“Rio Tinto late last year began using the process to extract copper from U.S. ores that are traditionally hard to process and often become waste.

It involves using microorganisms — or “bioleaching” — to remove copper from sulphide ores. Rio Tinto is initially working at a once-dormant Gunnison Copper Corp. site in Arizona and hopes to deploy the tech elsewhere in North and South America.

The intrigue: The process ‘removes the need for traditional concentrators, smelters and refineries, significantly shortening the mine-to-market supply chain,’ today’s announcement states.

It also uses far less water — about 55% as much per unit of copper as the global industry average.”

From Axios.

“Scientists working with China’s fully superconducting Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) have successfully reached a long-theorized ‘density-free regime’ in fusion plasma experiments. In this state, the plasma remains stable even when its density rises far beyond traditional limits. The results, published in Science Advances on January 1, shed new light on how one of fusion energy’s most stubborn physical barriers might finally be overcome on the road to ignition.”

From ScienceDaily.

“South Africans like Dr. Booley have found a remedy for power cuts that have plagued people in the developing world for years. Thanks to swiftly falling prices of Chinese made solar panels and batteries, they now draw their power from the sun.

These aren’t the tiny, old-school solar lanterns that once powered a lightbulb or TV in rural communities. Today, solar and battery systems are deployed across a variety of businesses — auto factories and wineries, gold mines and shopping malls. And they are changing everyday life, trade and industry in Africa’s biggest economy.

This has happened at startling speed. Solar has risen from almost nothing in 2019 to roughly 10 percent of South Africa’s electricity-generating capacity.”

From New York Times.

“The Japanese region of Niigata is expected to endorse a decision to restart the world’s largest nuclear power plant on Monday, ​a watershed moment in the country’s pivot back to nuclear since the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, located about 136 miles northwest of Tokyo, was among 54 reactors shut after a massive earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi plant in the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Since ⁠then, Japan has restarted 14 of the 33 that remain operable, as it tries to wean itself off imported fossil fuels. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa will be the first operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co., which ran ‌the doomed Fukushima plant.”

From KSL.