Hacker News with Generative AI: Mining

Tracking mining with multispectral satellite imagery (agnescameron.info)
This is a writeup of research into using satellite imagery to track mining operations, funded as part of Bellingcat’s 2024 Technical Writing Fellowship, and is a more in-depth version of a short guide published on their online platform. The accompanying Multispectral Satellite Imagery Explorer tool is available here. This guide is intended as an overview of my research, and a starting point for these techniques.
Nigeria's lithium boom: many mines are illegal and children do much of the work (apnews.com)
Growing demand for the lithium used in batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage has created a new frontier for mining in Nigeria. But it’s led to exploitation of children who are often poor and take work in small, illegal mines to support themselves and their families.
Through-the-Earth Mine Communications (wikipedia.org)
Through-the-Earth (TTE) signalling is a type of radio signalling used in mines and caves that uses low-frequency waves to penetrate dirt and rock, which are opaque to higher-frequency conventional radio signals.
Coal ash resources and potential for rare earth element production in the U.S. (springer.com)
The renewable energy industry is heavily reliant on rare earth elements, underscoring the need to develop resources and production.
Massive Amount of Rare Metal Deposits Found Off Remote Pacific Island in Japan (nippon-foundation.or.jp)
Enormous cache of rare earth elements hidden inside coal ash waste (phys.org)
Brazil reaches $23B settlement with mining firms over environmental disaster (apnews.com)
Why are victims of a Brazil dam disaster suing miner BHP in a London court? (aljazeera.com)
Global mining giant BHP faces billions of dollars in potential damages payouts over Brazil’s worst environmental disaster nine years ago, as the first hearing in the much-delayed lawsuit opened in a London court on Monday.
Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014) (righto.com)
I decided to see how practical it would be to mine Bitcoin with pencil and paper.
USGS uses machine learning to show large lithium potential in Arkansas (usgs.gov)
Using a combination of water testing and machine learning, a U.S. Geological Survey-led study estimated between 5 and 19 million tons of lithium reserves are located beneath southwestern Arkansas.
Arkansas May Have Lithium Reserves (nytimes.com)
Researchers at the United States Geological Survey and the Arkansas government announced on Monday that they had found a trove of lithium, a critical raw material for electric vehicle batteries, in an underground brine reservoir in Arkansas.
Hurricane devastates quartz mines critical for semiconductor manufacturing (tomshardware.com)
Abandoned mines cover the West (hcn.org)
Brazil's illegal gold capital resists government crackdown (mongabay.com)
ITAITUBA, Brazil — José Maria Silva de Souza starts preparations early. Better known as Zé Maria, he has many stops to make before heading to his gold mine. A stop at the supermarket to buy groceries, another at the gas station. At another point, four workers climb into the back of his truck. A bit farther on, a woman who works as a cook also joins the team.
Natural Piezoelectric Effect May Build Gold Deposits (arstechnica.com)
The biggest diamond in over a century is found in Botswana (text.npr.org)
UK Royal Mint mining PCBs for precious metals in e-waste recovery effort (theregister.com)
Bye-bye Bitcoin, hello AI: Texas miners leave crypto for next new wave (cnbc.com)
A.I. Needs Copper. It Just Helped to Find Millions of Tons of It in Zambia. (nytimes.com)
My Gold Prospecting and Mining Pages (mdpub.com)
The Deadly Mining Complex Powering the EV Revolution (bloomberg.com)
Norway discovers Europe's largest deposit of rare earth metals (cnbc.com)
The Mammoth Pirates. In Russia's Arctic north, a new gold rush is under way (rferl.org)
More nuclear energy means less mining (thebreakthrough.org)
Caterpillar is putting 240-ton electric haul truck to work in Vale mine (electrek.co)
UK mining giant to offload De Beers diamond business (bbc.com)
Does mining for batteries erase the climate benefits of EVs? No, and here's why (text.npr.org)