Mining

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is facing steep public opposition to a mostly revived proposal to lease more than 2 million acres of land in Western Colorado, Wyoning and Utah for the development of oil shale extraction and oil sands harvesting and conversion. Learn more here.;

The complete version of Annual Energy Outlook 2011 (AEO2011), which includes 57 sensitivity cases that show how different assumptions regarding market, policy, and technology drivers affect the previously released Reference case projections of energy production, consumption, technology, and market trends and the direction they may take in the future. Read about the key highlights.

The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) today announced comprehensive plans to increase the Company's ethylene and propylene production -- and to integrate its U.S. operations into feedstock opportunities available from increasing supplies of U.S. shale gas in the Marcellus and Eagle Ford shale regions. Read more.

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of rock in order to free trapped natural gas is an environmentally intensive operation. It has brought about enormous controversy, but the gas deposits trapped thousands of feet below large tracts of American land have been an irresistable energy resource. A lawsuit from West Virginia is typical of the situation. In it, land owners have charged that Chesapeake Appalachia permanently damaged their land when a fracking wastewater pit liner was ruptured. They contend the torn liner was buried on site without repair and continues to leak onto their property. Learn more here.;

In Southern Illinois, soy farmers, university researchers and others are examining how to beneficially reuse old strip mines (of which that region has many) for supporting fish farm operations. With tens of thousands of acres available to develop into fish farming habitats, they estimate that more than 50 million pounds of fish can be harvested. This industry could also utilize the state's plentiful soy production in fish feed. Learn more here.;

Alberta Oil magazine says forget potash; oil sands is the driver of investment and interest in Saskatchewan. The province is now the #2 oil sands producer. The succinct piece on the magazine's website is supported by a nice graphic of development zones and key stats on production. Learn more here.;

The international geosynthetics manufacturer NAUE has launched a new central website for its operations and technologies: www.naue.com. The new format takes full advantage of online video with a dedicated section called NAUE TV, which features project and application presentations in clear, large viewing windows. The revamped website also offers an extensive reference library detailing project challenges and geosynthetic solutions, an archive of the company's newsletter (NAUE News), global NAUE Group office information, key geosynthetic application descriptions, and much more.

After 25 years of successful collaboration, Tensar International Corporation, and CONTECH Construction Products, Inc. have mutually agreed that Tensar will take on distribution responsibility for geogrid products in the United States. Under the terms of the agreement and effective 2 May 2011, Tensar International will assume CONTECH's geogrid distribution business, which includes exclusive distribution of both biaxial and triaxial geogrid products in the United States. The joint decision to modify the long-term distribution alliance comes as a result of strategic initiatives both companies are pursuing in their respective markets.

The Geo-Institute's 2012 annual congress focuses on the "State of the Art and Practice in Geotechnical Engineering" and will be held 25-29 March 2012 in Oakland, California. The conference invites 200-300 word abstracts on topics such as Geosynthetics; Embankments, Dams and Slopes; Earth Retaining Structures; Earthquake Engineering; and much more. Learn more and submit your abstract through April 29. Learn more here.;

The newest IGS News is available. Volume 27, No 1 from the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) is content loaded, with correspondant reports from around the world, event reviews, news regarding the 10th International Conference on Geosynthetics (10 ICG, Berlin, 2014), award winners, sustainability, and much more. Read the latest in PDF today.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will spend as much as $5 billion to reduce coal-plant emissions to settle allegations of Clean Air Act violations at 11 coal-fired power plants in three states, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday. Federally owned TVA also will retire 18 older coal-fired units at three power plants, totaling 2,700 megawatts, starting next year, TVA said in a release. TVA operates about 17,000 MW of coal-fired generation. Learn more here.;

The Gulf region is growing as the world's hub for plastics development with the right ingredients of location between current and future large plastics demand centers, the hydrocarbon resource base and proximity to markets, a senior industry official said recently. Learn more here.;

ASTM Committee D35 on Geosynthetics has announced work item WK32870, "Standard Practice for Quality Control of Geosynthetic Clay Liners." This is a work item revision to existing standard D5889-97(2008). The updating of this standard practice to make it representative of current industry practice and test standards. Learn more here.;

The 5th European Conference on Geosynthetics (EuroGeo 5) will be held 16-19 September 2012 in Valencia, Spain. The Spanish Chapter of the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) will organize it, and the event will be held under the auspices of the IGS. Authors interested in presenting a paper at the Conference must provide an abstract before 31 October 2011, addressed to the Conference Secretariat, through the Conference website. Abstracts received by fax or mail will not be considered. Further instructions to submit abstracts are available in the Conference website http://www.eurogeo5.org The abstracts must be written in English or Spanish. Learn more about the topics (PDF).

An oil and gas industry group on Monday withdrew its objection to a rule that requires drilling pad pit liners to be disposed in certified landfill sites. The industry will instead shift its focus to working with local governments to find ways to get landfills certified so they can accept pit liners, said Stan Dempsey, president of the Colorado Petroleum Association. Learn more here.;

The International Geosynthetics Society's (IGS) Technical Committee on Barrier Systems (TC-B) has launched a project Taskforce "Regulations" to gather an international database and resource detailing the regulations influencing the selection and utilisation of geomembranes and geosynthetic clay liners in all aspects of engineering and construction. This specific task is part of the TCB terms of references for the period 2010-2014. Your insights into the regulations that impact your state/province and national/regional interaction are strongly encouraged. Read more.

The International Geosynthetics Society's (IGS) Technical Committee on Barrier Systems (TC-B) has established a task force aimed at collecting and summarizing field performance of barrier systems. This specific task is part of the TC-B terms of references for the period 2010-2014. To achieve this ambitious project, The TC-B seeks active participation from interested members of the Society's chapters and their professional colleagues. The aim is to compile a review of field performance data-collecting and research projects related to all types of geosynthetic barrier systems. Read more.

Tensar International Corporation, the leader in geosynthetic soil reinforcement and stabilization, has increased prices for its subgrade improvement and road base reinforcement geogrid products globally. The 10 percent increase, effective May 2, has been implemented to partially offset significantly higher polymer raw material costs.

Federal transportation officials are launching a program to repair and replace aging oil and gas pipelines across the nation to prevent potential catastrophic explosions such as a recent deadly blasts in eastern Pennsylvania and California. Learn more here.;

The International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) has release the first issue of its second volume of case histories. All papers are available free for download. Achor wall behavior, rockfall and subsidence, and soil stability from previous site mining activities are some of the topics explored. Learn more here.;

ASTM International Committee D35 on Geosynthetics has announced a work item for geosynthetic clay liners. The work item, WK32756 ("Standard Test Method for Determining the Internal and Interface Shear Resistance of Geosynthetic Clay Liner by the Direct Shear Method") is a work item revision to existing standard D6243-09. This work involves the addition of an appendix to provide the user with guidelines of what test parameters are required to be specified to obtain the intended shear result. Learn more here.;

Solmax International recently finished an agreement with the Chilean company Industrial Megametal Limitada in order to purchase its subsidiary, Plastecnia S.A., a company specialised in the production of polyethylene pipes and the distribution of hydraulic products mainly for the mining sector of the Chilean market.This acquisition has been carried out through Solmax Chile SPA, a new entity belonging to Solmax International.

As of Tuesday, 29 March 2011, Royal Ten Cate will be listed as an option fund on NYSE Liffe in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Each option will represent 100 shares in Royal Ten Cate. These new options will expire on the third Friday of the contract month and will have initial lifetimes of one to nine months. The introduction of options on Royal Ten Cate shares will enable both investors who want to anticipate expected movements in the share and those who own Royal Ten Cate shares to benefit from the opportunities that stock options offer. The ticker symbol that NYSE Liffe is using for TenCate on the options market is: 'TCT'.

The Second Pan-American Geosynthetics Conference and Exhibition (GeoAmericas 2012) will provide a forum for geosynthetics engineers, practitioners and academe to explore current and potential applications for geosynthetics, while offering an active marketplace for the promotion of geosynthetic products and technology to users throughout the Americas.The event will be held 1-4 May 2012. Abstracts are currently being sought. Due date for abstract submission: 31 May 2011. Learn more.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Texas shale gas extraction, which involves much publicized and criticized hydraulic fracturing of rocks, may be winning the environmental battle. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has openly criticized the state's extraction practices and charged them with contaminating water wells, but new analysis reveals that non-extraction related gas from an acquifer is actually contaminating those wells. The geochemical footprint, operators contend, proves this…and proves greater safety in natural gas tapping than perhaps thought. Learn more here.;