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Reports are surfacing that Afghanistan may just have monumentally huge mineral deposits, conservatively valued at around $US1 Trillion. The largest finds are huge deposits of Iron Ore and Copper. Among a list as long as your arm of other minerals are vast deposits of Lithium. Currently the largest deposits of Lithium are in Bolivia, and these deposits in Afghanistan are said to absolutely dwarf that. Lithium is an important metal in the booming electronics field, especially in battery technology. The current cost of Lithium in batteries means that it increases the cost because it is relatively rare. These deposits in...

WASHINGTON — 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 the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials. The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe. An internal...

An attorney for the mining industry asked the Nevada Supreme Court on Monday to keep off the November ballot a question that seeks to raise significantly the taxes the industry pays, saying the measure's passage would undermine the Legislature.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd may now be feeling the extent of anger within the Australian mining industry following his plan to introduce a tax of 40% on mining profits High profile columnist and former business editor Robert Gottliebsen in businessspectator.com.au claimed today that about A$100 billion (US$90.41 billion) worth of resource projects that were advancing were now heading for mothballs until the resource tax is either abandoned or severely modified. He reiterated a point made by Mineweb yesterday that BHP Billiton is now in no hurry to expand development of Olympic Dam in South Australia - a project that Labor...

In the century following the Civil War, nothing brought change to Appalachia as much as did the development of coal mining. The western highlands of Southern Appalachia overlay vast fields of bituminous coal and the construction of railroads into the mountains opened up coalfields for commercial exploitation. By the end of the 19th Century, Appalachian coal was powering the industrial revolution in America, providing fuel for power plants, locomotives and other steam engines, and coke for making steel.

From Kansas to China's Sichuan province, farmers treat their fields with phosphorus-rich fertilizer to increase the yield of their crops. What happens next, however, receives relatively little attention. Large amounts of this resource are lost from farm fields, through soil erosion and runoff, and down swirling toilets, through our urine and feces. Although seemingly mundane, this process cannot continue indefinitely. Our dwindling supply of phosphorus, a primary component underlying the growth of global agricultural production, threatens to disrupt food security across the planet during the coming century. This is the gravest natural resource shortage you've never heard of.

President Barack Obama has ordered U.S. flags in West Virginia to be flown at half staff in honor of 29 miners killed in the Upper Big Branch mine explosion. In a proclamation issued Monday, Obama said all U.S. flags in the state are to be flown at half staff until sunset on Sunday. The proclamation comes as federal and state mine safety officials begin their investigation into the nation's worst coal-related mine accident in 40 years. Crews are still working to recover the last of the victims. Recovery attempts have been hampered by high levels of hazardous gases. State Office...

I had the opportunity to get to know Dr. and Mrs. Benishek after Bart Stupak’s vote on the “healthcare” bill thrust Dr. Dan into the spotlight as Stupak’s replacement. While at the Soo Tea Party yesterday, I mentioned to Dr. Benishek that I saw him on Sean Hannity the night before, and was interested in his response to Hannity on whether he could be bought off like Stupak was. From the Hannity interview: I’ve spent thirty years of my life taking care of sick patients with life-threatening problems every day. And I know you have to stay focused on a...

MONTCOAL, W.Va. - Grieving relatives began burying victims of the Upper Big Branch coal mine disaster Friday as crews neared a refuge chamber deep underground where they had faint hope that survivors might be awaiting rescue. It was their fourth try to find the four miners missing since Monday's explosion killed 25 others in the nation's worst underground disaster since at least 1984. During the previous rescue attempt, searchers were forced to withdraw by dangerous gases and the risk of fire or explosion. Five ambulances had arrived at the mine site early Saturday. Gov. Joe Manchin promised families they should...

FYI and paraphrasing. Apr 9, 2010 7:01 am US/Eastern Hopes for Trapped Miners Survial Fades as Fire Drives Rescue Crews Back MONTCOAL, W.Va. - Rescue crews have been forced to pull out of the West Virginia mine where 4 miners have been trapped since Mnday. As crews reached one of the last two refuge chambers the trapped miners would have had to be in to survive smoke from a fire deeper in the mine drove them back.The chamber they reached had not been activated. LAter today drilling crews hope to break into the remaining chamber and lower a camera to...

MONTCOAL, W.Va. -- Rescue teams had to turn back early today in their third attempt to find four missing miners at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine, after they encountered a large amount of smoke from a fire near the mine's longwall section. The teams found one refuge chamber in the mine that had not been used, but could not reach a second chamber. They will not be able to get to the second refuge chamber within 96 hours of Monday's explosion - the amount of time the chambers are supposed to keep people alive. That would be about 3...

Julius Malema ...fresh off of a meeting with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, has said he will follow his neighbors policy of land seizure... And, most concerning to foreign investors, he has called for the nationalization of South Africa's mines. South Africa's mining industry produced 11% of the world's gold, 80% of the world's platinum, and 40% of the world's palladium in 2007.

The death toll in the West Virginia mining accident has now reached 25, with the recovery efforts suspended for now because the area is not safe for rescue workers. At this time, our hearts all go out to the families of the workers who perished in this horrible tragedy. Reading news accounts of the event, it strikes me that during the Bush administration, disasters like this were immediately seized upon to score political points. Specifically, when the Sago mine disaster happened in 2006, it was used as yet another example of Bush rewarding oversight positions to corporate allies who would...

The death toll from the massive explosion at a sprawling coal mine in West Virginia rose to 25 early Tuesday, making it the deadliest U.S. mining disaster in 25 years. Crews halted their efforts to reach four miners still unaccounted for at the Upper Big Branch Mine following the blast Monday afternoon. Concentrations of methane and carbon monoxide inside the mine made it a safety risk for crews to proceed, said Kevin Stricklin of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration at a 2 a.m. briefing to reporters. Officials planned to drill bore holes from the surface 1,200 feet into...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Massey Energy says an explosion has occurred at one of its underground West Virginia coal mines but did not say if there were injuries or if any miners are trapped. The company says the explosion happened at its Upper Big Branch mine in Raleigh County, about 30 miles south of Charleston. The company did not provide details on the extent of the damage.

More than 100 Chinese miners have been pulled out alive after being trapped for over a week in a flooded coal mine, where some ate sawdust and strapped themselves to the shafts' walls with their belts to avoid drowning while they slept. Miners wrapped in blankets, some with their light-sensitive eyes covered but their feet bare, were hurried to waiting ambulances that sped wailing to nearby hospitals. Rescuers in tears hugged each other at the scene, which was broadcast live on national television. A rescue spokesman said 115 survivors had been pulled out as of 4.30pm local time (1830 AEST)...

CLARKSVILLE - United Mine Workers of America officials on Thursday urged hundreds of local miners to get ready to fight for unionization at a new mine that will open on a hilltop overlooking this small, Greene County mining town....snip... Wearing red bandanas as a "call to arms," UMWA officials called on members to fight Alpha Natural Resources' plans to use non-union miners to extract coal from the Freeport Mine, which is expected to open in 2012 or 2013, or force the company to "leave it in the ground."...snip... He said neither police nor the "jailer" would stop protests against non-union...

CHARLESTON, W.Va., April 2 – CHARLESTON, W.Va., April 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Thursday mandated a totally new and virtually unattainable water quality standard for all coal mining permits across Appalachia in a move that threatens thousands of jobs and the economic future of mining communities. The announcement comes days after the EPA began the veto process for an already approved permit for the Spruce No.1 mine in Logan County, WV. The EPA has only used this veto authority 12 times since 1972, and has never used its authority to veto an existing permit. "Thursday's EPA...

The EPA announced plans today to "significantly restrict or prohibit" one of the largest mountaintop mining operations in central Appalachia by authority of the Clean Water Act

as Mongolia cowers under the brutal thrall of its worst winter in decades, questions are being asked as to whether the country should end its reliance on nomadic herders and dig deeper into its mineral reserves instead. Some 800 years ago, Mongolia's nomadic herdsmen were surging across the steppe under the leadership of Genghis Khan and conquering China, Tibet and much of central Asia. Today, most of their descendents are at the mercy of the hostile Mongolian weather or crammed in the capital, Ulan Bator, where they struggle to make a living even though the country sits on some of...