.jpeg)
1) Congressmen Jim Costa and Burgess Owens reintroduced the Mining Schools Act, a bipartisan legislation to increase and improve opportunities for university and college students to prepare for the future need of mining through geological programs. The past few years have made clear the importance of a secure critical mineral supply chain. We must develop a talented and robust workforce to ensure we meet the growing demand for materials needed to build batteries, electric vehicles, and electronics of the future,” said Mr. Costa. “This bipartisan legislation will provide grant opportunities to schools like Fresno State and CSU Bakersfield to bolster their engineering programs, and other majors that feed into career opportunities in the mining industry." Burgess Owens of Utah mentioned that "rates for university and college mining and geological programs decreased by over 21%." With workforce shortages in the industry, both domestically and internationally, it is imperative that we provide the tools for the young generations come support the backbone of the economy and the modern world. The Mining Schools Act of 2023 would establish a grant program for mining schools to recruit students, carry out studies and research and establish the Mining Professional Development Advisory Board to evaluate applications and recommend recipients to the Secretary of Energy.
Source: Congressmen Jim Costa and Burgess Owens Reintroduce Bipartisan Mining Schools Act (goldrushcam.com)
2) Gold Fields Limited announced a new consortium of eight global mining companies that launched a multi-year initiative to develop and implement new technology applications for managing tailings. The consortium is called The GeoStable Tailings Consortium (GSTC) and comprises of BHP, Freeport-McMoRan, Barrick, Gold Fields, Newmont, Teck, and Vale. The GSTC will analyze different options to combine tailings with waste rock to create a geo-stable landform that is stronger than the current process of building tailings. The interim CEO of Gold Fields said: "The management of our TSFs has as its ultimate goal zero harm to people and the environment through their full life cycle. This is in line with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management, the new tailings storage facility (TSF) benchmark to which all members of the ICMM are committed to conform to. Having stable TSFs is a critical element of this standard." This is built on previous work that was pursued by Goldcorp before being acquired by Newmont in 2019.