March 12, 2026 -  

Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest electric utility, has submitted a filing to regulators indicating that it may need to keep specific coal plants online longer than planned to help address rising energy demands.  In that filing, Xcel said it faces “significant capacity shortfalls” through the winter of 2028. They’ll make the formal call in June. One more reason to keep well operating generation on the grid.

Deep sea miner The Metals Co. announced that its work to extract mineral-rich nodules from the Ocean is getting closer to reality with the federal government finding that the company’s application, is in "substantial compliance" with federal law. The announcement is alarming opponents of the extraction process, and is seen to be out ahead of where the International Seabed Authority is on the issue.

Finally, Korea Zinc is reportedly discussing with U.S. technology firms how it can recycle data center waste to extract rare earths and give the U.S. another source of rare earths outside of China.  Recall the company in December, announced the construction of a $7.4 billion critical minerals smelter in Tennessee.