Mining
Deep-sea mining’s future still murky as negotiations end on mixed note
Deep-sea mining could begin in international waters as early as next year, yet policymakers are still disputing how to govern such activities. Between March 18 and 29, representatives from the 36 member states of the council of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the U.N.-affiliated regulator of deep-sea mining activities in international waters, met for talks […]
Locals slam Zimbabwe for turning a blind eye to Chinese miner’s violations
MASVINGO, Zimbabwe — At the end of November last year, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Sinomine Resource Group chair Wang Pingwei walked into a lithium processing plant, construction hats firmly on. With a crowd of policymakers, company workers and press looking on, they hailed the mining group’s $300 million investment into processing plants. The facilities […]
Indigenous Filipinos fight to protect biodiverse mountains from mining
NARRA, Philippines — At the foothills of the Victoria-Anepahan Mountains in the Philippines’ Palawan province, the Indigenous Tagbanua have lived with the rhythms of nature for generations. They rely on the lush landscape for everything they need, from food and water to nontimber products. But their forest and way of life are under threat as […]
In Liberia, a former mining activist gets the bully pulpit
It’s been about a decade since Foday Fahnbulleh was arrested. Along with other students and workers from his home in Bong Mines about an hour’s drive north of Monrovia, he’d been staging protests at the gates of a Chinese mining company. China Union, they said, wasn’t living up to the promises it had made in […]
Bid to mitigate gold mine’s impact on orangutans hit by stonewalling, data secrecy
JAKARTA — A conservation task force trying to help an Indonesian mine operator minimize its impact on the Tapanuli orangutan, the world’s most threatened great ape, says it was the company’s rush to rubber-stamp the process that led to the end of the agreement in 2022. But Agincourt Resources, the operator of the Martabe gold […]
Rechargeable battery industry needs better mining regulations, report says
Rechargeable batteries have an important role to play in the fight against climate change, especially when it comes to lowering greenhouse gas emissions through the transition to electric vehicles. It’s one reason the rechargeable battery market is expected to grow to over $180 billion by 2030. But the transition minerals that go into those batteries […]
Mongabay’s top Amazon stories from 2021
The world’s greatest tropical rainforest continued to come under pressure in 2021, due largely to the policies of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Deforestation rates hit a 15-year-high, while fires flared up again, combining to turn Brazil’s portion of the Amazon into a net carbon source for the first time ever. But the rainforest as a […]
U.K. conglomerate Jardines ‘caught red-handed’ clearing orangutan habitat in Sumatra
BALI, Indonesia — Satellite imagery has detected deforestation in a gold mining concession in Indonesia that overlaps with the habitat of the most threatened great ape in the world. U.S.-based environmental advocacy group Mighty Earth said it had detected 13 hectares (32 acres) of forest loss within the Martabe gold mining concession in North Sumatra province […]
Study chronicles dying of a lake in PNG with advent of oil & gas activities
JAKARTA — Years of deforestation and mining have devastated a wetland of international importance in Papua New Guinea, which, if left unchecked, could lead to the collapse of the ecosystem, researchers have warned. In a newly published study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from Australian National University (ANU) identified signs of […]