Art of Craft is a series about specialists whose work rises to the level of art. Are blacksmiths going extinct in America? Not according to Craig Kaviar, a prominent practitioner of the craft who is based in Louisville, Ky. If anything, he said, “there’s been a revival.” The industrial revolution rendered a lot of traditional […]
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The Chinese embassy in the Central African Republic had a stark warning for its compatriots in the landlocked nation: Do not leave the capital city of Bangui. Kidnappings of foreigners were on the rise, and any Chinese person outside of Bangui was to leave those areas immediately. Less than a week later, on March 19, […]
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The mother lode of winter storms has sent water blasting through rock crevices and rivers in the Sierra Nevada, leading to more glittering discoveries by prospectors. WHY WE’RE HERE We’re exploring how America defines itself one place at a time. In Northern California, prospectors are looking to strike gold after the winter storms, recalling a […]
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Zev Weitman’s lanky frame was hunched over his sooty workbench in a cramped diamond-cutting shop several floors above the buzz of Manhattan’s diamond district. But his mind was roaming a crystalline chamber, tweaking facets to coax a brilliant symphony of light from the diamond he was working against a cutting wheel. “I’m always improvising, always […]
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In Changsha, deep in China’s interior, thousands of chemists, engineers and manufacturing workers are shaping the future of batteries. The city’s Central South University churns out the graduates who are advancing the technology, much as Stanford University molded the careers of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who pioneered microchips. Across the Xiang River, vast factories mix minerals […]
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WASHINGTON — Five years ago, the United States accused a wealthy Israeli diamond dealer of more than $1 billion worth of corrupt mining and oil deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo, saying they undermined economic growth and “the rule of law” in the impoverished African nation. Now, that businessman, Dan Gertler, has found a […]
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The Biden administration on Friday released new rules that will significantly shorten the list of electric vehicles that qualify for federal tax credits. Officials hope the change will push carmakers to move their supply chains out of China and to the United States or its allies. The rules, issued by the Treasury Department, are a […]
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WASHINGTON — The United States and Japan have reached an agreement over supplies of the critical minerals used to make car batteries, a deal that will likely put to rest a contentious issue in the relationship with Japan and could be a model for resolving similar disputes with other trading partners. The agreement provides a […]
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YANOMAMI INDIGENOUS TERRITORY, Brazil — The illegal tin mine was so remote that, for three years, the massive gash it cut into the Amazon rainforest had gone largely ignored. So when three mysterious helicopters suddenly hovered overhead, unannounced, the miners living there scrambled into the forest. By the time Brazil’s environmental special forces team piled […]
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From a distance, it is hard to tell whether the three figures walking the salt playa are human, bird or some other animal. Through binoculars, I see they are pelicans, juveniles, gaunt and emaciated without water or food. In feathered robes, they walk with the focus of fasting monks toward enlightenment or death. This was […]
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One issue that would be raised in this context, Ms. Blais said, is that of the critical minerals that power electric vehicle batteries, like lithium, nickel, graphite and cobalt. China dominates the global processing of these important materials, and U.S. officials have begun holding talks with allies about new sourcing arrangements. Canada has large reserves […]
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Lithium, the common ingredient in almost all electric-car batteries, has become so precious that it is often called white gold. But something surprising has happened recently: The metal’s price has fallen, helping to make electric vehicles more affordable. Since January, the price of lithium has dropped by nearly 20 percent, according to Benchmark Minerals, even […]
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Declines in new car prices are pushing down used electric vehicle prices, too. They have fallen 17 percent since July, according to Recurrent, which tracks the used car market. That’s largely because of Tesla cutting the price of the Model 3 and G.M. lowering the price of the Chevrolet Bolt by almost $6,000 last year. […]
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Considering the daunting economics, it’s amazing that some smart people are trying to make a business out of mining asteroids. A first generation of companies in the space (or rather outer space), Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, never mined anything, but others have arisen, including AstroForge and TransAstra Corporation. I interviewed Matthew Gialich, the […]
Read MoreEven the day’s painful afternoon meeting with the victims of gruesome crimes in the country’s embattled east, when survivors put machetes and knives on the floor near the pope to punctuate the horror of their accounts, seemed to remind him of his mission. “Thank you for these testimonies,” he said gravely. And on Thursday, the […]
Read MoreELK CREEK, Neb. — In this rural part of Nebraska, county-board agendas include moratoriums on solar farms and some residents scowl when they pass the handful of wind farms that have sprouted. But the idea of a new mine that could help power the transition to renewable energy has received broad support. The tenor of […]
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