Feature Stories
Jim Rankin Settles in for First Year as President of South Dakota School of Mines
September 10, 2018
President Jim Rankin didn’t drive his motorcycle to work one morning last week due to rain, but he’s otherwise settled into his new role as president of a college in western South Dakota. “It’s always fun to come back,” said
Asteroid Mining Almost Reality. What to Know About the Gold Rush in Space
September 6, 2018
Mining resources from asteroids may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but — at least if you believe some very smart people — it’s well on its way to becoming science fact. What will be mined? Why would anyone
Is the Mining Industry Dealing With Growing Cyberthreat?
September 4, 2018
Cybersecurity remains an industrial-scale challenge; mining operators need to realize they are tangible targets and have to prepare accordingly. Barry Mansfield assesses the industry’s opinion about the progress the sector has made so far, and asks whether it’s sufficient to
IoT Technology and Robotics Start to Influence Everyday Mining Operations
August 28, 2018
IoT technology and robotics are beginning to influence everyday mining operations. Steve Grehl, Robert Lösch and Professor Bernhard Jung from the Institute of Computer Science at the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg in Germany, discuss the potential of both technologies for
A Look Back at the 1963 Utah Potash Mine Disaster
August 27, 2018
They waited and waited — in the dark a half-mile underground, in blistering heat — for someone to rescue them. “We knew people was working,” Paul McKinney recalled. “I mean, just automatically, you knew people was working to get down
Historic Wyoming Gold Mining Town Opens 150 Year Old Mine Tunnel to Tourists
August 27, 2018
Workers, blasting supplies, rail and mine cars arrived in Wyoming from across the country in 1868 to carve a tunnel into a rock hillside at South Pass City, founded 150 years ago during Wyoming’s own gold rush. The workers used
Mining Innovation Aims to Turn Utah Sands Into an Oil Patch
August 23, 2018
Utah is a yawn amid the drilling frenzy that has upended the energy picture in recent years. It accounts for just one of every 100 barrels of oil produced nationwide. But a couple of executives who have spent decades hunting
Goodbye Clean Power Plan
August 23, 2018
The Clean Power Plan is headed for the crematorium. Good riddance. CPP was the textbook example of the Obama administration’s attempt to supplant Congress by interpreting the administrative state’s regulatory scope as effectively unlimited. Prior to CPP, the Environmental Protection
Historic Pennsylvania Jail Haunted By Ghosts of Hanged Coal Miners Goes Up for Sale
August 20, 2018
The asking price — $749,000 — includes gallows, nooses, handcuffs, the everlasting handprint of a hanged coal miner, and possibly some ghosts who have good reason to be ticked off. “Oh, we have ghosts here,” Betty Lou McBride said last
Hope and Change in an Alabama Coal Mine, Names Excavator After Trump
August 16, 2018
It was hulking, it was orange, and its name was Trump. Randy Johnson looked on as his new 220-ton excavator carved up the ground, clearing the field of rocks to help unearth the coal underneath. Four weeks earlier, the central
