DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Dozens of fruit growers arrested in Spain over illegal wells as drought grips the country
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Al Goodman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Spanish police have arrested 26 people in recent months for an alleged scheme to use water from illegal wells to grow subtropical fruit, as the country grapples with damaging heat and drought. Spanish police officers document illegal water pipes in Malaga province, Spain in this screen grab from an undated handout video. Authorities’ investigation into the alleged illegal wells scheme began with a complaint to the Civil Guard’s environmental investigative unit four years ago. Later various growers told authorities they also detected illegal use of water, Spanish police said. The 26 people arrested have been arraigned before the magistrate there in recent months and released, with charges pending, the Malaga Civil Guard press office told CNN.

☆ What Chile's state-led lithium policy means for the future of the electric vehicle industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Katie Brigham | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

The only two lithium companies currently operating in Chile are North Carolina-based Albemarle , the largest lithium producer in the world, and SQM , the No. Chile's lithium is of particular strategic importance to the U.S., which has a free trade agreement with the country but not with neighboring Argentina. The plan calls for the creation of a national lithium company to partner with all private businesses looking to enter the sector. Bags of battery-grade lithium carbonate at La Negra, Albemarle's lithium processing plant near Antofagasta, Chile. Lenny-Pessagno told CNBC in January that Albemarle supports the creation of a state-owned lithium company.

May 4 (Reuters) - Albemarle Corp (ALB.N) is open to renegotiating its Chile lithium contract before 2043 and would seek access to even more of the country's vast reserves of the metal used to make electric vehicle batteries, CEO Kent Masters told Reuters on Thursday. Albemarle and SQM's contracts only grant access to the Atacama salt flats, or salars, but Boric hopes to open up many other salars across his country for lithium production, a step that will require DLE technologies. Many DLE technologies use lots of potable water and electricity, a limitation that Albemarle has acknowledged and one it is working to limit. Chile and Albemarle could cement their dominant role in the global lithium and EV industries if they can get one or more DLE technology to succeed. Masters declined to comment on Australian lithium developer's Liontown Resources Ltd (LTR.AX) rejection in March of Albemarle's $3.7 billion takeover bid.

[1/2] Lithium evaporation ponds are seen at Albemarle Lithium production facility in Silver Peak, Nevada, U.S. October 6, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos BarriaMay 3 (Reuters) - Lithium producer Albemarle Corp (ALB.N) cut its annual profit forecast on Wednesday despite posting a better-than-expected quarterly earnings, citing softening prices for the metal used to make electric vehicle batteries. For the year, Albemarle cut its sales forecast to a range of $9.8 billion to $11.5 billion, from a prior forecast of $11.3 billion to $12.9 billion. The adjusted earnings forecast was trimmed to a range of $3.3 billion to $4 billion, from a prior $4.2 billion to $5.1 billion. Australian officials said earlier on Wednesday that Albemarle had agreed to spend $1 billion to expand lithium processing facilities in Western Australia.

☆ She’s More Than the Creator of Peter Rabbit
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Tanya Mohn | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

This article is part of our Museums special section about how art institutions are reaching out to new artists and attracting new audiences. Beatrix Potter’s tales about the frolics and misadventures of Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin, Jemima Puddle-Duck and other animals have charmed children around the globe for well over a century. Now, a new traveling exhibition explores how the English artist and author’s passion and curiosity for the natural world and scientific study inspired her books — and her life. “She creates these little enchanting, watercolor worlds and fills them with characters in gardens and ponds,” said Trinita Kennedy, a senior curator at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, where “Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature” is on view through Sept. 17. It closed there in January, and after its run at the Frist it will head to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Morgan Library & Museum in New York.

☆ Chile, US miner Albemarle hold talks on lithium nationalization plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Lithium evaporation ponds are seen at Albemarle Lithium production facility in Silver Peak, Nevada, U.S. October 6, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos BarriaSANTIAGO, April 25 (Reuters) - Chile's state development office Corfo said on Tuesday it met with U.S.-based miner Albemarle (ALB.N) to discuss the South American country's plan to nationalize the lithium industry. Chile's leftist President Gabriel Boric last week announced that control of the country's vast lithium operations would over time be transferred from Albemarle and SQM (SQMA.SN) to a separate state-owned company. Chile has the world's largest lithium reserves. He added that Albemarle, the world's largest producer of lithium, wants to grow in Chile and in the Atacama salt flat with new technologies.

Many DLE technologies use lots of potable water and electricity. SQM (SQMA.SN) and Albemarle Corp (ALB.N), Chile's two existing lithium producers, use evaporation ponds to produce the metal. Livent Corp (LTHM.N) uses a variation of DLE technology in Argentina alongside evaporation ponds. Lake Resources is working with Bill Gates-backed Lilac Solutions Inc to deploy Lilac's DLE technology in Argentina. In Chile, DLE companies see a business opportunity despite the nationalization plans given that Boric's new state lithium company is expected to need technical support.

☆ Barry Humphries, creator of Dame Edna, dies at 89
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Byron Kaye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

April 22 (Reuters) - Barry Humphries, the comedian best known for his character Dame Edna Everage who blossomed from an Australian suburban housewife into a self-described gigastar, died on Saturday. The Sydney Morning Herald said Humphries died at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, where he had been treated for various health issues. It was the character of Dame Edna who made Humphries famous. "Edna has this way of doing things, it seems to take the curse off it," Humphries told Reuters in 1998. That changed in 2000, when he was 66, and his "Dame Edna: The Royal Tour" on Broadway earned him a Tony award and role in the sitcom "Ally McBeal".

☆ Alberta Energy Regulator to probe wildlife death at Suncor tailings pond
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 22 (Reuters) - The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) has started an investigation into the death of 32 waterfowl at a Suncor Energy Inc (SU.TO) tailings pond on its Base Mine Site, 29 km (18 miles) north of Fort McMurray. It was detected during an oilsands bird contact monitoring program survey, according to a statement from the regulator. The company has further discovered two additional dead wildlife, one muskrat and one vole, at the site since it notified the AER. Suncor said it had begun an investigation after finding the dead wildlife on Friday, on the edge of a tailings pond at the Base Plant site during one of its regular, required checks. "At the time of discovery, all bird deterrent systems at Base Plant were active."

☆ Australian comedian Barry Humphries, creator of Dame Edna, dies at 89
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Australian television talk show host Dame Edna (L) appears as a guest on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" as talk show host Jay Leno laughs at one of Dame Edna's humorous comments. Barry Humphries, the comedian best known for his character Dame Edna Everage who blossomed from an Australian suburban housewife into a self-described gigastar, died on Saturday. The Sydney Morning Herald said Humphries died at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, where he had been treated for various health issues. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to Humphries in a tweet, calling him a "great wit, satirist, writer and an absolute one-of-kind". It was the character of Dame Edna who made Humphries famous.

The shock move in the country with the world's largest lithium reserves would in time transfer control of Chile's vast lithium operations from industry giants SQM (SQMA.SN) and Albemarle (ALB.N) to a separate state-owned company. "Nevertheless, projects with strategic values for the country, this partnership has to have a majority participation of the state," Boric said. The president added that there will be a division dedicated to advancing technology to minimize environmental impacts, including favoring direct lithium extraction over evaporation ponds. Privately held Summit Nanotech Corp, which is developing direct lithium extraction technology and recently opened a Santiago office, welcomed Boric's announcement. Boric said the country would look to protect biodiversity and share mining benefits with indigenous and surrounding communities as lithium extraction evolves.

☆ Canada's Suncor releases 5,900 cubic metres of water from oil sands site
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Nia Williams | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 18 (Reuters) - Canada's Suncor Energy (SU.TO) has reported the release of 5,900 cubic metres (208,400 cubic feet) of water with more than twice the approved level of suspended solids from a sedimentation pond at its Fort Hills oil sands project in northern Alberta. The water came from a sedimentation pond, which collects and discharges surface run-off from the oil sands site, and not a tailings pond, Suncor spokesperson Erin Rees said in an email. Oil sands companies are under scrutiny for how they manage water on their sites, after Imperial Oil (IMO.TO) said in February that tailings ponds at its Kearl site had been seeping for months and another spill released 5,300 cubic metres of process water in late January. "This is not a tailings pond, but a water run-off pond that collects and discharges run off into Fort Creek ... in line with regulatory approvals," Rees said. The water discharges into Fort Creek roughly 800 metres upstream of the Athabasca River, the main waterway running through the oil sands region.

☆ Rare video footage of a tardigrade threesome that lasted 30 minutes documents the wild sex lives of water bears
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Crystal Raypole | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

James Weiss recently captured one of the first known recordings of a tardigrade threesome. The water bear threesome lasted about 30 minutes and involved a lot of belly jabbing and poop. Wanda von Wenk, 1914A water bear threesomeResearchers first published details of tardigrade mating behavior in a 2016 paper, but other observations of water bear sex remains fairly limited. A water bear threesome. Water bear reproductionA female tardigrade with oocytes circled in red.

☆ Read Your Way Through Kerala, India
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Abraham Verghese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Read Your Way Around the World is a series exploring the globe through books. If you arrive in Kerala from elsewhere in India, you’ll feel as though you’ve landed in a different country — “God’s own country,” as Keralites like to say. Not surprisingly, the Gulf has shaped Kerala’s culture and literature. The territory sits between the Indian Ocean and the Western Ghats, the mountain range that runs parallel to the coast. I think it’s responsible for the fluid facial movements that allow Malayalis to convey volumes without uttering a word.

Persons: you’ve Locations: Kerala, India, Sri Lanka, Goa, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Persia, Ghats

☆ As summer heat looms, Japan urged to curb impact, emissions
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Stanislav Kogiku | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty ImagesTemperatures are rising in Japan and summer is coming fast. "The risks from climate change are right before us," said Yasuaki Hijioka, deputy director of the Center for Climate Change Adaptation at the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba, northeast of Tokyo. But climate change means communities are often caught off guard because the systems were engineered for the weather conditions of the past. The warming weather can also hold more moisture, adding flooding and landslides to the summer forecast, something that Japan has also seen with growing frequency. "We need to view climate change as a natural disaster."

[1/2] The new GM logo is seen on the facade of the General Motors headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., March 16, 2021. Many teem with lithium, calcium and other minerals, and DLE technologies aim to separate out the lithium and leave the rest. LITHIUM METAL FROM BRINEEnergyX has said its technology can make lithium metal directly from brine, a tantalizing prospect for GM that could let the automaker bypass lithium refining, which is widely seen as a key supply chain bottleneck. The EnergyX investment comes after GM in January agreed to pay $650 million to become the largest shareholder in Lithium Americas Corp (LAC.TO), which is developing the Thacker Pass clay lithium project in Nevada. "This GM investment will completely change the trajectory of EnergyX," said Teague Egan, the startup company's founder and chief executive.

☆ General Motors will lead a $50 million funding round for lithium extraction startup EnergyX
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( John Rosevear | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

EnergyX demonstrated its technology with a pilot plant in South America's "Lithium Triangle," an area of salt flats covering parts of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile that contains over half of the world's known lithium reserves. General Motors said Tuesday its venture capital arm will lead a $50 million financing round for EnergyX, a Texas-based startup developing a more efficient method to extract and process lithium from salt flats. The process is relatively cheap, but it only recovers 30% to 40% of the total lithium – while using huge amounts of water and land. EnergyX plans to use the new funding to build five larger demonstration plants in North and South America. For GM, a key priority is to unlock a North American supply of lithium, which isn't cost-competitive with global supplies using current extraction methods.

China currently dominates the supply chain for many of the entries on Europe's list of "strategic" metals. By which time not more than 65% of any strategic metal's consumption will be able to come from a single third country. Europe has no strategic metal inventory, unlike the United States, China and South Korea. Given such a humble starting point, it seems unlikely EU strategic metal reserves are going to come any time soon, if they come at all. What started as a response to China's dominance of critical metals supply has been accelerated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

☆ Europe’s Drought Deepens, Threatening Agriculture and Industries
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Matthew Dalton | Photographs Jordi Ruiz Cirera For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

MONTLUEL, France—A rainy, cool climate has sustained fisheries in this region north of Lyon for eight centuries, filling up hundreds of man-made ponds that are France’s main source of freshwater fish. This year, however, many of the ponds are nearly empty after an exceptionally dry and warm stretch of weather that has lingered across much of Europe since last summer. The farmers expect to raise half as much fish as they did last season and lay off workers who usually help with the catch.

☆ This fish farmer-turned-entrepreneur runs a profitable start-up. Here are his tips
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Sheila Chiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Now at 33, Farizy runs Indonesia-based startup eFishery, which developed products such as automatic feeders that help local seafood farmers save costs and improve productivity. Automatic feeders eliminate the problems of manual feeding, which could result in over-feeding or under-feeding. Say no to high cash burnMany startups focus on blistering growth, which usually means a high cash burn rate. When asked about how he runs a successful company, he said: "We don't burn cash unnecessarily." Cash burn refers to a company spending its cash reserves when it is not yet generating profit.

☆ Bank of America sees lithium surplus in 2023 as demand eases
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Lee Ying Shan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

"We see a lot of supply coming out from lithium mines ... We are expecting 38% lithium supply growth this year. That's why 2023 is likely to turn into a surplus year for lithium," Zhao told CNBC. She also said she expects China's electric vehicle demand growth to slow from 95% last year to 22% this year. In the two years ending December 2021, lithium carbonate spot prices rose 5% to stand at 277,500 yuan per ton. But subsequently surged to a record high of almost 600,000 yuan per ton in November 2022, more than 12 times January 2021 prices.

☆ Canada's Imperial ordered to fix seepage from oil sands tailing ponds
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Nia Williams | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 8 (Reuters) - Canada's Imperial Oil (IMO.TO) on Wednesday said it is working with the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) to fix industrial wastewater seepage from tailings ponds at its Kearl oil sands project that has been ongoing for months. The order steps up regulatory enforcement from the AER, which previously issued Imperial with two non-compliance notices and conducted site inspections. Kearl is a 240,000-barrel-per-day bitumen mine in northern Alberta, and the wastewater, or tailings, from its industrial processes include dissolved iron and arsenic. However, Imperial on Saturday also reported a separate leak of more than 5,000 cubic metres of tailings water from one of its holding ponds. Schmidt said the cause of that release is still being determined and Imperial has notified local communities.

☆ Indonesia's seafood farming industry faces a 'technology gap' — and startups are raising big bucks to fill it
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Sheila Chiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

And we are third in aquaculture production after China and India. Aquaculture production and exports by country in 2020 Aquaculture (animals, not including algae) Top producing countries in 2020 Top exporting countries in 2020 1. Aruna, for its part, helps to connect Indonesia's small-scale aquaculture farmers to buyers. Indonesia has the puzzle pieces to become a global leader in aquaculture and seafood production. "Indonesia has the puzzle pieces to become a global leader in aquaculture and seafood production.

☆ Brazil readies task force to expel miners from Yanomami lands, officials say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Anthony Boadle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A village of indigenous Yanomami is seen during Brazil's environmental agency operation against illegal gold mining on indigenous land, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, in Roraima state, Brazil April 18, 2016. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly/File PhotoBRASILIA, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Brazil is preparing a task force of armed forces, police and government agencies to expel illegal gold miners who invaded the Yanomami indigenous reservation, officials said on Tuesday. Defense Minister Jose Mucio said the military is needed to drive out the miners, who are well armed and have helicopters. Wapichana said the task force, as in past offensives against illegal miners, will involve the Federal Police, environmental protection agency Ibama, Funai and several ministries, as well as the military. Wapichana said the government will move against the organized crime and financial groups that supply and fund the illegal mining, and launder the gold.

Towns said the lawmakers could have until early spring, otherwise, to develop and fine tune any proposals that emerge from Nichols' death. Share this -Link copiedMemphis police’s vaunted Scorpion unit is deactivated after Tyre Nichols' death Memphis police’s vaunted Scorpion unit has been permanently deactivated. Share this -Link copiedNFL calls for change after 'senseless death' of Tyre Nichols A day after the release of video showing the police beating of Tyre Nichols, the NFL on Saturday condemned the violence. Demonstrations continued Saturday in Atlanta, Boston and Charlotte following the release of video footage showing five former Memphis police officers beating Tyre Nichols, who died on Jan. 10. Attorney Blake Ballin’s comments follow the release of video footage showing the officers punching and kicking Tyre Nichols during a Jan. 7 traffic stop.

Search resuls for: "Ponds"

25 mentions found