Basic Materials/Resources

A legal tussle over animal testing in Europe is threatening to jeopardize what has become a key marketing tool for cosmetics companies: selling their shampoos and skin creams as “cruelty free.”The European Union banned animal testing for cosmetics in 2013, a move that was cheered by activists and sparked a string of copycat legislation elsewhere. But the European Court of Justice is now considering a case in which the EU’s chemicals regulator asked a manufacturer to conduct animal tests on two cosmetics ingredients to…

The Granny Smith gold mine in Australia, operated by Gold Fields, which has been working to diversify its operations outside of South Africa. Photo: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg News…

Wages for the median workers at the majority of big American companies are higher than they were before the pandemic, with the tight job market helping to lift paydays for many bank tellers, factory workers and software programmers.Compensation in 2021 for the median worker at 275 companies in the S&P 500 index was higher than in 2019, including 150 companies where it increased 10% or more from 2019, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. Half as many firms reported their median worker’s 2021 compensation…

Natural-gas exporter Venture Global LNG Inc. said it would build a new, multibillion-dollar liquefied natural-gas export facility in Louisiana, as demand for U.S. gas exports surges in Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.The company said Wednesday it had secured $13.2 billion in financing and gave final approval for the Plaquemines project near New Orleans—the first new U.S. plant to get a green light in three years. Natural-gas exporter Venture Global LNG Inc. said it would build a new, multibillion-dollar…

Saudi Aramco 2222 2.12% approached Valvoline Inc. VVV 12.42% about a potential takeover of its lubricants business, according to people familiar with the matter, as the state oil giant looks to diversify. No deal is imminent, and there are no guarantees there will be one, the people said. Valvoline has a market value of around $6 billion after its shares closed up more than 12%…

Glencore GLNCY 1.47% PLC is set to settle long-running U.S. corruption investigations on Tuesday, finally resolving criminal probes into its global mining and trading business that have hung over the company for years, according to people familiar with the matter. Glencore, or a subsidiary of the company, will also plead guilty to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the people said. The company said in a…

Russian gold and diamonds could still be sold in the U.S. despite being sanctioned, lawmakers and industry participants say, unless companies and governments tighten their controls.In theory, U.S. and European sanctions have outlawed the sale of gold and diamonds from Russia. In practice, Russian gems and precious metals are likely still entering Western markets, these people say, often via a hard-to-police global web of middlemen. Tougher controls are needed to “make sure Russia can’t use its gold reserves to fund the…

Novelis Inc. said it intends to build the largest aluminum-rolling plant in the U.S. in nearly 40 years to supply a growing market for beverage cans. The planned plant, near Mobile, Ala., will have a capacity to produce 600,000 metric tons of aluminum sheet a year, the company said. About two-thirds of the output will go to can makers, the company said, including Colorado’s Ball Corp. BALL 1.62% , which provides empty cans to the beverage industry. The remaining third of…

CORINTH, Miss.—Construction equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. CAT -1.04% wants to sell engines—again and again.Every day, old, beat-up and broken-down engines from mining trucks and compactors return to a factory here to be inspected, taken apart and rebuilt again as new. The effort, which in 2021 took in an estimated 127 million pounds of equipment to be reprocessed, is part of a push by the construction equipment giant to meet environmental goals and boost revenue from…

Startups marketing alternative crop fertilizers said they are gaining traction among U.S. farmers and investors, pitching themselves as a potentially cheaper option as prices for traditional fertilizers surge.Companies such as Pivot Bio, Kula Bio and Anuvia are pushing development of farm fertilizers by harnessing microbes or plant-based products to deliver nutrients that corn and other crops need. They aim to replace traditional fertilizers produced from natural gas or mined underground, prices of which have hit records…