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Tag Archives: mining
What are rare earth metals and how are they used?
Preface. After oil, the main feature of new products will be drastic simplification. The re-use of existing stuff. Lack of precision machine tools as they rust away. Back to basics: wood, iron, and clay. Yet every high-tech object depends on … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Elements: Rare Earth, Mining
Tagged gallium, indium, mining, rare earth, solar
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Foreign Policy: The limits of clean energy
Preface. This article appeared in the magazine Foreign Policy. Some of the points made are: Renewables to power the world would require 34 million metric tons of copper, 40 million tons of lead, 50 million tons of zinc, 162 million … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Consumption, Mining, Peak Lithium
Tagged minerals, mining, renewables
7 Comments
Going 100% renewable power means a lot of dirty mining
Preface. Everyone talks about oil spills, but what about the dirty mining that will have a huge polluting footprint on the earth, and potentially destroy the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery among other side-effects? Renewables aren’t cleaner and greener than … Continue reading
Posted in Groundwater, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Pollution
Tagged manufacturing, mineral depletion, mining, pollution, renewables
Comments Off on Going 100% renewable power means a lot of dirty mining
Tackling mine wastes
Hudson-Edwards, K. April 15, 2016. Tackling mine wastes. Science (352):288-290 Excerpts: Mine wastes are unwanted and uneconomic materials (including rock, sediment, tailings, metallurgical wastes, dusts, ash, and processing chemicals) that are found at or near mine sites in virtually every … Continue reading
550,000 abandoned mines, $50 billion to clean up the worst of them
[ Abandoned mines can cause soil erosion, heavy metal contamination (i.e., cyanide, lead, arsenic, mercury, uranium), and acid drainage that threatens thousands of streams and rivers. The EPA estimates it would cost $50 billion to reclaim abandoned and inactive mine … Continue reading
Posted in Congressional Record U.S., Mercury, Pollution, Water
Tagged good samaritan, government, house of representatives, mining, pollution
1 Comment
Corrosion eats $552 billion of infrastructure a year (6% of GDP)
Preface. United States infrastructure was built when the EROI of oil was very high and minerals and metals were cheap due to high ore concentrations. This study was done in 2002, since then, things have gotten much worse (see ASCE … Continue reading
Posted in Bridges, Oil & Gas, Railroads, Transportation
Tagged corrosion, infrastructure, mining, nuclear waste, pipelines, transportation, utilities
2 Comments