Colorado, rare earth mining and China

[WildernessAU]

There are millions of tons of good mine-able ore left in Colorado. The problem lies with fluctuating metals prices, permitting issues and land ownership. Nowadays what determines if a mine can operate at a profit is mainly taking into the account the permitting, bonding and reclamation costs.
The climax mine owned by Freeport McMoran is a bit of a monstrosity. The digging strip portion of the mine is privately owned while the tailings ponds lie on National Forest. The tailings area is piled full of waste rock and water run-off from the mine. The problem with high mineralization and acidity from the water doesn't come from chemicals used but moreso from chemicals, and metals oxidized from the waste rock when brought to the surface.
Summitville, they stripped the mountain side and exposed 1000's of acres of mineralized rock to the elements which flooded the watershed with heavy metals. In the 80's they put in a cyanide leach pad which failed in less than 2 years!!! The cyanide caused a 15 mile dead zone in the river. Now they are putting in a water treatment plant and the river is slowly coming back to life. Here the problem lies in that somehow they got the permission to put a cyanide leach pad right smack in the middle bottom of the canyon with the creek running right past it............how ridiculous is that?
anyway
I'm all for small scale responsible mining which is realistic and possible, but it's the big multibillion dollar companies using chemicals for extraction that have disregard for the localities they are mining in....however they have the money to pay off officials.
The small scale placer miner that causes no real damage to the environment gets flack when in reality they are not even in the same category as the big guys.

Mining aside, yes it can cause damage, but not much compared to what roadways, cities, golf courses, farms and all other allowable human activities cause on a daily basis.

Kinda funny what most people and environmentalist overlook.
D

[CTC]

Originally Posted by Idunn

Anyone having driven between Copper Mountain and Leadville will surely have noticed the Molycorp molybdenum mine, or at least the large tailings reservoir. Even though our civilization commonly uses a vast variety of mined resources, it has always puzzled me why a private company like Molycorp should be free to leave such a mess behind for the rest of society to suffer. Money is involved, I suspect.

For those so interested, Wikipedia has a good overview of rare earth.[1] In brief, they are comprised of 17 chemical elements, which are found in relatively high amounts throughout the Earth's crust. The difficulty that due geochemical properties seldom found in economically viable ore concentrations. Thus, why rare.

While China currently produces 97% of the world's rare earth supplies, it only has 37% of the proven reserves, and holds no permanent monopoly on these minerals. That it is the primary source now only due the market having been ceded to it in the 1990s, being the lowest cost producer. Other nations that possess sufficient concentrations to one degree or another would include India, Brazil, South Africa, Vietnam, Canada and Australia. Indeed, from the 1960s to 1980s the world's leading producer was the Mountain Pass Mine in California. Surely the same that Molycorp intends to resume production at.

This probably prompted in part due technologies increasing use of such a resource, as in night vision equipment. Then also, as this resource becomes more strategically important, with many military applications, China has proven to be a less than reliable supplier. In 2009 China announced an export limit of 35,000 tons, effective 2010-2015, then a reduction of this amount by 30%, announced in 2010. This ostensibly to protect their environment, but certainly with the desire to export finished products containing this resource, rather than the raw commodity. Most recently the industrialized world took notice when China peremptorily cut off all rare earth exports to Japan, this, despite protestations otherwise, due their dispute with Japan over contested islands.

Although beginning to rationalize the mining of rare earth in southern China, the epicenter for China remains Inner Mongolia, where most of it is refined. There has been serious environmental damage there in consequence, as this the result if the mining and refining is not done properly. The tailings can be radioactive from the often associated thorium and uranium. Toxic acids required during the refining process can, if not handled properly, cause extensive environmental damage.

Rare earths can also be obtained through recycling.

1) 'Rare earth element,' Wikipedia
Rare earth element - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wow
That mine is Climax Molybdenum-owned by FreePort McMoran

Do you really know about what is going on there? Apparently not-you don't even know who owns it

[elemental]

At what cost in terms of people, pollution and perception? Trying to beat China is like peeing in the wind for they are 40 years behind us in terms of poisoning their own pot. Dow used to bury radioactive chemicals in the ground and they found their way several states down in the water supply causing all sorts of health issues. Playing with these compounds produces nasty by-products and the fact is, we're running out of places to hide. I drive a diesel not a prius, so it has nothing to do with righteousness or misguided attempts at being "green"- it's disgust as the "oops" mentality with which any business who begins a run against a foreign country currently dominating a given industry is allowed to operate under. Drill, baby, drill comes to mind. The earth takes millenia to heal itself and I'm pretty sure we've outpaced its healing ability.

[Mike from back east]

News today is that major users of rare earth elements are engineering and inventing their way out of the usage of these elements. China had tried to put the world into a trick bag by hoarding production and raising prices of various elements which are abundant there. Here's the story in Bloomberg.

These new developments will aid the development of electric cars (also mentioned in the article) and many other products.

[Idunn]

An interesting article on the market and uses of rare minerals.

I'll note, to begin with, that whether a particular mine is involved with the extraction of rare minerals is rather beside the point when discussing environmental consequences. Mining by its very nature is disruptive. So more a question of how any particular operation is conducted, and the need for it versus consequences.

Which brings me to hydrogen. The same gas you will walk out of a supermarket with if buying an inflated balloon. There was recently an article in the newspaper about the current shortage of hydrogen in some markets, and commensurately higher prices. To the extent that some balloon providers are adding a percentage of oxygen to the mix in attempting to maximize what hydrogen they have, and cannot always get readily. In part because other users of this gas, such as hospitals, are given priority for existing supplies.

Something this article did NOT mention is that hydrogen is a finite resource. While it is processed, the gas itself is not created but rather, in effect, mined. There is only so much of it in this world, and when used up: gone. That has national security implications, as this gas actually has a number of vital uses. Entirely aside form party balloons. Something similar to oil, which is also a finite resource.

So a disregard for mining procedure is wrong on at least two counts. One, bad industry practice can have serious environmental consequences, which in the end also equates with dollars and cents needlessly spent. And, two, just mining like there is no tomorrow is no different than a Ponzi scheme. Because likely extending the notion that these are infinite resources, when not.

Auto makers and others might be devising new techniques to decrease the use of these rare minerals for cost savings alone. But another, and possibly even better, reason being that in this infinite universe most elements we deal with and use are in practical terms finite -- and advised to use them wisely.

[Mike from back east]

I thought it was Helium that filled those balloons at supermarkets and party stores.

[vfrpilot]

Which brings me to hydrogen. The same gas you will walk out of a supermarket with if buying an inflated balloon.

Didn't hydrogen cause the Hindenburg to burn up. I agree with MFBE that the gas you're referring to is Helium.

[galtsgulch]

Originally Posted by WildernessAU

.... I'm all for small scale responsible mining which is realistic and possible, but it's the big multibillion dollar companies using chemicals for extraction that have disregard for the localities they are mining in....however they have the money to pay off officials.
The small scale placer miner that causes no real damage to the environment gets flack when in reality they are not even in the same category as the big guys.

Mining aside, yes it can cause damage, but not much compared to what roadways, cities, golf courses, farms and all other allowable human activities cause on a daily basis.

Kinda funny what most people and environmentalist overlook.
D

You obviously know little about mining. Gone are the days of the lone miner working his claim. Mining is high tech and needs large companies with a myriad of resources to make it profitable. Mining generally must be done on a large scale to make it practical and profitable. It also relies on a wide range of experts including engineers, geologists, managers, etc. in addition to specialized tradesmen.

And chemicals are NECESSARY for extraction in modern mining. You would not have modern mining without them.

[Idunn]

"Liquid helium is critical for cooling cooling infrared detectors, nuclear reactors and the machinery of wind tunnels. The space industry uses it in sensitive satellite equipment and spacecraft, and Nasa uses helium in huge quantities to purge the potentially explosive fuel from its rockets." [1]


I stand corrected. The gas I had in mind is helium, not hydrogen. But, as the cited article points out, all the rest is more than true.

Helium is used for such things as cooling of MRI scanners in hospitals. Something I didn't know is that the United States has a National Helium Reserve, established in 1925, but for some odd reason intent on selling it off by 2015. This and some other actions of this government have caused the price of helium to anything but reflect its precious and scarce nature.

For, as also mentioned in this article, and elsewhere if looked, this is a resource that cannot be manufactured, and once dispersed into the atmosphere gone forever. Something with critical uses, which took some odd 4.6 billion years to form, could be gone in 25 to 30 years.

1) 'Why the world is running out of helium,' The Independent
Why the world is running out of helium - Science, News - The Independent