Smelter-Free Nickel from Awuraite Ore: Nickel is in High Demand and Discoveries in Newfoundland, Canada Are Significant: First Atlantic Nickel Intends to Mine

     Nickel is a critical mineral in high demand. It is used as a stainless-steel alloy, giving the steel its stainlessness. It is also used as an aerospace alloy and in lithium-ion batteries. In fact, in many lithium-ion batteries, there is ten times more nickel than lithium. The U.S. mines less than 1% of the nickel it uses, and most North American nickel still requires Chinese smelting. More than two-thirds of all nickel is refined in China, with 80% of all nickel sulfide going through the country. China is also involved in nickel mining in other places, such as Indonesia. Nickel demand is expected to grow more than any other mineral in the next 15 years. In 2019, the U.S. consumed 230,000 tons of nickel but produced only 14,000 tons of it, just 6% of consumption. The U.S. does not have a nickel refining plant. That means that the nickel required for stainless steel production in the U.S. is dependent on China.

     The current Trump trade war could lead to China withholding processed nickel, as it has restricted exports of other critical minerals. Canada, however, does have significant nickel reserves, and one kind of nickel ore, the nickel-iron alloy Awuraite (Ni3Fe, Ni2Fe), is sought after because it does not require smelting. Most nickel ore is in the form of pentlandite, a nickel sulfide, and nickel laterite. Biden’s IRA set aside $3 billion to build refining capacity for nickel and other critical minerals. Currently, China dominates mineral refining. This is due in large part to its lax environmental laws and state-sponsored support. While Indonesia now has 50% of the world’s nickel mining, it is Chinese investment that runs it, controlling 84% of that market.

     First Atlantic Nickel’s deposits in Newfoundland, Canada, were initially explored with aeromagnetic surveys. The geology consists of the Pipestone Ophiolite Complex, a 30 km highly magnetic ultramafic ophiolite belt enriched in nickel, chromium, and cobalt. The company continues to utilize drones to map the ophiolite with LiDAR, multispectral, hyperspectral, magnetometer, and ground-penetrating radar, in order to identify high-grade areas for drill testing. 

     In March 2025, the company released the results of its Phase 1 drilling program:

·        High-Grade Magnetic Concentrate: An average magnetic concentrate grade of 1.37% nickel and 1.73% chromium across 383.1 meters of drill core, analyzed through 133 samples spanning the entire interval, with peak concentrate grades reaching 2.33% nickel and 8.17% chromium.

·        Mass Pull: An average of 9.5% over 383.1 meters, yielding a magnetic concentrate that captures the recovered nickel, chromium, and cobalt within 9.5% of the original mass, reducing the total mass by 90.5% and producing an optimal concentrate for further processing.

·        Strong Recovery Rates: Calculated recoveries of magnetically recoverable nickel averaging 52.4% (up to 63%) across the entire drill hole length.

·        DTR Nickel: Average DTR nickel grade of 0.13% (up to 0.16%) over 383.1 meters.

·        Chromium and Cobalt: Both chromium and cobalt were recovered in the magnetic concentrate, with significant chromium values meriting further evaluation, adding potential for valuable by-products.

Phase 2 drilling began in May 2025, utilizing a more powerful drill coring rig:

“Phase 2 - District Exploration: The Phase 2 program also includes regional prospecting across the Company’s 30-kilometer-long ultramafic ophiolite complex, targeting additional awaruite outcrops to identify new high-priority drill targets within the 30 km nickel trend.”

“Increased Drilling Capabilities: New road access and the deployment of a more powerful drill rig equipped for HQ/NQ core sizes will significantly enhance drilling speed, depth capacity, and cost efficiency, enabling deeper and faster exploration across priority targets.”

     Awuraite is easier to process and has much lower environmental impacts than nickel sulfide ore processing, as detailed by the company below.

“Awaruite's unique properties enable cleaner and safer processing compared to conventional sulfide and laterite nickel sources, which often involve smelting, roasting, or high-pressure acid leaching that can release toxic sulfur dioxide, generate hazardous waste, and lead to acid mine drainage. Awaruite's simpler processing, facilitated by its amenability to magnetic processing and lack of sulfur, eliminates these harmful methods, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and risks associated with toxic chemical release, addressing concerns about the large carbon footprint and toxic emissions linked to nickel refining.”

 

 

 

References:

 

Why Nickel Shortages Have Elon Musk, Tesla, and the U.S. Department of Defense Alarmed. The Tomorrow Investor. March 13, 2025.  First Atlantic Nickel - Why Nickel Shortages Have Elon & the U.S. Department of Defense Alarmed

First Atlantic Nickel: Factsheet. FirstAtlantic_Brochure_WEB

Smelter-Free Nickel for a Resilient Critical Minerals Supply Chain. First Atlantic Nickel. Investor Presentation. PowerPoint Presentation

First Atlantic Nickel Starts Phase 2 Drilling to Expand New Nickel Discovery at RPM Zone in District-Scale Atlantic Nickel Project. First Atlantic Nickel. Press Release. May 7, 2025. First Atlantic Nickel Starts Phase 2 Drilling to Expand New

Awuraite: Wikipedia. Awaruite - Wikipedia

FIRST ATLANTIC NICKEL RELEASES INITIAL DTR METALLURGICAL RESULTS: MAGNETIC CONCENTRATE OF 1.37% NICKEL & 1.73% CHROMIUM OVER 383.1 METRES. First Atlantic Nickel. Press Release. March 13, 2025. FIRST ATLANTIC NICKEL RELEASES INITIAL DTR METALLURGICAL RESULTS: MAGNETIC CONCENTRATE OF 1.37% NICKEL & 1.73% CHROMIUM OVER 383.1 METRES

Nickel. U.S. Geological Survey. 2020. Nickel Data Sheet - Mineral Commodity Summaries 2020

 

Steel Slag: A Useful Waste Material for Road Construction, Carbon Sequestration, Acid Mine Drainage and Wastewater Treatment, Agriculture, and Cost Savings

  Reusing waste materials is a key component of developing successful circular economies, and one that is working well is the reuse of steel slag. Slag from blast furnaces has been used in construction since the 1800s. Slag has been used since then in road construction, for railroad ballast, and as aggregate in concrete. Slag can be of different types with different compositions, depending on the process that produced it. Wikipedia gives a general definition of slag as a:

“…by-product or co-product of smelting (pyrometallurgical) ores and recycled metals depending on the type of material being produced. Slag is mainly a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. Broadly, it can be classified as ferrous (co-products of processing iron and steel), ferroalloy (a by-product of ferroalloy production) or non-ferrous/base metals (by-products of recovering non-ferrous materials like copper, nickel, zinc and phosphorus).”

     Steel slag has been used for decades in Japan for road construction. It can sequester carbon through the chemical process of carbonation if exposed to an oxygenated environment. It has been proposed for use in green buildings, coastal protection, and agriculture. It is made of calcium, magnesium, and silicon compounds. In the past, it was discarded in landfills.

     There are some potential environmental impacts, including leaching of toxic heavy metals, such as vanadium and chromium, which are often trace elements in the slag. A 2007 study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials showed that the amounts of chromium and vanadium that leach out over time depend on the chemical forms of these materials in the slag. The study showed that the form of chromium (Cr) in Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) steel slag is less mobile and in a less toxic form, but vanadium is mobile and readily leached out in a toxic form.

“X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy indicates that Cr is present in the less mobile and less toxic trivalent form and that its speciation does not evolve during leaching. On the contrary, V which is predominantly present in the 4+ oxidation state seems to become oxidized to the pentavalent form (the most toxic form) during leaching.”

Non-ferrous slags tend to have higher concentrations of toxic heavy metals.

 

Construction and Concrete

     Slag has long been used in road construction “(e.g. asphaltic or unbound layer) due to its very high stability and superior skid and wear resistance.” Granulated blast-furnace slag is ground into a powder for use in concrete. According to Wikipedia:

“Ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS or GGBFS) is obtained by quenching molten iron slag (a by-product of iron and steel-making) from a blast furnace in water or steam, to produce a glassy, granular product that is then dried and ground into a fine powder. Ground granulated blast furnace slag is a latent hydraulic binder forming calcium silicate hydrates (C-S-H) after contact with water. It is a strength-enhancing compound improving the durability of concrete. It is a component of metallurgic cement (CEM III in the European norm EN 197). Its main advantage is its slow release of hydration heat, allowing limitation of the temperature increase in massive concrete components and structures during cement setting and concrete curing, or to cast concrete during hot summer.”

The ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) is used to make slag cement, which improves the durability of the concrete. GGBS cement sets more slowly than concrete made with Portland cement, but it gains strength over time and offers other advantages, including improved resistance to alkali–silica reaction (ASR), which can damage concrete.

 

Acid Mine Drainage Treatment and Wastewater Treatment

     A 2014 paper in Chemical Engineering Journal monitored the performance of steel slag leach beds in acid mine drainage treatment in Southeastern Ohio. Steel slag leach bed treatment is common here in my region. Steel slag produces alkalinity, which can neutralize acidic acid mine drainage and precipitate metals.

“Steel slag leach beds (SLBs) are a newer and potentially promising treatment method for AMD-affected waterways. Steel slag, a waste product from steel manufacturing, contains high concentrations of readily dissolvable alkalinity on its surface. The alkalinity is present primarily as Ca(OH)2 and Ca-(Fe)-silicates.”

     The biggest problem with SLBs is that calcium carbonate precipitates on the slag surfaces, effectively blocking or clogging the treatment process. Piping can be affected as well. Thus, the slag needs to be replaced fairly often as the ability to neutralize the acidic waters is degraded.

     One of the major advantages of SLBs is the low cost of slag, $10-15 per ton, compared to lime (CaO) and limestone (CaCl), which are $35 per ton, according to a 2021 presentation by the National Slag Association. SLBs produce less sludge than lime and limestone leach beds, which means sludge disposal costs are lower.

 

Agriculture

     Slag, as magnesium and calcium silicates, has the ability to provide alkalinity to acid soils, raising the pH of the soil. Other benefits of steel slag include neutralization of Al3+ toxicity in acid soils and increased nutrient content, such as phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, some micronutrients, and silicon. Silicon fertilization is discussed below from the journal Recovery and Utilization of Metallurgical Solid Waste:

“Slag application favors the increase of pH and the availability of nutrients such as Ca, Mg, and Si in the soil, which leads to the increase in the absorption of these elements by the plant, favoring the growth and yield of the crops. Slags application may supply silicon which is considered a beneficial element to plants. Silicon may bring benefits to plants such as reduction of foliar diseases; improvement in pest control; increase in photosynthetic capacity due to the silicon benefit to the architectural activity of the plant, leaving the leaves more upright; and improvement in the use of water by the plant. Si may also influence the uptake and translocation of various macro- and micronutrients and increase plant tolerance to excess of Mn and Fe and Zn, Al, and Cd.”’

 

Carbon Sequestration

     Among industrial wastes, slags have the highest potential for carbonation, the chemical uptake of atmospheric CO2. A March 2024 paper in the Journal of CO2 Utilization explores steel slag carbonation for carbon sequestration potential. The process of carbonation in the steel and concrete industries has significant carbon sequestration potential. The abstract and some figures from the paper are given below.

     The paper’s conclusion notes the complexity of carbonation reactions and rates of reaction influenced by factors such as temperature and pressure. They also note that carbonation has great potential in these industries:

“The carbonation of steel slag holds great promise for achieving carbon neutrality ambitions, not only in the steel industry, but also in the cement and concrete industry which is another hard-to-abate sector. As such, the value-added use of carbonated steel slag can contribute to fostering waste-to-resource economy and enabling faster attainment of sustainable development goals. Continued research and collaboration among scientists, engineers, and policymakers are crucial for advancing this field and realizing its full potential. By harnessing the massive potential for carbonation, we can transform steel slag from a waste product into a valuable resource, contributing to a greener future and a more sustainable steel sector.”

     A January 2025 paper in Fundamental Research explores different methods of steel slag-based carbon sequestration, including direct carbonation, direct gas-solid carbonation, direct aqueous carbonation, indirect acidic solution, and indirect aluminum salt solution. Several of these processes are being explored in the lab phase, but could be tested as pilot demonstrations at some point. The paper’s conclusion is given below, followed by a table of the CO2 sequestration potential of electric arc furnace (EAF) slag and basic oxygen furnace (BOF) slag.

“In this study, the research and development on CO2 sequestration using steel slag (SS) was summarized. The SS-based carbon capture and storage (SS-CCU) process is divided into direct and indirect carbonation. The direct SS-based carbonation process is considered as an economical method because of the involvement of cost-effective raw materials and simple equipment. However, the product layer during the carbonation process greatly limits the further enhancement of conversion degree of Ca. For the indirect carbon capture process, the Slag2PCC process is a promising approach to achieve the dual goals of CO2 sequestration and value addition of SS. Future studies on improvement of the process may aid in increasing the selective extraction of calcium and promoting the commercial application of carbonated products. SS is a mixture of numerous types of minerals; therefore, some Ca and Mg enriched in refractory minerals affect the carbonation efficiency. Thus, the SS carbonation efficiency may be improved by enriching Ca and Mg into the high-reactive phase through controlling the crystallization process of the molten slag. Finally, the treatment of end products and solid residues generated by the SS-CCU process and environmental footprint, and risk assessments undeniably need further systematic explorations for which life cycle assessment is a suitable quantitative and standardized tool.”

     

References:

 

The Steel Slag Secret: How a Waste Material Is Reinforcing Roads and Fighting Climate Change. Maria Faith Saligumba. Discover Wild Science. April 2025. The Steel Slag Secret: How a Waste Material Is Reinforcing Roads and Fighting Climate Change

Performance of steel slag leach beds in acid mine drainage treatment. Elaine R. Goetz and R. Guy Riefle. Chemical Engineering Journal. Volume 240, 15 March 2014, Pages 579-588. Performance of steel slag leach beds in acid mine drainage treatment - ScienceDirect

Environmental impacts of steel slag reused in road construction: A crystallographic and molecular (XANES) approach. Perrine Chaurand, Jerome Rose, Valérie Briois, Luca Olivi, Jean-Louis Hazemann, Olivier Proux, Jérémie Domas, and Jean-Yves Bottero. Journal of Hazardous Materials. Volume 139, Issue 3, 31 January 2007, Pages 537-542. Environmental impacts of steel slag reused in road construction: A crystallographic and molecular (XANES) approach - ScienceDirect

Utilization of Steel Slag to Remediate Acid Mine Drainage. National Slag Association. August 2021. UTILIZATION OF STEEL SLAG TO REMEDIATE ACID MINE DRAINAGE

Research progress of steel slag-based carbon sequestration. Qing Zhao, Chengjun Liu, Xiaohui Mei, Henrik Saxén, and Ron Zevenhoven. Fundamental Research. Volume 5, Issue 1, January 2025, Pages 282-287. Research progress of steel slag-based carbon sequestration - ScienceDirect

Carbon dioxide sequestration through steel slag carbonation: Review of mechanisms, process parameters, and cleaner upcycling pathways. Christopher DiGiovanni, Ousmane A. Hisseine, and Adedapo Noah Awolayo. Journal of CO2 Utilization. Volume 81, March 2024, 102736. Carbon dioxide sequestration through steel slag carbonation: Review of mechanisms, process parameters, and cleaner upcycling pathways - ScienceDirect

Slag. Wikipedia. Slag - Wikipedia

Ground granulated blast-furnace slag. Wikipedia. Ground granulated blast-furnace slag - Wikipedia

The Comprehensive Utilization of Steel Slag in Agricultural Soils. Angélica Cristina Fernandes Deus, Rosemary Marques de Almeida Bertani, Guilherme Constantino Meirelles, Anelisa de Aquino Vidal Lacerda Soares, Lais Lorena Queiroz Moreira, Leonardo Theodoro Büll and Dirceu Maximino Fernandes. Recovery and Utilization of Metallurgical Solid Waste. Edited by Yingyi Zhang. December 31, 2018. The Comprehensive Utilization of Steel Slag in Agricultural Soils | IntechOpen

 

Mexican Cartel Oil Theft and Smuggling Schemes Uncovered: Assessing the Scope and Addressing the Problem

    Last September, I wrote about Oil Theft by Cross-Border Criminal Gangs in the Permian Basin. Now, more is known about networks, techniques, and strategies used by the cartels to operate their criminal enterprise of oil theft and smuggling. While oil is still being stolen from operations in West Texas, the majority of operations seem to involve stealing oil from PEMEX’s pipelines and tanks in Mexico and trucking it to the U.S. for sale to U.S. collaborators.

     The Mexican cartels have been involved in oil smuggling for some time. The oldest article I found about it was from 2009, but it was done before then. A 2018 article by Reuters details cartels forcing PEMEX refinery workers to help them steal oil, under threat of physical harm. They wrote then:

“Fuel theft is fast becoming one of Mexico’s most pressing economic and security dilemmas, sapping more than $1 billion in annual revenue from state coffers, terrorizing workers and deterring private investment in aging refineries that the government, following a 2014 energy reform, hoped instead would be thriving with foreign capital.”

     Reuters reported that between 2011 and 2016, fuel line taps quadrupled. There were taps about a mile apart all over these pipeline systems. Mexican refineries had already been degraded with a lack of maintenance. This has contributed to huge losses for PEMEX.

“Using the habitual narco offer of “plata or plomo,” or “silver or lead,” gangs extort refinery workers into providing crucial information. Their tactics, coupled with fighting between groups jockeying for access to the racket, have led to a surge of violence in cities like Salamanca, home to a third of the fuel taps discovered in Mexico in 2016.”

Refinery workers and many others have been murdered and their corpses displayed for fear factor purposes. It is a gruesome example of the power of organized crime in the country. By forcing qualified people to help them steal oil by threat of physical harm, the cartels are able to limit the number of explosions and accidents, although there are some.  

     A 2021 paper in the journal Global Crime applied crime analysis techniques to characterize oil theft in Mexico. As the abstract below notes, there is significant violence associated with this activity, support from local citizens and businesses (some no doubt forced but others may choose to be complicit or quiet and have benefited as well), damage to the environment, and damage to the socio-economic system itself. 

     I have never been to Mexico, but some areas seem to be run like a Mafia state by the cartels. I tend to agree with some of the more conservative positions that call for the cartels to be rooted out, which will probably require military intervention by the Mexican government, with help from the American government. I think we can accurately call the cartels terrorists, and terrorism is something we should eliminate and not tolerate. They are narco-terrorists, but they run sophisticated organized crime rings. While oil theft is a problem around the world, such as in Nigeria. In Mexico, it fuels the coffers of the cartels, keeping their influence strong. It most often takes place in regions where the rule of law is poorly established. Oil theft is much less risky than smuggling narcotics. I should note that oil theft also includes gasoline theft or theft of other refined oil products. The map below shows the degree and locations of pipeline tapping. The first table below shows the methodologies of the criminals, and the second table shows methods to deter these crimes.  

     According to a March 2025 analysis by the Atlas Institute of International Affairs, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), along with other domestic criminal syndicates, control oil theft. When Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) deployed the Mexican military to guard pipelines, oil theft declined. However, the cartels adapted by hijacking fuel trucks and bribing PEMEX employees. Deploying the military did lead to increases in sales revenue for PEMEX in 2022. There were 14,910 fuel thefts and 12,591 illegal taps in 2018, as documented by researchers.

“Advanced security technologies like pipeline surveillance solutions, artificial intelligence-based monitoring technology, and bulletproof fuel transportation are increasingly required and have been shown to be effective (Singh Kadam, 2023). Security companies specialising in energy infrastructure are increasingly finding investment opportunities within the Mexican market, driven by the need to safeguard assets and ensure continuity. Investments in the modernisation of energy infrastructure (such as constructing underground pipelines, establishing secure fuel storage facilities, and installing electronic monitoring systems) can significantly reduce the risk of theft and enhance efficiency. Furthermore, coordination between Mexico and the United States, such as the Mérida Initiative introduced in 2017, could provide a strategic advantage in combating fuel theft (Congressional Research Service, 2017). Bilateral collaboration initiatives targeting cartel financial networks can improve energy firms’ supply chain security, leveraging the resources and knowledge base of the combined entities to address this cross-border threat.”

     The cartels adapt by trying different things.

“Their evolving tactics include cyberattacks on PEMEX’s supply chain networks (Berg and Ziemer, 2021) and corruption within PEMEX and local government agencies (Torres, 2024), which complicates efforts to secure the energy supply chain and corporate interests.”

     The U.S. government designates and sanctions these Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). I agree with the current Treasury Department that these terrorists need to have maximum pressure put on them. Aside from pipeline tapping and hijacking trucks, they disguise trucks by misrepresenting their content as waste oil or other hazardous materials to avoid detection. Crude oil is also smuggled into the U.S. with the help of U.S. collaborators and cartel members and associates living in the U.S. Oil companies operating especially in South Texas near the border should have processes in place to prevent oil theft and illegal oil deliveries.

     Oil products like diesel have also been brought to sale on the global market. In March 2025, the Mexican navy seized 17 million liters (about 107,000 barrels) of diesel from two sites in Baja California. The stolen oil was set to be delivered on the black market via a Singapore-flagged ship.  

     An article in Tank Transport notes that people working with oil and oil product transfers in the U.S. need to be aware of the origin of the products they are delivering.

“…honest businesses risk reputational damage if they inadvertently handle contraband fuel. Tank truck operators, maritime shippers, and onshore storage facilities all grapple with stricter due diligence to avoid inadvertently enabling criminal groups. Moreover, any indication of non-compliance can result in significant penalties, government scrutiny, or even asset forfeiture.”

     The article also notes that with new regulations to stem the flow of stolen and smuggled oil, legitimate companies will also be inconvenienced, but they are willing to undergo that inconvenience to stop these criminal enterprises. Longer wait times and stricter compliance checks are likely. Barge operators, pipeline logistics firms, and tank truck carriers may face more frequent reviews of cargo manifests.

     In the most recent case in the U.S., Utah’s James Jensen and his son Maxwell, owners of Arroyo Terminals, allegedly trafficked 2,900 shipments of stolen crude oil into the U.S. worth about $300 million. Money laundering was also involved. Many of these shipments came to the terminal’s strategic location via barge from Mexico. There is a likely link to cartel jalisco nueva generacion (CJNG). With the involvement of the Jalisco cartel, the charges now include conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization.

     The Tank Transport article recommends the following to limit inadvertent participation in oil smuggling:

“Falsified documentation remains one of the most common tactics in Illegal Crude Oil Smuggling. Implementing multi-layer verification—where operators compare paperwork against actual cargo samples, shipping routes, and official Pemex export permits—can reduce the chances of inadvertently handling contraband.”

“Technological solutions, including digital tracking software or blockchain-based ledgers, help record each step of the supply chain. These emerging tools can confirm product origin and authenticity, ensuring that cargo documents match physical inventories. Coupled with staff training on red flags—such as sudden changes in declared product types or unusual payment structures—operators can proactively safeguard themselves.”

     James Jenson’s mansion in Utah shows that crime pays, at least until you are caught. He and his son are now facing up to 20 years in prison. This is another case of Mexican cartels committing crimes on U.S. territory. Hopefully, the U.S. can work with Mexico to diminish the power of the cartels and eliminate them as soon as possible for the benefit of all.

    

     Apparently, Jenson had been accused of oil theft back in 2011 but was never charged. According to the New York Post:

"In that case, James Jensen was sued by a Mexican government-owned oil company for allegedly traveling to Mexico to buy fuel from cartels. Jensen denied all wrongdoing and that case was dropped two years later."

References:

 

How Mexico’s Cartels Hijacked Crude Oil & the U.S. Clocked it: The latest sanctions are part of a growing U.S. strategy to not just choke off fentanyl production but also cut off the cartels' diversified revenue streams—oil now being at the top of that list. Katarina Szulc. Substack. May 2, 2025. How Mexico’s Cartels Hijacked Crude Oil & the U.S. Clocked it

Mexican Cartel Crude Oil Smuggling Schemes. U.S. Department of the Treasury. Office of Foreign Assets Control. May 2025.  20250501_mexican_cartel_oil.pdf

Navy seizes over 17 million liters of stolen fuel in double ‘huachicol’ busts. MND Staff, Mexico News Daily. March 31, 2025. 17 million liters of stolen fuel seized by Mexican Navy

Illegal Crude Oil Smuggling: Compelling Revelations Driving International Crackdowns + 4 Tips on Fraud Prevention from NTTC. TankTransport. April 30, 2025. Illegal Crude Oil Smuggling: Compelling Revelations Driving International Crackdowns + 4 Tips on Fraud Prevention from NTTC | Tank Transport

Utah oil tycoon family accused of conspiring with Mexican cartel in $300M smuggling scheme: Oil magnate James Jensen and his son Maxwell allegedly trafficked 2,900 shipments of stolen crude oil into the U.S. James Liddell. The Independent. May 31, 2025. Utah oil tycoon family accused of conspiring with Mexican cartel in $300M smuggling scheme | The Independent

Mexico’s drug cartels, now hooked on fuel, cripple the country’s refineries. Drug gangs pressure refinery workers to tap the lifeblood of Mexico’s oil industry. One former worker fled the country. One former gang member helps authorities understand the racket. Gabriel Stargardter. Reuters. January 24, 2018. Mexico's drug cartels, now hooked on fuel, cripple nation's refineries

Treasury Targets Crude Oil Smuggling by Mexican Cartels: Key Takeaways for Energy Companies. International Alert. Miller and Chevalier. May 7, 2025. Treasury Targets Crude Oil Smuggling by Mexican Cartels: Key Takeaways for Energy Companies | Miller & Chevalier

Fuel Theft, Cartels, and Security Risks in Mexico’s Energy Supply Chain. Victoria Sainz. Atlas Institute for International Affairs. March 18, 2025. Fuel Theft, Cartels, and Security Risks in Mexico’s Energy Supply Chain | Atlas Institute for International Affairs

Theft of oil from pipelines: an examination of its crime commission in Mexico using crime script analysis. Arantza Alonso Berbotto & Spencer Chainey. Global Crime. 2021. Theft_of_oil_from_pipelines_an_examination_of_its_.pdf

Oil tycoon busted at lavish Utah mega-mansion, accused of working with Mexican cartels in $300M scheme. Alex Oliveira. New York Post. May 12, 2025. Utah oil magnate charged with working with cartels to smuggle illegal Mexican oil