🗨 We're Radiating With Excitement This Week!
This week the Prospector team is radiating with excitement because we are digging into the fascinating world of uranium and nuclear energy! We just released our 2023 Prospector Uranium Resources Report, we have a great webinar scheduled for today, and even a little nuclear news for you! Fun fact: 72% of the world’s uranium resources and reserves are located in Australia, Canada, and Kazakhstan! We look forward to exploring further with you - enjoy this Nuclear Nugget!
Emily King
Founder
Uranium Webinar Wednesday at 1pm!
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BHP Xplor to Open to Uranium, Lithium Finds
BHP Group's Xplor program, which supports promising minerals explorers, will extend beyond copper and nickel to uranium and lithium projects from September, according to Sonia Scarselli, the head of the initiative. The miner has given $500,000 each to seven ventures in its first year of the program, which will support seven new projects in its second year.
A New Era for Nuclear in the USA?
The US is set to receive a boost to its nuclear power capacity, as two new Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactors are set to come online at Plant Vogtle, Georgia. After the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, opposition to nuclear power grew, with major accidents at Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011 further stunting the sector's development. Despite accounting for 8% of all US energy consumption, nuclear power growth in the US has stalled for 20 years.
Biden earmarks US$450M for clean energy projects at coal mines
The US Department of Energy has set aside $450m to fund clean energy projects on current and former mine sites with a particular focus on projects that can generate new economic opportunities for coal communities. The US administration also said that it will let developers of clean energy projects to take advantage of new bonuses being offered, in addition to investment and production tax credits available through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The bonuses will “incentivize more clean energy investment in energy communities, particularly coal communities,” that have been hurt by a decade-plus decline in the country’s coal sector, the government said.
Mine Waste Finds New Life as Source of REE
Sweden, South Africa, and Australia are working to transform mine waste and by-products into rare earths that are important for the green energy revolution, as they aim to decrease their dependence on China for supply. Europe and the US are hoping to wean themselves off China's rare earths, which account for 90% of global refined output. Six advanced projects outside China are being developed to extract rare earths from mining debris or by-products. They are targeting output of over 10,000 tonnes of neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) oxide by 2027.
Each week we want to get your opinion about the mining industry. We'll release the results with next week's Nugget!
We want to know - what do you want more of in your Weekly Nugget?
Gold $2,004.24 /oz
Silver $25.06 /oz
Platinum $994.00 /oz
Palladium $1,458.00 /oz
Copper $3.67 /lb
Source: Prospector, as of April 11, 2023 at 4:00pm EST
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