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Electric fields could mine rare earth metals with less harm

Smartphones, electric vehicles and wind turbines rely on environmentally destructive rare earth mining operations. Harnessing electric fields could make this mining more sustainable

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Environment

Will miners finally start harvesting metals from the seabed in 2025?

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SALAR DE ATACAMA, CHILE - AUGUST 24: A lithium mine supervisor inspects an evaporation pond of lithium-rich brine in the Atacama Desert on August 24, 2022 in Salar de Atacama, Chile. Albemarle Corporation, based in Charlotte, N.C. is expanding mining operations at their Salar Plant to meet the rising global demand for lithium carbonate, a main component in the manufacture of batteries, increasingly for electric vehicles. To extract the lithium, natural brine is pumped from under the salt flats to a series of evaporation ponds. During an 18-month process, the liquid s moved through 15 ponds, eventually turning from blue to yellow with a lithium concentration of 6 percent. It is then trucked to an Albemarle chemical plant in Antofagasta, where it is processed into battery grade lithium carbonate powder and shipped out internationally. The evaporation process produces large quantities of salt byproduct, much of which is then reprocessed and sold. Chile is the second largest global producer of lithium, after Australia. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Environment

The dilemma of mining more metals so we can ditch fossil fuels

Culture

In the village of Tshabula, villagers search for cobalt and copper in the waste tailings dumped by the lorries of the Chinese company Commus, which extracts minerals from one of the town's largest open-cast mines.

Earth

Dramatic images show the dark side of cobalt mining boom

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Earth

Shock discovery reveals deep sea nodules are a source of oxygen

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Environment

Can seaweed provide the minerals we need for clean energy?

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The team of scientists exploring the mine galleries

Earth

Huge deposit of natural hydrogen gas detected deep in Albanian mine

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Lithium mining looks set to reshape Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni salt flat

Earth

Lithium mining looks set to reshape Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni salt flat

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Environment

How Bolivia’s gold rush is poisoning Indigenous communities

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BFERM2 Bulldozer Spread Coal Mine Waste on Impoundment Dam

Environment

Could coal mining waste provide crucial elements for green tech?

Coal waste separation might sound deathly dull, but the waste from abandoned coal mines might be where we can find some of the rare elements needed for clean energy tech, discovers Graham Lawton

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Environment

Animals abandon deep-sea mining areas for over a year

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Technology

Machine recycles scrap aluminium directly into vehicle parts

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Chemistry

Tracing lithium's atomic signature could help make ethical batteries

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Environment

Rare earth elements for smartphones can be extracted from coal waste

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