Feature Stories
Can This North Dakota Co-op Prove the Potential of Carbon Capture and Storage?
April 6, 2020
In a tiny North Dakota town, a small electric cooperative utility has proposed the largest carbon capture project ever built to store emissions from a 1970s-era lignite coal plant. The proposal comes after a legacy of failed carbon sequestration attempts
What Does the Future Hold for Automation in the Mining Industry?
March 31, 2020
Over the past few decades, automation in the mining industry has gradually reduced the role played by the miner in the pit, edging them further and further away from the coalface. Recent breakthroughs in autonomous robotics have promised to take
How Will Coronavirus Affect Energy Use in America?
March 26, 2020
There is little doubt that the world has entered a global economic recession as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Every recession lowers energy use, and this one may be a whopper. The 2008 financial crisis, and the Great Recession
America’s Mining Industry Deserves Strategic Support to Weather the Storm
March 23, 2020
The challenge facing the nation is arguably without precedent. The health crisis posed by COVID-19 must be our first priority, but we must also in tandem tend to the economic upheaval wrought by the virus and the steps that must
Virginia’s Clean Economy Act Will Have Dirty Results
March 19, 2020
Largely with party-line, urban-vs-rural votes, Virginia’s legislature is poised to enact a Clean Economy Act that would eliminate coal-based electricity generation, prevent construction of new gas-fired power plants — and replace reliable, affordable fossil energy with wind, solar and battery-backup
Supply Chain Bottleneck Strangling Scale-up of Lithium-ion Battery Production for EVs
March 17, 2020
Metal companies must scale-up quickly if enough lithium-ion batteries are to be made — and help automakers realize their “pipe dream” of a full transition to electric vehicles, say analysts. While car brands like Volkswagen could aim to release the
Nevada Mine Fight Pits Electric Cars Against Rare Flower
March 16, 2020
The rare Tiehm’s buckwheat stands less than a foot tall in Nevada’s rocky high desert, its thin, leafless stems adorned with tiny yellow flowers in spring. To the Australian company that wants to mine lithium beneath the federal land where
Good Things Happening at Jerritt Canyon Mine in Nevada
March 10, 2020
“I think everybody here can feel that there are some good things that are happening at Jerritt Canyon,” Rodney Lamond, the president and CEO of Jerritt Canyon Gold, said recently. The Jerritt Canyon Mine, which is about 50 miles north
Women’s Mining Coalition Advocates for Strong and Sustainable Mining Industry in D.C.
March 9, 2020
It can be a long way from Washington, D.C. to a mine site. The issues involved in mining can seem pretty abstract to a legislator shuffling through papers, even though mining provides the materials for their cell phones and so
Mining in Nevada is Fifth Largest Economic Sector Contributing 7.4% to State Revenues
March 5, 2020
Mining accounts directly for about 1 percent of the state workforce but is the state’s fifth-largest economic sector, representing 6 percent of the Nevada economy. Given that the average industry salary tops $90,000, mining-heavy counties such as Eureka and Elko
