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Picking through a mountain of huge rocks with his tiny bare hands, the exhausted little boy makes a pitiful sight. His name is Dorsen and he is one of an army of children, some just four years old, working in the vast polluted mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where toxic red dust burns their eyes, and they run the risk of skin disease and a deadly lung condition. Here, for a wage of just 8p a day, the children are made to check the rocks for the tell-tale chocolate-brown streaks of cobalt – the prized ingredient essential for...

Copper traders in China, the world’s largest buyer of the metal, have asked miners from Chile to Nigeria to cancel or delay shipments as the deadly coronavirus outbreak hits demand. Multiple Chinese copper buyers said they had scrapped or postponed overseas orders by declaring force majeure since the end of January, when Beijing began to report a surge in coronavirus infections. Copper, a barometer for the health of the global economy, is the latest commodity to fall victim to the epidemic. China’s efforts to contain the virus, ranging from restricting highway traffic to extending the lunar new year holiday, have...

Very interesting stuff going on in the Mary McCarthy files. It appears many of us missed a few important connections: One aspect of her background so far comparatively unexamined is her West African uranium connection. She served in a key government position concerned with West African nations producing yellowcake uranium at the same time that Joseph Wilson was working in the area. The two may be considered members of the “yellowcake community” within the Clinton national security apparatus of the 1990s.There are more questions than answers for the moment, but yellowcake uramium is not only of strategic importance for WMD...

During a rally yesterday, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden spoke to a crowd in Derry, N.H., a town that many miners call home. He acknowledged the economic setbacks and job insecurity that coal miners face these days, and gave them some advice: learn to code. According to Dave Weigel of the Washington Post, Biden said, “Anybody who can go down 3,000 feet in a mine can sure as hell learn to program as well... Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program, for God’s sake!”

In an explosive legal complaint filed last month in Delaware, attorneys for a major Ukrainian bank alleged that two oligarchs who founded the bank and controlled it from 2006 to 2016 laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent corporate loans to purchase assets in the United States and unjustly enrich themselves and their associates. Dubbed the "Optima Schemes" in the 104-page document, these "brazen fraudulent schemes" were successful, among other things, in making the oligarchs and their co-defendants the largest commercial real estate holders in Cleveland. With money siphoned from public bonds and 20 million private Ukrainian citizens who'd...

SENIOR Zanu PF politicians and members of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces have with the help of Canadian lobbyists Dickens & Madson turned Zimbabwe into a hub for trade in "blood" diamonds illegally brought into the country from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), it emerged this week. The Zimbabwe Independent has been told how gemstones from the DRC have been laundered to line the pockets of Zanu PF big-wigs. American international diamond buyer, John Marsischky, managing director of gemstones company Flashes of Color, revealed in an interview this week that Dickens & Madson, the company which last week claimed it ...

Joseph C. Wilson, the long-serving American diplomat whose clash with the administration of President George W. Bush in 2003 led to the unmasking of his wife at the time, Valerie Plame, as a C.I.A. agent, resulting in accusations that the revelation was political payback, died on Friday at his home in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 69. Ms. Plame said the cause was organ failure.

VIDEO It is the name that dares not speak its name around Valerie Plame. Although Plame falsely (according to a Washington Post fact check) accused Scooter Libby of leaking her name, the true culprit was Deep State insider Richard Armitage of the State Department. Just the sound of his name makes Valerie Plame very very uncomfortable.

Eight years after its informant uncovered criminal wrongdoing inside Russia’s nuclear industry, the FBI has identified 37 pages of documents that might reveal what agents told the Obama administration, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others about the controversial Uranium One deal. There’s just one problem: The FBI claims it must keep the memos secret from the public. Their excuses for the veil of nondisclosure range from protecting national security and law enforcement techniques to guarding the privacy of individual Americans and the ability of agencies to communicate with each other. Sound familiar? It’s a lot like the initial reasons...

Link Only in Post 1 due to copyright complaint Essentially Russia helped Morales cheat. Rosatom agreed to build a nuke plant in Bolivia. All of this was so Rosatom could mine the massive Bolivian lithium deposits.

Early in September, international news was awash with the claim that 87 elephants had been “killed by poachers” in Botswana. The story originated from the NGO Elephants Without Borders, which received massive publicity – and presumably donations – as a result. Even the beleaguered UK Prime Minister tweeted the story, while a petition calling for wildlife guards to be re-armed surpassed 150,000 signatures. I know a little of Botswana. A few years ago, I was declared “public enemy number one”, threatened by a government spokesman on television, and banned from the country. This was because Survival International was instrumental in...

The recent threats by Beijing to cut off American access to critical mineral imports has many Americans wondering why our politicians have allowed the United States to become so overly dependent on China for these valued resources in the first place. Today, the United States is 90% dependent on China and Russia for many vital "rare earth minerals." The main reason for our overreliance on nations like China for these minerals is not that we are running out of these resources here at home. The U.S. Mining Association estimates that we have at least $5 trillion of recoverable mineral resources....

PERSHING COUNTY, Nev. — New leach pad construction is underway, a new crusher is in the works, mining will start in the third quarter and gold bars are anticipated to be poured by the end of the year at Relief Canyon Mine, according to new General Manager Michael Iannachionne of Americas Silver Corporation. Pershing Gold Corporation recently handed over control of the mine to Americas Silver. No gold has been produced at the Relief Canyon Mine for almost 30 years according to MINING.com. “In 1986, Pegasus Gold Corp. bought a 4-year option on the mining property. Pegasus’ management term spanned...

July 1, 2002The "Fuzzy Math" of Fluoride Promotion By Paul Connett, PhD (ggvideo@northnet.org) Many of you may have probably heard the term "fuzzy math" before. It is a term used to describe a somewhat controversial method of teaching math where the answers do not have to be EXACTLY right. But at the very least, they are supposed to be close. Unfortunately, many of those promoting the practice of water fluoridation would fail to meet even these basic "fuzzy math" guidelines, with methods better described as "hairy" than "fuzzy". And "fuzzy math" is supposed to be a temporary teaching tool...

There seems to be a similarity between international trade disputes and Texas Hold’em. There is always a certain amount of bluff that is part of the negotiations. The question is, how much is a bluff and how much is not. The Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has just revealed that they are going to use their stake in rare earth minerals production as their show card. Make no mistake -- the communist government is not bluffing. However, one good card does not make a winning hand. To understand the problem, we first must understand where rare earth mineral deposits are...

It was recently reported that US President Donald Trump wants to buy Greenland, but what would he actually be getting for his money? Umar Ali takes a look at Greenland’s mineral resources, whether they are worth mining, and why the US could want them. The Kvanefjeld project Greenland currently only has one major mining project, the Kvanefjeld rare earth project launched in 2007. The project is centred on the Ilimaussaq alkaline complex in southwest Greenland, measuring approximately 8km x 15km, it is being developed by Australian company Greenland Minerals. The Kvanefjeld project is thought to be one of the world’s...

The left just loves to tout "renewable energy" as the clean, green panacea, something that will save the earth. Just look at the foremost proponent of this, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom: On day one, I will issue a directive putting California on a clear path to 100% renewable energy. It’s achievable and it’s necessary. Frankly, I think we can surpass our 100% goal by positioning California as a net exporter of energy to other states and nations. It’s a money maker for us and the natural next step in our global leadership — a classic example of California innovation. Under the leadership...

A U.S. appeals court panel sided with the Trump administration Friday in a mining pollution dispute, ruling that state and federal programs already in place ensure that companies take financial responsibility for future cleanups. The ruling came after the administration was sued by environmental groups for dropping an Obama-era proposal that would have forced companies to put up money to show they have resources to clean up pollution. The mining industry has a legacy of bankrupt companies abandoning polluted sites and leaving taxpayers to cover cleanup costs. But the three-judge panel with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District...

Editor's Note: This piece was co-authored by Ned Mamula.When OPEC imposed its 1973 embargo, the United States was just over 40% dependent on foreign sources for its oil. But sudden price hikes and shortages severely disrupted families and businesses. Today the USA relies on foreign sources for 100% of 14 minerals considered to be “critical” for modern technologies and societies, and 50-96% for 19 other “critical” minerals; only two are in the 14-25% dependency range, an updated report from the US Department of the Interior (DOI) cautions.A Navy SEAL’s gear contains at least 23 of these minerals. Your mobile phone has over a dozen. So...

(Reuters) - The Pentagon is rapidly assessing the United States' rare earths capability in a race to secure stable supply of the specialized material amid the country's trade conflict with China, which controls the rare earths industry, according to a government document seen by Reuters. The push comes weeks after China threatened to curb exports to the United States of rare earths, a group of 17 minerals used to build fighter jets, tanks and a range of consumer electronics. The Pentagon wants miners to describe plans to develop U.S. rare earths mines and processing facilities, and asked manufacturers to detail...