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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.

☆ Ex-Brazil president Bolsonaro is hoarding a stash of jewels Saudi Arabia gave him — but was just ordered to give them away
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Brazil's watchdog ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to hand over valuable jewels. He received the gift on a trip to Saudi Arabia, and another stash was seized by customs. Jewelry gifted to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro by the Saudi government and seized by customs officials. It later emerged that a second stash of jewels, valued at around $75,000, also entered the country undetected, and were in Bolsonaro's possession. It is this this second stash that the watchdog has ordered Bolsonaro to hand back, reports say.

☆ Fact Check-Dinosaurs existed and were documented before the term ‘dinosauria’ was coined in the early 1840s
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Dinosaurs existed long before the word ‘dinosauria’ was coined by paleontologist Sir Richard Owen in the 19th century, paleontology experts and a spokesperson for Britain’s Royal Society told Reuters, rejecting a claim to the contrary spreading online. They were invented by the Royal Society in 1841,” the individual says, referring to the academic organisation which is Britain’s national academy of sciences. However, three experts and a spokesperson for the Royal Society told Reuters separately that these claims are false. They say Sir Richard Owen first used the term ‘Dinosauria’ in the early 1840s but that dinosaurs and their fossils existed and were documented long before. Dinosaurs existed and were documented long before they were given a universal name in 1841, paleontologists and Britain’s Royal Society say.

HOUSTON, March 8 (Reuters) - Copper mining giants are scrambling to attract and retain workers, especially in the United States, amid rising global demand for the red metal for the green energy transition. While regulatory push back and water supply have been among the mining industry's historical challenges, access to talent has emerged as another worry. Workers are needed with skills to build and run mines producing lithium, nickel, copper and other metals to feed the green energy transition. We're just trying to make our work as attractive to people as we can," said Adkerson, who has run the company since 2003. Freeport peer Rio Tinto Ltd (RIO.AX)(RIO.L) has more than 4,000 employees in Utah, where the company runs the Kennecott copper mine.

[1/5] Grain farmer Oleksandr Klepach points at trenches in his field, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Snihurivka, southeast Ukraine, February 20, 2023. Agricultural companies, which plant most of Ukraine's fields, are short 40 billion hryvnia ($1.08 billion) to carry out spring work, the Agrarian Council said. Grains have traditionally dominated Ukraine's fields, but lower-cost and higher-priced oilseeds are gaining popularity during war. Ukraine was the world's fourth-largest corn exporter before Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 and the biggest sunflower oil exporter. Companies lacking demining certification are charging farmers up to $3,000 per hectare to clear fields, Ukrainian media reported on Tuesday.

☆ Footage shows how Russian tanks and armored vehicles keep driving to their death at an infamous mine-filled crossroads
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Russian troops keep driving to their death at an infamous crossroads in eastern Ukraine. Drone footage from Ukraine's military has circulated on social media, appearing to show Russian vehicles being destroyed at the crossing point. Fighting has raged in the eastern Ukrainian town, and its neighboring villages as Russia has made several failed attempts to capture it. Ukraine's unexpected use of mines appears to be helping give it the upper hand in fighting in eastern Ukraine. Along with traditional Soviet mines, Ukraine has also been using US-supplied remote anti-armor mines, which involve firing a shell over an open area that scatters tiny mines widely.

☆ Exclusive: Mexico's Pemex increased gas flaring at top field, despite pledge to stop
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Stefanie Eschenbacher | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

[1/3] Gas flare is seen at the state energy company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) Papan plant, in Tierra Blanca, Veracruz state, Mexico February 18, 2023. The pledge to stop burning gas at the Ixachi field came after months of pressure over flaring from the hydrocarbon regulator, environmentalists and Mexico’s most important trade partner, the United States. But Pemex has repeatedly missed gas production targets, blaming it on missing infrastructure. Two senior company sources told Reuters last November Pemex would rather pay fines than deal with gas flaring problems. Pemex's updated business plan for 2023 to 2027, released in December, reiterated promises to reduce emissions but focused more on oil and gas production as well as refining.

☆ India opposes Hindustan Zinc's $2.98 bln deal for Vedanta zinc assets
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Vedanta's sale of its zinc assets in South Africa and Namibia to Hindustan Zinc is critical to ensuring liquidity at parent company Vedanta Resources. The government holds a near 30% stake in Hindustan Zinc, while Vedanta owns almost 65%. "As far as Hindustan Zinc is concerned, we always believe in and operate in perfect manners of corporate governance, so (there is) no deviation on that count," Hindustan Zinc Chief Executive Arun Misra told CNBC-TV18 on Monday. Hindustan Zinc has three months from the deal announcement to hold the shareholders' meeting to seek approval for the deal. Hindustan Zinc and Vedanta did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

☆ UK scientists found a way to slash nearly 90% of carbon emissions from the country's steel industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Now, researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a process to clean up the most carbon-intensive part of the steelmaking process: blast furnaces. Currently, coking coal and iron ore are fed into furnaces and heated to sky-high temperatures to create liquid iron, which is then refined into steel. About 70% of steel used around the world for buildings, cars, and household appliances is made this way. For every metric ton of steel produced, nearly two metric tons of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, according to the World Steel Organization. Kildahl described it as a "closed-loop" system that captures and recycles carbon dioxide to trigger the chemical reactions that convert iron ore into steel.

☆ Giant Ukrainian Salt Mine Takes Center Stage in War
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Alistair Macdonald | Oksana Pyrozhok | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A giant salt mine has become a focal point on the most fiercely contested front line in Ukraine, as Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group sets its sights on taking what it sees as a military and economic asset. Russia has said it has captured the eastern town of Soledar, where the mine is located, though Ukraine says the settlement remains contested. While the mine’s owner doubts it has military value, the operation could be a lucrative one. The salt mine could have economic value if Wagner can consolidate its hold there. Russia has seized key economic assets in the parts of Ukraine that it occupies, echoing Wagner’s use of military muscle in Africa to take control of mines.

☆ Ukraine bolsters its defenses around Bakhmut as Russia sends waves of attacks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

Ukraine said it was strengthening its forces around Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region and repelling constant attacks there by Russian mercenary group Wagner, whose leader has vowed to capture the area’s vast underground mines. Kyiv had sent reinforcements to Soledar, a small town near Bakhmut where the situation was particularly difficult, Ukrainian officials said. Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner mercenary group, has been trying to capture Bakhmut and Soledar for months at the cost of many lives on both sides. A U.S. official has said Prigozhin, a powerful ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is eyeing the salt and gypsum from the mines. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in nightly video remarks on Sunday that Bakhmut and Soledar were holding on despite widespread destruction after months of attacks.

☆ For 60 years, the US Navy has been training dolphins and sea lions to keep rivals away from its most sensitive hardware
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Gidget Fuentes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

The US Navy has been training dolphins and sea lions to detect undersea threats since the 1960s. A US Navy trainer with a Mark 5 Marine Mammal sea lion in Key West in October 1990. The program worked with sharks, rays, and sea turtles but settled on dolphins and sea lions. US NavyThe Navy Marine Mammal Program's budget for 2023 provides $40 million for "food, medicine, veterinary care, husbandry, and facilities," Wilson said. A US Navy sea lion jumps into a riverine command boat during a mine-countermeasures exercise in Bahrain in November 2014.

☆ Colombia's oil theft soars, leaving trail of environmental harm
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Oliver Griffin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Reuters accompanied a police unit tasked with tackling oil theft in September to two sites near Tumaco, a Pacific port in southwest Colombia that is the terminal for the country's Transandino oil pipeline. The animals, the trees - everything is totally burned," said Colonel Johan Pena, commander of the police unit charged with tackling oil theft in Narino, a province bordering Ecuador that is known for cocaine production. Reuters approached more than a dozen environmental groups, rights advocates, government agencies and international organizations who either said they had no detailed information on the extent of the environmental damage in Colombia from oil theft or did not respond to questions. Oil spills on land smother soil pore spaces, restricting microorganisms' access to oxygen, said Martha Daza, a professor at Cali-based university Universidad del Valle's school of engineering of natural resources and the environment. Regional health authorities in Narino did not immediately respond to questions about the health impact of oil spills.

☆ Russian forces retreating from Kherson left behind booby traps — including a grenade in a washing machine and a street sign that directed people into a minefield
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Russia occupied the Ukrainian city of Kherson for eight months before retreating in November. But Russian troops left traps behind that Ukrainian demining squads are trying to disarm. Kherson, a regional capital, was the first major Ukrainian city seized by Russian forces after the invasion in February. The southern port city was occupied from March until November, when Russian officials announced a retreat and Ukrainian forces returned. Since the retreat, which revealed stories of potential war crimes and Ukrainian resistance, Russian forces have continued shelling the Kherson region.

☆ Free for a month, Ukraine's Kherson still toils to clear Russian traps
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

An elderly woman looks at damaged caused by overnight Russian shelling of a residential building on Dec. 1, 2022 in Kherson, Ukraine. Sunday marks exactly one month since Russia's troops withdrew from Kherson and its vicinity after an eight-month occupation, sparking jubilation across Ukraine. The regional administration said Saturday that shelling over the past month has killed 41 people, including a child, in Kherson, and 96 were hospitalized. When aid trucks arrived a month ago, war-weary and desperate residents flocked to the central Svoboda (Freedom) Square for food and supplies. Longer-term questions remain: Kherson sits in an agricultural region that produces crops as diverse as wheat, tomatoes, and watermelon — a regional symbol.

☆ Brazil, a Bastion of Hydropower, Is Gaining Traction in Wind and Solar
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Paulo Trevisani | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +8 min

The government, meanwhile, welcomes renewables projects as they can generate jobs and extra income for communities plagued by poverty. The wave of solar, wind and other clean-energy projects is expected to take market share from historically predominant hydroelectric generation. Wind and solar power are abundant in areas thousands of miles north of metropolitan centers where it is mostly needed, industry officials said. New solar and wind plants are generally welcomed by environmentalists and can often offer much-needed income to small farms. Of this total, 83% is expected to come from renewable sources, including hydro, solar, wind and others.

☆ Colombia could be open to buying Venezuela's Monomeros -Finance Minister
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BOGOTA, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Colombia could be open to buying Venezuelan fertilizer maker Monomeros, Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo said on Wednesday, at a time when higher fertilizer prices have contributed to inflationary pressure. Though Monomeros is based in the Colombian city of Barranquilla, it is owned by Pequiven, which is a unit of Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA. The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro regained control of Monomeros' board of directors in mid-September, following a couple of years when it was controlled by opposition leader Juan Guaido. The recent changes to Monomeros' management occurred at a time when relations between Colombia and Venezuela - particularly in economic and military cooperation - have strengthened, following the election of Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Reporting by Carlos Vargas and Nelson Bocanegra Writing by Oliver Griffin Editing by Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ I used a HELOC to become an Airbnb millionaire. It was risky, but the strategy paid off big time — here's how I set up this secondary income stream.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Bryce Decora | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

This was the beginning of a world of real estate that would change our lives foreverDeCora's Bellevue Airbnb. If the real estate market started trending downward at this time, this story may not have had such a happy endingExtending your debt to the max in real estate is the equivalent of an all-in poker move. Our three-house real estate portfolio is worth around $2.5 million and we only have $1.35 million in mortgage and HELOC debt. Once you get over the scary leap, you'll see real estate as a simple way to building a massive empire. Bryce DeCora is a former engineer turned real estate investor and a father of two.

☆ Microsoft brings casual games Minesweeper and Solitaire to Teams to spruce up virtual meetings
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Next time you're bored on a Microsoft Teams call, try joining your colleagues in a game of Minesweeper. Microsoft on Wednesday added a collection of casual games to its Teams chat and calling service as the company tries to get people to spend more time in the app. Teams is now available on most popular devices, and desktop software developers including Adobe and SAP have developed Teams integrations. By adding games, Microsoft is trying to sprinkle some fun into the equation and perhaps even strengthen bonds at work. The classic Klondike game, for example, is part of the Microsoft Solitaire Collection app for Windows.

☆ Zelenskiy: 'We are getting Kherson back', hails historic day
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 11 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday said special units of the armed forces were already in the southern city of Kherson following Russia's withdrawal and described the moment as historic. We are getting the south of the country back, we are getting Kherson back," Zelenskiy said in an evening video address. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a joint news conference with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (not seen), as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine October 31, 2022. But special units are already in the city," he continued. Zelenskiy said that measures to make Kherson safe - in particular, efforts to remove what he called a lot of mines -would start as soon as possible.

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Nov 10 (Reuters) - African nations must be allowed to develop their fossil fuel resources to help lift their pepole out of poverty, governments said at the COP27 talks in Egypt, which welcomed leaders of oil and gas companies sidelined at previous talks. African nations said wealthy countries had failed to deliver promised funding that would help them to expand clean energy instead of exploiting their fossil fuel resources. Some 636 fossil fuel lobbyists were registered to attend COP27, another report from a group of organisations that analysed the U.N.'s provisional list of attendees found. That's 100 lobbyists more than attended the Glasgow COP26 summit last year, the group said, lamenting what it described as "rise in the influence of the fossil fuel industry". The analysis also counted delegation members acting on behalf of their country's fossil fuel industry.

☆ Chinese copper companies say more mining is needed to boost supply
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Chile's Codelco, the world's largest copper miner, said this week it would extend maintenance work at its Chuquicamata smelter to 135 days, from an initially planned 90-day stoppage. China is the world's top user of copper and relies on imports for about 25% of its consumption. Mining companies should mine deeper and broader and work on extending the life of their mines, while smelting companies should speed up overseas resource development and optimize their layout over the industry chain, the Chinese companies are reported to have said at the meeting. Last week, Canada ordered three Chinese companies to give up their investments in Canadian minerals, citing national security. read moreChina produced 10.49 million tonnes of refined copper last year and imported 23.40 million tonnes of copper ore and concentrate.

☆ Zimbabwe's new mineral royalty policy comes into force
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A worker attends to machinery at a smelter plant at Anglo American Platinum's Unki mine in Shurugwi, Zimbabwe, May 16, 2019. The southern African country has struggled to capitalise on its significant mineral reserves and a resource boom due to policy uncertainty, a lack of ancillary industries to support mining, currency volatility and electricity shortages. The cash component of the royalties would be made up of 40% Zimbabwean dollars and 10% in foreign currency, according to the notice. Zimbabwe's royalty rates range between 5% for gold and platinum group metals and 10% for diamonds. The Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines, which represents major mining companies, has said it is not worried about the new royalty policy because it does not amount to an increase in existing royalty rates.

☆ Mexico's Pemex had a plan to fix its flaring problem, but abandoned it
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Stefanie Eschenbacher | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +10 min

The broken commitment, which has not previously been reported, highlights the struggles of Mexico's oil regulator to rein in Pemex, a powerful state monopoly that is always closely connected to the government. The oil company has in recent quarterly reports stressed it was making efforts to clean up its operations and bring down flaring and other waste. Earlier this year, under increasing international criticism, Lopez Obrador said Pemex would invest $2 billion to improve infrastructure to reduce flaring and methane emissions. The regulator said in 2020 the company wasted 37.7% of the gas from Ku alone through flaring, venting or otherwise. One source said the regulator fined Pemex again for recurrence in 2021 but the oil company started legal proceedings to annul the fine, which are still pending.

☆ An embarrassing defeat 73 years ago is a preview of the problems China would face in an attack on Taiwan today
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Benjamin Brimelow | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The Chinese Communist troops who stormed Kinmen island in October 1949 expected a quick victory. The planChinese Communist troops take prisoners at bayonet point after heavy fighting in Shanghai on May 21, 1949. Kinmen Island, 59 square miles in size and home to some 40,000 people, was essential to this plan. A model of a soldier in a bunker near the Hujingtou Battle Museum in Little Kinmen, Taiwan in April 2018. By day's end, the PLA troops who had retreated to the beaches had also surrendered.

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