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Mining

A field of manganese nodules in deep-sea waters near Hawaii.

Environment

Race to start commercial deep-sea mining puts ecosystems at risk

Governments are meeting in Jamaica this week to decide how rules for commercial mining of metals on the ocean floor will be thrashed out, but there are big sticking points

News

Environment

Will a scramble to mine metals undermine the clean energy revolution?

Features
physical forces acting in soil

Life

Ants use soil physics to excavate metre-long tunnels that last decades

News

Technology

Plants that suck metals from the soil can be farmed to make our tech

Features

Space

Asteroid-munching microbes could mine materials from space rocks

News

Technology

Deep-sea mining is making the seabed the hottest real estate on Earth

Features
Tiehm's buckwheat

Life

Rare plant may prevent the first lithium quarry in the US from opening

News
Hyabusa 2

Space

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 may finally kick-start the asteroid mining era

News
sea floor in the Clarion Clipperton Zone

Comment

Deep-sea mining could wreck the last unexplored ecosystem on Earth

News

Environment

This stunning map shows why everyone is fighting over the Arctic

The environmentally damaging melting of polar ice is also exposing minerals, archaeological wonders and even ice volcanoes and there's a race to get to them

Features

Humans

Meet the mafias making buckets of cash from illegal sand

Features

Earth

World without sand: The race to save a precious resource

Features

Earth

The exquisite marble that sculptor Michelangelo couldn’t use

Regulars

Environment

Robotic underwater miners can go where humans can’t

News