Northern Miner editorial: dualities
The start of a new year brings a lot of dualities with it, especially if one is writing when the year isn’t quite over as The Northern Miner team rushes…
Editorial
Covering mining’s projects, people and sticky challenges over a two-decade career
This will be my last editorial for The Northern Miner after 19 years here, and with its sister publications. In December, I’m off to start another adventure outside of mining. …
Glass half-full economy powers gold higher
“Stable but underwhelming growth” is what the International Monetary Fund has projected in its World Economic Outlook, released in late October. With wars in Ukraine and on two Israeli borders…
Big tech’s nuclear option
Silicon Valley CEOs can get obsessed with some pretty weird things — colonizing Mars, ultra-ascetic diets, wearing the same outfit every single day, or living forever. But there’s nothing head-scratching…
Editorial: Mining-powered rockets vs dockets
As we look in the waning days of summer to the United States’ Southwest in this edition, it strikes us that there’s been a staggering number of days that only…
Confusion and consternation on critical minerals
What started out as optimism two years ago when the federal government turned its eye to critical minerals, introducing a strategy, incentives and funding, and pledging faster permitting for mines,…
Editorial: Mining’s EV halo dims
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Mining’s association with planet-saving electric vehicles (EVs) was supposed to make mining, if not cool, at least more acceptable. Maybe even virtuous. But…
Underwater power play for metals in full swing
Despite its stranglehold on mining and processing, there’s one arena of critical minerals that China doesn’t control – underwater resources. No one does, as deep sea mining has yet to…
Explaining the copper conundrum
Arguably, no one is more aware of the coming copper shortage than copper miners themselves. Glencore CEO Gary Nagle warned in late 2022 — just months before the company made…
Does mining need saving?
Some issues of The Northern Miner are more fun to put together than others. Our March 2024 edition, unfortunately, offers a sobering read. It’s filled with news of shuttered mines…
Cash crunch has junior miners feeling ‘despondent’
According to Mining Intelligence data, mining financings tumbled by around 13% last year, after falling a precipitous 45% the previous year. Numbers from the Prospectors and Developers Association aren’t in…
2024 belongs to an offbeat pairing — uranium and gold
As demand for EV and base metals is expected to slow along with global growth in 2024, two very different metals are likely to stand out from the commodity pack:…