Minnesota Court Tosses Key Permits for Copper Mine
The Minnesota Court of Appeals set back a controversial mining project in the northern part of the state Monday when it ordered officials to hold hearings on three of the mine’s permits.
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mining
Kentucky-Virginia Park to Welcome Record-Setting Swing Bridge
The world’s longest swinging pedestrian bridge is about to join Kentucky and Virginia as part of a former-coal country grant program.
Read moreReinstated Nickel Mine Lease Sends Minnesotans to DC
A pristine wilderness where Minnesotans go to fish, hunt and snowshoe is at risk of contamination from acid mine drainage, environmentalists and business owners warned a federal judge in Washington on Friday.
Read moreSurface Mining
The Sierra Club sued the Department of the Interior and the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement for information whether they consulted with the Fish & Wildlife Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as required, before issuing permits for “highly destructive” surface mining.
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Twin Metals Submits Plan to Mine Near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters
A controversial mining project near northeastern Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness took a step closer to becoming a reality Wednesday after Twin Metals submitted its proposal to state and federal agencies for an underground copper-nickel mine.
Read moreChild Labor
A federal class action claims Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Dell, Tesla, et al. knowingly profit from brutal abuse of young children in the Democratic Republic of Congo to mine cobalt for lithium-ion batteries used in their electronic devices.
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Justices Urged to Allow More Cleanup at Superfund Site
The Supreme Court appeared concerned Tuesday about the practical consequences of siding with a group of Montana landowners who live on land contaminated by arsenic and lead and want a more aggressive cleanup of the Superfund site than what has been approved.
Read moreStrip Mining
The Montana Environmental Information Center, et al. sued Interior Secretary David Bernhardt in federal court for approving a 6,500-acre expansion of the Rosebud coal strip mine in Montana.
Read moreCalifornia Water
A pistachio farm and a ranch sued a Southern California water district, a mining company and a dairy in Kern County Court, in a fight over the area’s depleted groundwater.
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House Passes Bill to Protect Land Around Grand Canyon From Mining
The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed two bills to protect a combined 1.3 million acres of land in Arizona and New Mexico from new mining and drilling operations.
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Judge Weighs Jobs, Emissions in Fight Over Coal Mine Approval
A federal judge is considering whether to let a Colorado coal mine operate as planned in January 2020 or bar operations until methane flaring equipment is approved by a federal agency and installed, a delay that could cost 365 miners their jobs ahead of the holiday season.
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Uranium Industry Asks Trump for Bailout
A plea from uranium mining companies and nuclear power plant operators for tax breaks and other federal financial boosts is going to President Donald Trump as his administration studies reviving the uranium industry in the name of national security.
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Lawsuits Pile Up Over EPA’s Green Light for Mine Near Pristine Alaskan Bay
A proposed open-pit gold and copper mine approved by the federal government faces considerable legal pushback from Alaskan environmental and fishing groups, claiming the project would taint the watershed for local wildlife, including starving the headwaters that sustain the world’s largest wild salmon run.
Read moreJudge Rejects Environmental Challenge to Minnesota Copper Mine
A federal judge in Minnesota dismissed eight environmental groups’ challenges to the construction of an open-pit copper mine that they argue will destroy protected habitat and imperil several species in the Superior National Forest.
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Renewable Energy Requires Mineral Mining Investment, Experts Tell Senators
Inescapably – and in the face of a rapidly warming planet – the transition from a fossil fuel-based world to one that relies primarily on renewable energy must also involve greater investment in the mining of rare earth minerals, experts told Congress Tuesday.
Read morePanel Appears Sympathetic to Tribal Bid to Block Sulfide Mine
Seventh Circuit judges pressed the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday to explain how the Menominee Tribe could navigate the complex intersection of federal and state law to challenge a mine’s application for a permit allowing runoff into a river that forms the border between Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
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Commercial Fishermen, Indigenous People Unite to Fight Mine in Alaska
In the sleepy and remote village of Dillingham in southwestern Alaska, there has historically been tension between the indigenous populations, who take a subsistence approach to catching salmon, and commercial fishermen, who take in half a billion annually by trawling one of the world’s most productive fisheries at Bristol Bay.
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