Strong pressure is building up for the introduction of clean-coal technologies at coal-fired power stations. Fossil fuel divestment is already under way from institutions wanting to avoid climate-change activism and even Pope Francis, in his encyclical last week, called for effective new environmental protection measures to stop climate change.

Since the financial crisis of 2008, headlines on carbon capture and storage (CCS) have been few and far between. But the process lifted its head above the parapets last week when it was announced that a new laboratory to evaluate CCS technologies from around the globe had surfaced in Canada, where global scientists are being given direct access and practical data through one of the largest carbon facilities of its kind in the world. Read on page 37 of this edition of Mining Weekly of Saskatchewan electricity utility SaskPower officially launching the Carbon Capture Test Facility (CCTF), in Estevan, offering international clients a new platform for the testing of emerging technologies to capture carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired thermal facilities.

The CCTF, built in partnership with Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, is giving researchers the opportunity to test equipment, chemical innovation and engineering designs in a precisely controlled environment. Mitsubishi will be using the CCTF to test a solution offered by amine, a chemical solvent at the core of many carbon capture processes. Canada’s clean technology industry, valued at about $11-billion, has provided jobs for more than 49 900 people, a workforce that is expected to more than double by 2022. Canadian coal regulations are expected to result in a cumulative reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions of about 214-million tonnes, the equivalent of removing 2.6-million cars from the road each year.

Countries are putting new emphasis on rare earths, as a result of their use in renewable energy installations and as a consequence of China putting a brake on exportation of the minerals to keep them for expected domestic use. It is against that background that South Africa’s State-owned mineral and metallurgical innovation company Mintek is stepping up its rare earths activities. Read on page 20 of this edition of Mining Weekly of the official opening by Mintek of a rare earths solvent extraction pilot plant to assist South Africa in growing its rare earths element sector. Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi emphasised the “geostrategic” importance of rare earths in the modern economy and warned against reduced regional supply.

Concern is rising about the death of children coming into contact with lead dust stirred up by artisanal gold-ore processing in Nigeria, where the advocacy group Human Rights Watch reports that more than 400 died and thousands have been permanently disabled by lead poisoning in the state of Zamfara. Another 28 children were killed and 37 infected last month after drinking water poisoned by lead in an area of artisanal and small-scale gold mining sites in Niger state, in northwestern Nigeria. Read on page 23 of this edition of Mining Weekly of gold ore in Nigeria having unusually high levels of lead, which is considered unsafe, no matter the degree of exposure, and which is particularly harmful to young children with developing immune systems. Where ore is processed in home compounds, advocacy groups have found children playing dangerously in lead dust that has settled on the ground, on clothes and on furniture. Nigerian authorities have yet to take effective steps to make artisanal mining practices safer, despite repeated recommendations from a range of reputable organisations and the ongoing death and disability of children.