Free Republic

President Donald Trump's love of gold has extended from the inside of Trump Tower to the decor of the White House... to a new island in the Pacific? The president has been offered the island of Bougainville — complete with its large gold mine — as the 'deal of the century'. Currently part of Papua New Guinea, Bougainville voted overwhelmingly for independence in a 2019 referendum — but the result wasn't legally binding. However, Bougainville's president, former rebel commander Ishmael Toroama, remains undeterred. 'Bougainville is for independence. It is only a matter of time,' he told The World in October,...

Federal employee retirements are processed using paper, by hand, in an old limestone mine in Pennsylvania. 700+ mine workers operate 230 feet underground to process ~10,000 applications per month, which are stored in manila envelopes and cardboard boxes. The retirement process takes multiple months.

NATURITA, Colo. — The future of nuclear power in America is back on the table, with all its vast implications, as global warming revives the search for energy sources that produce less greenhouse gas. But in this depressed corner of western Colorado — one of the first places in the world that uranium, nuclear energy’s primary fuel, was ever dug from the ground in industrial scale — the debate is both simpler and more complicated. A proposal for a new mill to process uranium ore, which would lead to the opening of long-shuttered mines in Colorado and Utah, has brought...

Jan 3 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Friday issued the final mining permit for Perpetua Resources' (PPTA.O), opens new tab Idaho antimony and gold project, a move aimed at spurring U.S. production of a critical mineral at the center of a widening trade war between Washington and Beijing. Permitting for the mine, backed by billionaire investor John Paulson, comes after Beijing last month blocked exports to the U.S. of antimony,... Perpetua's mine will supply more than 35% of America's annual antimony needs once it opens by 2028 and produce 450,000 ounces of gold each year,...The project has not won...

The Companies doing the North Carolina Hurricane Helene victim’s home inspections listed on the FEMA website are owned by Vanguard & BlackRock So the same company that owns majority of the lithium mine in the area will be inspecting the victim’s properties they want.. what are the odds! “They want to you don't want to pay attention to this one so who is going to inspect the homes that are damaged or gone in North Carolina well recently brought to me by the American thinker and my brother Mike you sent me the story If you go to the FEMA...

London’s High Court on Friday quashed a planning permission for the UK’s first new coal mine in three decades, ruling that the permit was unlawful as it hadn’t considered the emissions from burning the fuel. Earlier this year, climate campaigners, including Friends of the Earth, challenged the approval of the coal mining project. The UK’s previous Conservative government approved in December 2022 the Woodhouse Colliery project in Whitehaven, northwest England.. The project to mine metallurgical coal, the one used for steelmaking, will be required to support steelmaking.. However, the new Labour government in the UK pulled in July its support...

The Pentagon not ready to comment on Iranian video of a drone overflying the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier... Starting on Friday warships from ten nations will patrol the Baltic Sea and North Sea... Outside the White House the national Christmas tree toppling... "We will not be part of a government that allows Hamas to exist" Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir warning... Peru's Attorney General Patricia Benavides formally accusing President Dina Boluarte of responsibility for the deaths of protesters late last year... "When the Minister of Justice insults the deputies of the National Rally, he insults millions...

A 71-year-old investor who bought an old Wyoming coal mine sight-unseen for $2million has learned that it may contain $37 billion worth of 'rare earth' minerals. Randall Atkins, the CEO of Ramaco Rescources, bought the Brook Mine in Sheridan 12 years ago - but it wasn't until years later that researchers checked if the ground contained elements that are used for semiconductors, missiles and solar cells. He was shocked to find out that his mine may contain the largest rare-earth deposit in the United States - and the materials may be worth 18,500 times what he paid for the land....

A Harvard Law School alum has come forward to accuse Biden of plagiarizing an article he wrote more than two decades ago. Roger Severino .. was working .. at the Harvard Journal of Legislation in 2000 when he found multiple instances of copying in an essay Biden] had lifted language straight out of a [federal court] opinion, changed a couple words and called them his own. There were no quote marks and no footnote or anything else attributing the court as the source, ... When asked why he decided to come forward with the claims 23 years after the fact,...

Campbell and Converse counties in northeast Wyoming scrambled Friday in response to a tornado that tore through the North Antelope Rochelle coal mine, reportedly tossing vehicles, flipping trains and destroying a building. The tornado injured eight people after it touched down south of Wright, Wyoming about 6 p.m., Leslie Perkins, Campbell County public information officer, said in a press release four hours after the event. Six of the injured people were transported to Campbell County Health; one was taken to a hospital in Douglas, Wyoming. The remaining person refused services, the statement says, adding that personnel did not classify the...

The Biden administration moved closer to implementing a 20-year ban on mining in a South Dakota forest area due to its proximity to cultural and natural resources. In a joint announcement Friday, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service said they would consider a 20-year withdrawal of 20,574 acres located in the Black Hills National Forest near the Pactola Reservoir and Rapid Creek Watershed. The proposed action prohibits new mining claims and the issuance of new federal mineral leases for two years while the agencies review the proposal. "Whether it’s northern Minnesota, southern Arizona, Alaska, or now South...

Comedian George Lopez has taken a public stand in support of drag artists in general and George Santos in particular. The 61-year-old joined “The View” last Thursday and added to the hosts’ discussion about Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, signing the “Don’t Say Gay” bill last year. He derided anti-drag prejudice after co-host Ana Navarro shared her support for those performers. “If you’re an enemy of drag, you’re an enemy of mine,” Lopez declared.

A wind farm in Germany is being demolished to make room for a coal mine expansion. German energy giant RWE is tearing down wind turbines to expand a neighboring coal mine in an effort to deal with the country's energy crisis. The area of the wind farm near the small town of Lützerath will be used to expand the Garzweiler open pit mine in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The wind farm features eight wind turbines. One wind turbine was dismantled last week, two more are scheduled to be deconstructed some time next year, and the final five will be...

Clash comes as global demand surges to power batteries for electric cars.. A northern Nevada mine that is the largest-known source of lithium in the United States for electric car batteries is facing resistance from a radical environmental group and some of its American Indian supporters. The mine at Thacker Pass is on Bureau of Land Management property in rural Nevada between two mountain ranges about 25 miles south of the border with Oregon. The fight reflects other political battles between liberals and far-left factions within the Democratic Party, with larger ramifications for the party’s agenda. Lithium is the key...

Turkey’s military has deactivated a mine that had drifted in from the Black Sea, setting off a loud explosion in the process, days after Russia warned several of them had washed away from Ukrainian ports. On Saturday, defence minister Hulusi Akar described the object, first discovered by fishermen in the upper Bosphorus strait, as an old type of mine and said he was in touch with both Russian and Ukrainian authorities about it. Maritime traffic has safely been opened after coordination with the Turkish coastguard and naval forces, the minister added. Earlier on Saturday, the coastguard said two-way ship traffic...

An Estonian-owned cargo ship has been sunk off the coast of Ukraine after hitting a mine. Four crew members are still missing and two are in a life raft at sea following the explosion near Odeasa. Igor Ilves, managing director of Tallinn-based manager Vista Shipping Agency, said the ship likely struck a mine, adding: 'The vessel has finally sunk. Two of the crew are in a raft on the water and four others are missing. I don't know where they are at the moment.' Estonia is a member of NATO and the EU, and while an official reason has yet...

RENO, Nev. (AP) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed designating critical habitat for a Nevada wildflower it plans to list as endangered amid a conflict over a mine to produce lithium batteries for electric vehicles critical to the Biden administration’s plans to combat climate change. The agency on Wednesday proposed designating critical habitat for Tiehm’s buckwheat on a high-desert ridge near the California line halfway between Reno and Las Vegas. It’s the only place in the world the delicate, 6-inch-tall (15-centimeter) wildflower with yellow blooms is known to exist. It’s also the site where Ioneer USA Corp....

The coal plant is closing, along with the mine that feeds it and has nearly 115 more employees, and all the workers will lose their jobs over the next decade ... The same scenario is playing out in other small towns across the U.S. After decades of relying on coal for their workforce, tax base and way of life, the towns face uncertain futures as new state and national legislation forces the retirement of fossil fuels ... The impact spreads beyond the plants workers and is felt by the rest of the community, too. In Craig, much of the infrastructure...

A lawsuit filed this week in Washington, D.C., alleges that some of the world's largest technology firms knowingly engaged in the usage of child labor in Africa's cobalt mines. The suit was filed by nongovernmental organization International Rights Advocates and mentions Apple, Dell, Microsoft, Tesla and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, USA Today reports. Cobalt is an essential part of rechargeable lithium batteries that power many of the electronic devices that the listed companies sell. According to the suit, two mining companies — British company Glencore and Chinese company Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt — supplied cobalt to all of the...