Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite, boehmite and diaspore, mixed with the two iron oxides goethite and haematite, the aluminium clay mineral kaolinite and small amounts of anatase and ilmenite . Bauxite appears dull in luster and is reddish-brown, white, or tan.
Lithium carbonate is an inorganic compound, the lithium salt of carbonic acid with the formula Li
2CO
3. This white salt is widely used in processing metal oxides. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines for its efficacy in the treatment of mood disorders such as bipolar disorder.
Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically including metals, concentrated above background levels, and that is economically viable to mine and process. The grade of ore refers to the concentration of the desired material it contains. The value of the metals or minerals a rock contains must be weighed against the cost of extraction to determine whether it is of sufficiently high grade to be worth mining and is therefore considered an ore. A complex ore is one containing more than one valuable mineral.
Ilmenite is a titanium-iron oxide mineral with the idealized formula FeTiO
3. It is a weakly magnetic black or steel-gray solid. Ilmenite is the most important ore of titanium and the main source of titanium dioxide, which is used in paints, printing inks, fabrics, plastics, paper, sunscreen, food and cosmetics.
Spodumene is a pyroxene mineral consisting of lithium aluminium inosilicate, LiAl(SiO3)2, and is a commercially important source of lithium. It occurs as colorless to yellowish, purplish, or lilac kunzite (see below), yellowish-green or emerald-green hiddenite, prismatic crystals, often of great size. Single crystals of 14.3 m (47 ft) in size are reported from the Black Hills of South Dakota, United States.
The Argyle Diamond Mine was a diamond mine located in the East Kimberley region in the remote north of Western Australia. Argyle was at times the largest diamond producer in the world by volume, although the proportion of gem-quality diamonds was low. It was the only known significant source of pink and red diamonds, and additionally provided a large proportion of other naturally coloured diamonds, including champagne, cognac and rare blue diamonds.
Rio Tinto Group is a British-Australian multinational company that is the world's second largest metals and mining corporation. It was founded in 1873 when a group of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto, in Huelva, Spain, from the Spanish government. It has grown through a long series of mergers and acquisitions. Although primarily focused on extraction of minerals, it also has significant operations in refining, particularly the refining of bauxite and iron ore. It has joint head offices in London, England and Melbourne, Australia.
The Jadar region begins roughly at the Osečina and it is divided in two sub-regions: Upper Jadar, which is part of much larger region of Rađevina, and Lower Jadar, which is also part of another, larger region of Podrinje. Center of the Lower Jadar is the town of Loznica, which is not on the Jadar river, but some 10 km to the southwest.
Lateritic nickel ore deposits are surficial, weathered rinds formed on ultramafic rocks. They account for 80% of the continental world nickel resources and will be in the future the dominant source for the mining of nickel.
Mining in Afghanistan was controlled by the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, prior to the August 15th 2021 takeover by the Taliban. It is headquartered in Kabul with regional offices in other parts of the country. Afghanistan has over 1,400 mineral fields, containing barite, chromite, coal, copper, gold, iron ore, lead, natural gas, petroleum, precious and semi-precious stones, salt, sulfur, lithium, talc, and zinc, among many other minerals. Gemstones include high-quality emeralds, lapis lazuli, red garnet and ruby. According to a joint study by The Pentagon and the United States Geological Survey, Afghanistan has an estimated US$1 trillion of untapped minerals.
Allkem Limited, known as Orocobre Limited until 30 November 2021, is an Australian mining company that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arcadium Lithium. Allkem's portfolio includes lithium brine operations in Argentina, a hard-rock lithium operation in Australia and a lithium hydroxide conversion facility in Japan. Allkem is dual listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange. In May 2023, Allkem agreed terms to merge with Livent. In January 2024, Allkem and Livent merged to form the NYSE-listed Arcadium Lithium.
The regional geology of Serbia describes the geologic structure and history inside the borders of Serbia.
Iron ore mining in Western Australia, in the 2018–19 financial year, accounted for 54 percent of the total value of the state's resource production, with a value of A$78.2 billion. The overall value of the minerals and petroleum industry in Western Australia was A$145 billion in 2018–19, a 26 percent increase on the previous financial year.
The Rio Tinto Boron Mine in Boron, California is California's largest open-pit mine and the largest borax mine in the world, producing nearly half the world's borates. Ore reserves are sufficient for current economic production through early 2040's. It is operated by the Borax division of the Rio Tinto Group.
Namibia has one of the richest uranium mineral reserves in the world. There are currently two large operating mines in the Erongo Region and various exploration projects planned to advance to production in the next few years.
The Jadar mining project is a proposed mining site. The deposit is one of the largest lithium deposits in the world and also contains boron. It is planned that both lithium and boron will be recovered from the ore. The deposit contains the mineral jadarite, the only occurrence of this mineral in the world. The mine is located in western Serbia in Mačva District. The Jadar mine has reserves amounting to 118 million tonnes of ore grading 1.8% lithium oxide The deposit was discovered in 2004. The mine is set to open no sooner than 2028.
Greenbushes mine is an open-pit lithium mining operation located south of the town of Greenbushes, Western Australia. It is the world's largest hard-rock lithium mine, producing approximately 1.95 million tonnes of lithium spodumene annually. The mine is 250 kilometres south of Perth and 90 kilometres southeast of the port of Bunbury.
In September 2021, a series of environmental protests began in Belgrade and other locations in Serbia. Protesters demanded the rejection of Rio Tinto's mine investment and the withdrawal of proposed changes to the Expropriation and Referendum Laws.
In July 2024, a series of environmental protests began in Serbia against the Jadar mine, a European Union–backed and Serbian government-approved lithium mining project. The project was proposed by Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto to develop Europe's largest lithium mine in the West Serbian region of Jadar, causing significant backlash due to its potential environmental damage and exploitation of the local population for economic and geopolitical gain.
