development Association), where local people talked with us late into the night about how they had come to oppose mining. ADES organizer Vidalina Morales acknowledged that “initially, we thought mining was good and it was going to help us out of poverty…through jobs and development.”
  • He talked about watching the river near his farm dry up: “This was very strange, as it had never done this before. So we walked up the river to see why…. And then I found a pump from Pacific Rim that was pumping water for exploratory wells. All of us began to wonder, if they are using this much water in the exploration stage, how much will they use if they actually start mining?”
  • Three people recounted how a Pacific Rim official boasted that cyanide was so safe that the official was willing to drink a glass of a favorite local beverage laced with the chemical. The official, we were told, backed down when community members insisted on authentication of the cyanide. “The company thought we’re just ignorant farmers with big hats who don’t know what we’re doing,” Miguel said. “But they’re the ones who are lying.”
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • As the anti-mining coalition strengthened with support from leaders in the Catholic Church, small businesses and the general public (a 2007 national poll showed that 62.4 percent opposed mining), tensions within Cabañas grew.
  • Along one wall is the Salvadoran version of the US Vietnam Veterans Memorial, in this case etched with the names of about 30,000 of the roughly 75,000 killed in the civil war. Thousands of them, including the dozens killed in the Lempa River massacre of 1981, were victims of massacres perpetrated by the US-backed—often US-trained—government forces and the death squads associated with them.
  • Anti-mining sentiment was already so strong in 2009 that both the reigning ARENA president and the successful FMLN candidate, Mauricio Funes, came out against mining during the campaign.
  • We pushed further, trying to understand how a technical analysis could decide a matter with such high stakes. On the one hand, we posed to Duarte, gold’s price has skyrocketed from less than $300 an ounce a decade ago to more than $1,500 an ounce today, increasing the temptation in a nation of deep poverty to consider mining. We quoted former Salvadoran finance minister and Pacific Rim economic adviser Manuel Hinds, who said, “Renouncing gold mining would be unjustifiable and globally unprecedented.” On the other hand, we quoted the head of the human rights group and Roundtable member FESPAD, Maria Silvia Guillen: “El Salvador is a small beach with a big river that runs through it. If the river dies, the entire country dies.”
  • While he hoped this process would produce a consensus, Duarte admitted it was more likely the government and the firm would have to lay out “the interests of the majority,” after which the two ministries would then make their policy recommendation.
  • Oscar Luna, a former law professor and fierce defender of human rights—for which he too has received death threats. We asked Luna if he agreed with allegations that the killings in Cabañas were “assassinations organized and protected by economic and social powers.” Luna replied with his own phrasing: “There is still a climate of impunity in this country that we are trying to end.” He is pressing El Salvador’s attorney general to conduct investigations into the “intellectual” authors of the killings.
  • Our interactions in Cabañas and San Salvador left us appreciative of the new democratic space that strong citizen movements and a progressive presidential victory have opened up, yet aware of the fragility and complexities that abound. The government faces an epic decision about mining, amid deep divisions and with institutions of democracy that are still quite young. As Vidalina reminded us when we parted, the “complications” are even greater than what we found in Cabañas or in San Salvador, because even if the ban’s proponents eventually win, “these decisions could still get trumped in Washington.”
  • The brief methodically lays out how Canada-headquartered Pacific Rim first incorporated in the Cayman Islands to escape taxes, then brazenly lobbied Salvadoran officials to shape policies to benefit the firm, and only after that failed, in 2007 reincorporated one of its subsidiaries in the United States to use CAFTA to sue El Salvador.
  • Dozens of human rights, environmental and fair-trade groups across North America, from U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities and the Committee in Solidarity With the People of El Salvador (CISPES) to Oxfam, Public Citizen, Mining Watch and the Institute for Policy Studies, are pressuring Pacific Rim to withdraw the case.
1 - 8 of 8
Showing 20▼ items per page