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1) As Barrick Gold hunts for gold and copper deposits in South Asia, the world's largest producer of gold is looking at Indonesia as a possible site for exploration. The Barrick's exploration team is searching for deposits along a vast mineral belt that stretched from Pakistan to Papua New Guinea, according to Barrick's CEO, Mark Bristow. Mr. Bristow said that the Tethyan Eurasian metallogenic belt "will be the new Andean trade. It's got huge endowment." Barrick owns a gold mine in Papua New Guinea and a copper-gold mine in Pakistan, stretching on both ends of the metallogenic belt. Indonesia has many resources including nickel, copper and gold that made the country a major player in the mining industry, as proven by the Grasberg mine owned by Freeport-McMoRan.
2) A team of researchers has discovered at least 2 new minerals that have never been seen on earth in a meteorite that was found in Somalia. "Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the geological conditions, the chemistry of the roc, was different than what's been found before;" Chris Herd, curator of the University of Alberta's Meteorite Collection said in a media statement. The new minerals, named elaliite and elkinstantonite, were identified quickly as each of them have already been created synthetically before. These 2 minerals came from a single 70-gram sample off a 15-ton meteorite that is now in the hands of the Chinese, making the future of any new discoveries from this meteorite uncertain. Discovering new minerals is crucial to the development of technologies and progression of our civilization as new and more efficient ways can be made possible by new mineral discovery. Chris Herd said: "Whenever there is a new mineral that's known, material scientists are interested too because of the potential uses in a wide range of things in society."
3) MSHA reported that 29 miners died in accidents across the U.S. in 2022. With 29 deaths being an improvement over the previous year of 37 deaths, the industry still has a long way to go to prevent zero fatalities. Prior to 2021 fatalities, the industry hovered in the 25-29 range for 6 straight years, which 2022 total falls into. 18 of the 29 mining fatalities that occurred this year were in metal/nonmetal sector, while 10 happened in coal mining operations.
Safety needs to be top priority for an industry that is struggling to hire and attract talent. 29 families were changed this past year, scars that will never be healed. We as an industry need to do better and strive for that zero fatality goal, as it will improve prduction and the indusrty.