Step into your time machines and travel a decade into the future. We are now situated somewhere in the middle of the year 2025. The face of manufacturing has changed drastically from the techniques used back in 2015. Assembly lines have not been replaced and are still an integral part of manufacturing, but instead of being powered by humans, they now consist of a series of robots and 3D printers working in unison to churn out products made up of a variety of materials, from plastics to metals to new exotic composites.
http://3dprint.com/69674/darpa-3d-printing/
Vale Indonesia operates the world’s largest integrated laterite nickel mining and processing operation in Sorowako, located around 600 kilometers north of Makassar City, the provincial capital. (GA Photo/M Defrizal)
Sorowako, South Sulawesi. Life hasn’t been that easy for Vale Indonesia, the local unit of Brazilian giant miner Vale, despite it having signed an amendment to its contract of work in October 2014.
Nico Kanter, president director at Vale Indonesia, and Febriany Eddy, chief financial officer and a director, told reporters at a gathering in Sorowako on Wednesday that updating some of its expansion projects would involve as much as $4 billion worth of investment in the next few years.
As Brazil’s Vale SA figures out what to do with its fertilizer business, the mining giant is thought to be testing the waters on a potential sale, according to people familiar with the matter.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is scheduled to inaugurate a smelter, or a concentrate purification facility, developed by nickel miner PT Sulawesi Mining Investment (SMI) in Morowali regency, Central Sulawesi, on Friday.
See more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/05/28/jokowi-inaugurate-smelter-morowali.html#sthash.bMYlllTu.dpuf
The head of the Vale New Caledonia mining company says this year it may move out of the red for the first time since the seven-billion US dollar plant’s launch.
Because of a range of setbacks, including spills and closures, the plant has never worked at full capacity of 54,000 tonnes which is now expected to be reached in 2017.
Read more at: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/274863/new-caledonia’s-vale-hopes-to-end-losses
Vale’s nickel processing plant in Long Harbour received its first major shipment from its Labrador mine in Voisey’s Bay Monday.
Over 2,000 tonnes of nickel concentrate were delivered to the plant, marking the beginning of consistent large-scale delivery from the mine.
Independence will take ownership of Sirius’s Fraser Range nickel assets, particularly the Nova nickel, copper and cobalt deposit that is currently being turned into a mine.
Nickel star Sirius Resources will be split in two, under a $1.8 billion consolidation play by Western Australian base metals miner Independence Group.
Read more at: http://www.smh.com.au/business/mining-and-resources/independence-pays-18-billion-for-sirius-20150525-gh8sg9.html
New generation of batteries will make cobalt, lithium and nickel essential investments in commodities.
Read more at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/mining/11621896/Can-Elon-Musk-and-Tesla-save-the-mining-industry.html
California produced more than two dozen different non-fuel mineral commodities and was the only U.S. producer of boron compounds and rare earth minerals. It ranked second behind Texas in the production of construction sand and gravel and Portland cement. The state ranked sixth among the 10 states that reported gold production for the year.
Read more at: http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=28384
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