mines

9 Stories

For These Kids, Toiling in Illegal Mines Is 'Only Option'

Lithium demand creates 'new frontier for mining' in Nigeria, with children doing much of the work

(Newser) - Dressed in a faded pink dress, 6-year-old Juliet Samaniya squats under scorching skies to chip at a jagged white rock with a stone tool. Dust coats her tiny hands and her hair as she works hour after hour, for less than a dollar a day in Nasarawa, Nigeria. The landscape...

Rare Flower May Scuttle First US Mine of Its Kind

In Nevada, Tiehm's buckwheat stands in the way of lithium production

(Newser) - A mining company is pushing hard to build a lithium mine in the Nevada desert, but a rare wildflower might make that impossible. The issue has one unusual twist from the usual environmentalists-vs-miners debate, notes New Scientist . In this case, the output from the mine would largely be used for...

Video Shows Massive Mine Collapse That Took 120 Lives

'I feel empty in my heart,' says a Myanmar miner

(Newser) - At least 126 people are dead after a terrifying mine collapse buried workers in a wave of rock and mud Thursday in Myanmar, the BBC reports. Officials say rainfall caused a heap of muddy waste to crumble at the jade mine in Hpakant township in Kachin state, setting off the...

Virus Clobbers Retail Sales, US Factories

Both industries see record drops

(Newser) - US retail sales tumbled by a record 16.4% from March to April as business shutdowns caused by the coronavirus kept shoppers away, per the AP . The Commerce Department’s report Friday on retail purchases showed a sector that has collapsed so quickly that sales over the past 12 months...

See What's Dumping 50M Gallons of Bad Water Daily

US mines are behind the ghastly pollution

(Newser) - Every day many millions of gallons of water loaded with arsenic, lead, and other toxic metals flow from some of the most contaminated mining sites in the US and into surrounding streams and ponds without being treated, the AP has found. That torrent is poisoning aquatic life and tainting drinking...

Why 4K Mines Exploded for No Apparent Reason

A new paper looks millions of miles away

(Newser) - A new paper says dozens—and by one account about four thousand—US mines exploded during the Vietnam war for a pretty strange reason, Atlas Obscura reports. Published in Space Weather , the paper concludes that a 1972 solar storm triggered the mines: "I was completely taken aback" by the...

It Will Take Years to Deal With Leaking Colo. Mine

Wastewater spill has now reached Lake Powell

(Newser) - It will take many years and many millions of dollars simply to manage and not even remove the toxic wastewater from an abandoned mine that unleashed a 100-mile-long torrent of heavy metals into Western rivers that has likely reached Lake Powell, experts say. Plugging Colorado's Gold King Mine, which...

Toxic Water Still Leaking Into Colorado River

Other abandoned mines are now the issue, officials say

(Newser) - The wastewater spill into Colorado's Animas River isn't just more severe than the Environmental Protection Agency initially estimated: It's steadily getting worse in terms of volume, even a week after the initial incident . Between 500 and 700 gallons of metal-laced water is still spilling from the abandoned...

US Sends Underwater Drones to Persian Gulf

The remote-controlled SeaFox hunts mines

(Newser) - As tensions worsen with Iran, the US is adding a new weapon to its Persian Gulf arsenal: the underwater drone. Called the SeaFox, it's a 4-foot-long, remote-controlled submarine capable of hunting for undersea mines and detonating them, reports the Telegraph . Iran has been threatening to blockade the Strait of...

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