GLG110 Geologic Disasters

& the Environment

Today:
Chapter 12 – Mineral Resources

Instructor: TA:
Professor Stanley Williams Carol Butler
Email: stan.williams@asu.edu Email: clbutler@asu.edu

Course Website: http://glg110.asu.edu

 Don’t Forget!
Exam #3
Nov. 20
Ch: 8, 9, 12, 13, 14,
15
Study Guide:
Make sure to prepare it BEFORE the
exam
Turn it in at the beginning of class on
 Disaster of the Day -
Update
 California fires under control after 2 weeks
– Heavy rains, snow, near-freezing temps over weekend
 Some towns still off-
limits due mudslides
and falling rocks and
Highway damaged by fire trees
 Situation will worsen
with heavy winter rains

Image:GLG110
AP/LennyFall 2003
Ignelzi
 Disaster of the Day -
Update

 Cost of 12 fires burning at once = Car on road

– 22 deaths, >200 firefighters injured
– At least 3,440 homes; 750,000 acres
– $67 million in firefighting costs
– Estimated $2-12 billion recovery costs
– Worst case in California history
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 Overview
 Definitions

 Types of Mineral Resources

 Limited Availability

 Geology of Mineral Resources

 Environmental Impact

 Recycling

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 Minerals & Human Use
 Modern Society
– Built completely upon materials
extracted from Earth
– Each of us “modern society folk” use
enormous resources
> 40 minerals are used to make a telephone
– No country is self-sufficient with its
resource needs

GLG110 Fall 2003

 Definitions
 Resources = concentration of naturally
occurring material (solid, liquid, or gas)
that can now or can potentially be
extracted at a profit
– i.e. total income you can expect to earn during
your lifetime

 Reserve = that portion of a resource that

is identified and is currently available to
be extracted at a profit
– i.e. your liquid assets – money in your pocket,
the bank, etc. that you can immediately use to
pay current bills
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 Definitions
 Distinction between resources vs. reserves
is based on current geologic, economic,
and legal factors
 Silver Example

– Earth’s crust contains ~2 trillion metric tons

(enough for several million years of use at
current levels) = Earth’s Silver Resource
– But most is in concentrations too low to be
extracted economically with current
technology
– Therefore Silver Reserve = ~200,000 metric
tons (a 20 year supply at current use levels)
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 Definitions
 Resources

– Renewable = replenishable in months,

years or decades

– Nonrenewable = may take millions of

years to replenish

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 Types of Mineral
Resources
 Classified
by how they are used
 Some are essential to life

– salt
– daily vitamins and minerals
 Nonmetallic mineral resources (with
the exception of iron) are consumed
at greater rates than metallic!

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 Types of
Mineral
Resources
 Metal Production &
Technology
– iron, aluminum, etc.
 Building Materials
– sand, gravel, clay, etc.
 Chemical Industry
– natural gas, crude oil
(to make plastics)
 Agriculture
– fertilizers

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 Limited Availability
 Fundamental Problem = cost of
maintaining an adequate reserve
through mining and recycling
 When cost of mining becomes greater
than worth of material solutions include:
– Find more sources
– Find a substitute
– Recycle
– Use less and make more efficient use of
what we have
– Do without
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 Geology of Mineral
Resources
 Ore = useful metallic minerals that
can be mined at a profit
 Most deposits
related to various
parts of the rock
cycle and the
tectonic,
geochemical, and
hydrologic cycles

GLG110 Fall 2003

 Hydrothermal Deposits
 Most common types of ore deposits are
associated with hydrothermal deposits
– Mineral-rich fluids that migrate through rock
and crystallize as “dikes”

Groundwater heated by close

–
contact with magma may be
source of the solutions

GLG110 Fall 2003

 Hydrothermal
Deposits

 Contact
Metamorphism =
alteration that
when cooling
Zone of magma comes in
Contact contact with solid
Metamorphism rock

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©Martin Miller, University of Oregon

Sedimentary Processes
 Evaporite deposits
= occurs when
shallow marine
basins or lakes dry
©Martin Miller, University of Oregon
up and the
dissolved minerals
solidify
– put a little water in a
pan and leave it out,
see what is in our
water!

GLG110 Fall 2003

 Sedimentary & Weathering
Processes
 Weathering Processes –
may concentrate
minerals when
surrounding material is
weathered away

 Streams may
concentrate heavy
metals (i.e. gold)
weathered from rocks
in placer deposits

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 Biological Processes
 Biological Processes - Organisms are
able to form many useful minerals
which then accumulate in sediments
when the organisms die

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 Environmental Impact
 Aspopulation increases so does
demand for mineral resources
 Environmental Impact depends on:

– Mining procedures & size of operations

– Local hydrologic conditions
– Climate
– Rock types
– Topography, etc.

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Impacts of Mineral Production
& Use
 Environmental pollution
– Water
– Air
– Biological effects
– Social (blight)
 Environmental regulation of mining
– protects environment
– increases time and cost of mining and
production
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 Mine Waste
 40% of land used for
mining is reserved for
waste disposal
Image: Ian Pepper

 Most of the waste is

the rock removed to
get at the ore – this =
40% of all solid waste
generated in the U.S.

GLG110 Fall 2003

Image: USGS
 Types of Mines
 Surface mining more
economical but greater
environmental impact
 Open-pit mining is
current trend
 Leaching sometimes
used
– requires cyanide
sprinkled over ore
which can cause
serious groundwater
pollution if accident
Bingham Copper Mine, Utah – occurs
largest
GLG110 Fallhuman-made
2003 hole in world
 Surface drainage often
Mining &
disrupted Water
 Abandoned mines may flood
– lets toxins into water Pollution
 Acid Mine Drainage (text C. 11 p.
343)
– Sulfuric Acid produced when
minerals (i.e coal, lead,
copper) contact with oxygen-
rich, near surface water
– Occurs in the mine or tailings
– Significant problem in the
U.S., 1000s of miles of
streams have been polluted

GLG110 Fall 2003 ©National Energy Technology Laboratory

 Mining & Water Pollution
Mineral deposits leaching from
tailings
 Runoff may infiltrate
waste materials and
leach out elements
and minerals which
may be toxic
– May get into surface
water or groundwater

GLG110 Fall 2003

 Mining & Air Pollution
 Extraction & processing = pollution sources
– Sulfur dioxide, dust released into air
– Acid Rain

 Toxic gases
from mines
may seep
through
ground and
into homes

GLG110 Fall 2003

 Mining & Biological
Environment
 Produces physical changes in land,
soil, water, and air which affect
plants and animals
 Direct Affects = death or sickness
due to pollution
 Indirect Affects = changes in:
– nutrient cycling
– total mass of living matter
– species diversity
– ecosystem stability
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 Mining & Social Impact
 For a new mine:
– Rapid influx of workers into area
unprepared for growth
– Stress on local services including sewers
and water supply
– Change in land-use
 Increased construction = increased
sediment runoff
– Reduced air quality

GLG110 Fall 2003

~1864
1864

Mining &
Social
Impact
© 2002 Circles and Lines

2001  For a closing mine:

– Loss of jobs
– Economy of small
towns dramatically
affected

GLG110 Fall 2003

© 2002 Circles and Lines
 Ducktown, Tennessee
(C. 1 p. 17)

 1843 Copper mining

 Huge open pits (ovens) constructed to
separate minerals
 Local forest logged to fuel fires for ovens
 Produced clouds of noxious gas, acid rain,
extensive soil erosion
 Left desert landscape
– Scarring so extensive can be seen from space
 Take hundreds of years for region to
recover

GLG110 Fall 2003

 Environmental
Regulation
 One of the reasons for the rising costs of
mining
 Increasingly enforced due to abuses of
miners and land
 Help make mining safer and less
destructive
 Questions about restrictions

– If hills have been leveled due to mining they

can become prime farm land
– Regulations say restore to original state
– How do you determine the good/bad of this
GLG110 Fallquestion?
2003
 Environmental
Regulation
 After mining has ceased, land reclamation is
necessary
 ~50 % of the Limestone quarry turned golf course
land utilized by
mining industry
in U.S. has been
reclaimed

GLG110 Fall 2003 Image: Mine-Engineer.com

 Biotechnology
 Potential for extracting mineral
resources in a more environmentally
sound manner
 Cutting edge technology just beginning

 Bioassisted leaching uses

microorganisms to recover metals
– Bacteria oxidize crushed gold ore in a tank
releasing finely disseminated gold
– Next goes to cyanide leaching (carefully
controlled and recycled)
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 Biotechnology
 Also, treat acid mine
drainage
 Plant acid-tolerant plants
in constructed or
engineering wetlands to
remove metals and
neutralize acid

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 Recycling Mineral
Resources
 Primary environmental impacts of
mineral resource use are related to
waste products
– Produce pollutants dangerous to
humans and environment
– Waste and other minerals not recycles
deplete nonrenewable mineral resources

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 Mineral Resources
Cycle

Keller, 2002

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 Recycling Mineral
Resources
 Some nonrenewable mineral
resources are recyclable (i.e.
aluminum)
 Some are not (i.e. oil)

 Some are “renewable” if used at a

replenishable rate (i.e. water)

GLG110 Fall 2003

 Recycling Mineral
Resources
 Recycling aluminum
requires 95% less
energy than
producing new
aluminum

 Producing steel from

recycled scrap
requires only 1/3 the
energy needed to
produce new steel
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 http://www.bisbeemuseum.org/mineral_hall.htm
GLG110 Fall 2003