Month: January 2021

Thar coal – too little, too late

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Prime Minister Imran Khan has recently announced that there will be no more coal-based power plants in Pakistan. International climate lobbies have welcomed the statement but domestic energy circles or at least parts of them are not happy. Many people believe that Pakistan’s carbon footprint is too little and say we have vast coal reserves in Thar, which we have only begun to exploit and a lot needs to be done in this respect. The statement may be corrected or adjusted in coming days on technical advice from other parts of the…

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Sindh demands setting up of commission to probe power outage

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KARACHI: The Sindh government on Sunday demanded formation of an inquiry commission with representation of provinces to ascertain the cause of the electricity breakdown that plunged the entire country into darkness for several hours. Provincial Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh demanded setting up of an inquiry commission and removal of the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) chief, saying that hours-long nationwide power breakdown was the result of incompetence and failure of federal ministers. Talking to Dawn, he said that an inquiry commission with representation of provinces should be formed immediately…

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The winds of change

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ABOUT seven kilometres from the Bholari turning point on left side of the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway (M9), an uneven path leads to a barren land — the site of many windmill towers. From M9 I could barely make out the huge windmill towers, or wind turbine towers. As I reached the site I found some Chinese workers working. Each windmill tower having three long blades was approximately 100 metres high. The blades on the towers were rotating very slowly due to low wind pressure. This is one of the 10 wind…

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Failure of safeguards pinpointed as cause of outage

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ISLAMABAD: While it’s apparently true that a human error at the Guddu Power Station triggered a power outage on Saturday night, the main reason for its effects to be felt across much of the country was poor maintenance and subsequent failure of the protection system in the national grid. This is what Dawn has found out in background discussions with senior officials, who concede that the events of Saturday night have served to expose mismanagement on the part of a government that has continued to run the entire power sector on an…

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USA Rare Earth outlines mine-to-magnet strategy

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Since founding privately held USA Rare Earth three years ago, Pini Althaus has focused on turning his vision of creating a secure supply of rare earth elements in the United States a reality. The New York-based CEO is equally determined to establish REE separation and processing capability in the U.S. and build manufacturing facilities for magnets containing the critical elements that are used in everything from American Tomahawk missiles and fighter jets to electric vehicles and wind turbines. SIGN UP FOR THE MINING NEWS DIGEST Sign Up It’s essential, he…

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