And... They 039;re Mine!
Abdias Fraser
Second, I learned why Ship of Fools was running the poll ... to shed light on the possible effect if the British government goes ahead with its intention to outlaw "offensive" religious jokes. Such a law would be a bad idea, for the simple reason that jokes are how we humans avoid violence. Jokes are our safety-release mechanism. Sure they can sometimes be offensive. So can burps. But if you ban them even worse results happen. And believe me, if someone tells a joke that truly offends, he or she will be punished for it. That's one area for sure where the government can take it easy and relax.
A Mormon told me that they don't drink coffee. I said, "A cup of coffee every day gives you wonderful benefits." He said, "Like what?" I said, "Well, it keeps you from being Mormon ..."
Mining is the process of extracting useful materials from the earth. Some examples of substances that are mined include coal, gold, or iron ore. Iron ore is the material from which the metal iron is produced.
The process of mining dates back to prehistoric times. Prehistoric people first mined flint, which was ideal for tools and weapons since it breaks into shards with sharp edges. The mining of gold and copper also dates back to prehistoric times.
These profitable substances that are mined from the earth are called minerals. A mineral is typically an inorganic substance that has a specific chemical composition and crystal structure. The minerals are valuable in their pure form, but in the earth they are mixed with other, unwanted rocks and minerals. This mix of rock and minerals is usually carried away from the mine together, then later processed and refined to isolate the desired mineral.
Along with accidents, a career in mining can also be dangerous since it can lead to health problems. Breathing in dust particles produced by mining can lead to lung disease. One of the most common forms is black lung disease, which is caused when coal miners breathe in coal dust. Many other types of mining produce silica dust, which causes a disease similar to black lung disease. These are incurable diseases that cause breathing impairment and can be fatal.
The mining process can also harm the environment in other ways. Mining creates a type of water pollution known as acid mine drainage. First, mining exposes sulfides in the soil. When the rainwater or streams dissolves the sulfides, they form acids. This acidic water damages aquatic plants and animals. Along with acid mine drainage, the disposal of mine waste can also cause severe water pollution from toxic metals. The toxic metals commonly found in mine waste, such as arsenic and mercury, are harmful to the health of people and wildlife if they are released into nearby streams.
But like just about everywhere in the U.S. where new mines have been proposed, there is strong opposition here. Maine has some of the strictest mining and water quality standards in the country, and prohibits digging for metals in open pits larger than three acres. There have not been any active metal mines in the state for decades, and no company has applied for a permit since a particularly strict law passed in 2017. As more companies begin prospecting in Maine and searching for sizable nickel, copper, and silver deposits, towns are beginning to pass their own bans on industrial mining.
Mainers often invoke the Callahan Mine in the coastal town of Brooksville as a warning. Tailings from the mine, which operated for several years in the late 1960s, were disposed of in a pile next to a salt marsh and creek. The former mine is now a Superfund site, and a 2013 study by researchers at Dartmouth College found widespread evidence of toxic metals in nearby sediment, water and fish. Cleanup costs, borne by taxpayers, are estimated between $23 million and $45 million.
Advocates for mining in the U.S. argue that, since the country outsources most of its mining to places with less strict environmental and labor regulations, those harms are currently being born by foreign residents, while putting U.S. manufacturers in the precarious position of depending on faraway sources for the minerals they need. Though there are more than 12,000 active mines in the U.S., the bulk of them are for stone, coal, sand, and gravel.
The rocks in Plumbago North would seem to help provide a domestic supply chain for critical minerals; they are thought to be among the largest specimens of spodumene ever found, with crystals of such high quality that in addition to batteries, they could be used to make scientific glassware or computer screens, where the lithium metal would help lower the melting temperature.
The Freemans are just two of the hundreds of people prospecting for critical materials across the country as the U.S. tries to strengthen the domestic supply chain. According to an analysis by Patrick Donnelly, the Great Basin Director for the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit environmental organization, more than 100 companies have staked claims for lithium deposits in the American West. Companies also have applied for permits to mine cobalt in Idaho, nickel and copper in Minnesota, and lithium in North Carolina.
One of the most problematic parts of mines is the tailings, or waste, Morrill says: Companies extract the minerals they need, then are left with a giant pile of rock, liquid, and chemicals that they store in ponds or behind dams that sometimes prove unstable. These tailings have caused landslides, excessive dust, and water pollution; more than 300 mine tailing dams have failed worldwide over the last century, according to Christopher Sergeant, a research scientist at the University of Montana.
But advocates had to force the Agreement; three grassroots organizations sued to stop the construction of the mine, and after a year of negotiations, the mining company and grassroots groups agreed to the contract instead of going to court. With support from elected officials trying to find ways to mine more critical minerals in the U.S., companies may not feel the need to make similar promises to the local community.
Yet fears about the effects of climate change are escalating the pressure on local communities to get out of the way of mines, says Thea Riofrancos, an associate professor of political science at Providence College who studies mining and the green energy transition. She and other scholars have questioned whether projections that the world will face lithium shortages by 2025 are accurate; recycling more batteries and transitioning away from private vehicles to more public transportation, for example, could reduce our long-term need for lithium-ion energy storage.
The Freemans say their mine would not pollute the surrounding land and water, as the chemical composition of the crystals and the rocks around them is such that they would not dissolve into dangerous acid when exposed to air and water. Geologists that TIME/Maine Monitor spoke with agree with that assessment. Further, the crystals, says Mary, would be shipped out of state in large chunks for processing, so there would be no chemical ponds or tailings.
In Utah, the miners pump water deep underground to reach the potash ore. Potash is soluble, so water dissolves it into a brine. That brine gets pumped into underground caverns, where the potash continues to dissolve. Eventually, a highly-concentrated brine is pumped all the way to the surface and into one of the evaporation ponds shown above.
In 2013, the United States produced about 970,000 metric tons of potash, about two percent of global production. The fertilizer industry consumed about 85 percent of the potash produced by the United States; the chemical industry used the rest. About 60 percent of the U.S. potash was the muriate type produced at the Moab mine.
Uranium is a naturally-occurring radioactive element that has been mined and used for its chemical properties for more than a thousand years. It is now primarily used as fuel for nuclear reactors that make electricity. Uranium can be recovered in two ways: by conventional mining of the rock (ore), or by using strong chemicals to dissolve uranium from the rock that is still in the ground and pumping it to the surface.
Uranium eventually decays to radiumradium A naturally occurring radioactive (unstable) element that forms when uranium or thorium decay. Elevated levels of radium can contaminate water supplies. Radium also poses a risk when it decays to form radon, a radioactive gas.. Radium decays to release a radioactive gas called radon. Open pit uranium milling and in situ mining sites do not pose a significant radon risk to the public or to miners; the radon disperses into the atmosphere. In the past, the waste rock produced by underground and open pit mining was piled up outside the mine. This practice has caused problems, including on Navajo lands where more than half of the small, abandoned uranium mines from the middle of the 20th century and their wastes remain. Wind can blow radioactive dust from the wastes into populated areas and the wastes can contaminate surface water used for drinking. Some sites also have considerable groundwater contamination.
Underground mines can present a radiation hazard to miners. Without proper air ventilation, radonradon A naturally occurring (colorless and odorless) radioactive gas found in soils, rock and water throughout the United States. Radon causes lung cancer and is a threat to health because it tends to collect in homes, sometimes in very high concentrations. As a result, radon is the largest source of exposure to naturally occurring radiation. can collect in the mineshafts, where it is inhaled by miners. The operators of uranium mines must take special precautions to protect miners, such as pumping radon gas out of the mine and replacing it with fresh air. To protect the public near uranium mines, vented radon gas must not exceed certain limits. Sometimes miners are required to wear respirators that protect their lungs from radon gas. Learn more about the health effects of radon at Radon in Homes, Schools and Buildings.
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