Hi-res airphotos along AZ-Mexico border region

The National Geospatial Data Agency (NGA) is collecting control data now in preparation for capturing 1-foot resolution aerial photos along the Mexican border region. California and Arizona are high priorities. Photos will be taken in a swath extending 30 miles on the U.S. side and 10 miles on the Mexico side. Final permission to fly over Mexico is pending, but NGA hopes to fly the region in October and process the films this winter. The aerial photos will be publicly available, according to a briefing we got at the Arizona Geographic Information Council's Data Committee meeting this morning in Phoenix.

A sister project along the U.S. -Canada border is nearly complete.

Copper deficit this year

There's a very powerful description of a talk at MINExpo yesterday that concludes "everything that could go wrong is going wrong" with global copper production.

The Bloomsburg Metals Economics analyst forecast "a reduction in copper mine production, as well as a deficit of refined global copper this year." [right, copper cathodes. Credit, Asarco]

Problems include power shortages in Chile, lack of trained personnel, higher development costs, constraints on access to water, higher prices for oil, sulfuric acid, and labor, and bottlenecks in getting production equipment.

This should lead to at least maintaining copper prices.

Arizona mining updates

Nord Resources Corp said it is on track to start mining new copper ore at the reactivated Johnson Camp Mine, 65 miles east of Tucson, in the first quarter of 2009. CEO John Perry said the company expects to get up to full production of 25 million pounds per year by Spring of 2009. [right, Burro pit, Johnson Camp mine. Credit, Nord Resources]

Asarco has asked a U.S. District Court judge to award it $10.2 billion in damages and stock from Grupo Mexico. Asarco wants Southern Peru stock worth $6.7 billion they argue was improperly stripped from the company and award it $3.5 billion in monetary damages. Interestingly, the bankruptcy judge said in a separate action that creditors have to be allowed to vote for either Grupo Mexico's and Asarco's reorganization proposals, but he has not decided if the votes will have any meaning.

A Reuters interview with Freeport McMoRan CEO Richard Adkerson indicates that the company's strong cash flow and sharply reduced debt means the company is moving forward with exploration and development projects worldwide, despite the turmoil in the credit markets.

Mineral Museum gets grant for educator-curator

The Mining Foundation of the Southwest will fund an Outreach Program for the Arizona Department of Mining and Mineral Resources museum in Phoenix. The grant will fund an Education Curator for a period of three years and assumes the State will step in and fund the position after that. The MFSW Education Curator will conduct classes on minerals and mining in schools and community colleges throughout Arizona.

Given the State's increasing budget shortfalls, getting new State funds in the next year or two will be a real challenge. The Governor just today put out an announcement describing a 2.8% reduction in the number of state employees since a hiring freeze was imposed this past spring.

DMRR director Madan Singh has told AZGS that we will have to move our Phoenix branch office out of the DMRR building when the new curator is hired. We are considering a couple options for relocating the AZGS office.

Freeport is 10th fastest growing company in U.S.

Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold is #10 on the Fortune magazine annual list of the 100 fastest growing companies in the U.S. and the only one from Arizona. Fortune said Freeport's revenues increased 92% last year to over $20 billion.

Arizonans receive awards at AIPG annual meeting

The American Institute of Professional Geologists presented awards at a reception in Flagstaff last night, wrapping up their annual convention, held in conjunction with the AZ Hydrologic Symposium.

AIPG Arizona Chapter President Barbara Murphy received the Award of Honorary Membership, given for exemplary record of distinguished service to the profession and to the Institute.

I was greatly honored to receive the John T. Galey, Sr., Memorial Public Service Award, given for service to the public.

Mining industry - optimistic but wary

The past two days, I've talked with dozens of miners, from geologists, to engineers, prospectors, suppliers, consultants, and so on. There is an overall sense that the mining industry is prospering with a long term bright future. But that's tempered with an underlying concern about the current economic crises and a frustration that the nation does not recognize or appreciate the challenges mining faces in maintaining America's economy and national security.

[top, Leica Geosystem's US office is in Tucson]

One shorter term problem in Arizona is the high price of sulfuric acid used in heap leach operations. Companies are eagerly looking for new supplies of sulfur.

Mining industry is economic bright spot

Attendance at MINExpo here in Las Vegas is an indication of strong demand and high prices for many mineral commodities. It appears to me that every square foot of exhibit space has been taken by vendors in the endless LV Convention Center.

At yesterday's opening session, coal was center stage at the National Mining Association's panel on the state of the industry.

The forecast is for 1.2 billion tons of U.S. coal production in 2008, up from 1 billion tons in 2006. Exports of coal are expected to triple to 85 million tons. One coal company rep who stopped by the State Geologists (AASG) booth, told me that a lot of it is going to China, which relies on coal for 80% of its electric generation.

It was noted that the U.S. has 27% of the world's coal reserves, an amount roughly equal to Saudi Arabia's share of world oil reserves or Russia's share of world natural gas.

MINExpo draws 40,000

MINExpo opened today in Las Vegas today, attracting a reported 40,000 attendees, 10,000 more than the last time it was held, in 2004.

I'm staffing the State Geologists booth and talked with a steady stream of visitors through the day about mining in Arizona. The first question came within minutes of our opening this morning from a company geologist looking for potash resources. I was able to hand him the new issue of "Arizona Geology" that came out on Friday, describing the first assessment of potash in Arizona.

Others wanted info on gold, aggregate, geothermal, potential for supplying services to the mining industry, and a lot of basic questions about Arizona geology. It was a steady stream all day long.

I had only a short time to get out and see other exhibits but expect to see more tomorrow and hope to have more to blog about.

Geothermal power plant being considered for Nutrioso area

At yesterday's Arizona Geothermal Working Group meeting in Tucson, the CEO for Navopache Electric Cooperative, Dennis Hughes, described their plans to build a geothermal power plant in the Nutrioso area of east central Arizona, capable of generating 50 MW of electricity. If successful, this would be the first geothermal power plant in Arizona.

Geothermal consultants are reviewing the area's potential now for the Co-op. A 1985 well found 174 degree water at a depth of about 4400 feet. Dennis says they will likely have to drill to about 9,000 feet to find sufficiently high temperatures. The Co-op has leased 6 sections in preparation of starting development. A transmission line passes right over the site.

Resolution Copper responds to concerns over land exchange

Resolution Copper has released the letter they wrote to Rep. Raul Grijalva last month, addressing concerns he raised earlier this year about the proposed copper mine and the complex federal-state-private land exchange needed to make it happen. [right, Resolution president David Salisbury]

Among the points Resolution president David Salisbury makes is that block caving is the only viable mining technique that will work in the operation.

A Congressional hearing was held earlier this summer on the legislation introduced by U.S. Senator Jon Kyl for the land exchange. Rio Tinto, majority owner of Resolution,previously committed $652 million to the pre-feasibility study towards developing the mine.

Strategic plan for Arizona geothermal energy

The Arizona Geothermal Working Group met in Tucson yesterday and agreed on preparing a strategic plan as a critical step in developing the state's geothermal resources.

Paul Morgan, professor emeritus at NAU, laid out a compelling case for determining the state's potential and what needs to be done to take advantage of it. Paul runs the Group's web site, but when funding for it runs out in a year, AZGS has agreed to serve as a long-term online repository to make sure no information is lost. AZGS is building a geothermal page for our Web page now.

Arizona has few ground source heat pumps, no electrical generation from geothermal, but a few commercial direct-use applications, mostly for greenhouses.

Arizona has a reputation for dry soils that are not well suited for heat pumps but consultant Jim Witcher [right] noted that similar types of settings in New Mexico and West Texas have successful heat pumps in operation.

Amanda Ormand, who organized the meeting, is contributing to a study to delineate renewable energy resource zones that will affect placement of new transmission lines.

First look at Big Chino regional groundwater model

The Prescott area Water Advisory Committee got it's first look on Wednesday at the regional groundwater flow model for the Big Chino and Verde River watershed [right, ADWR].

USGS hydrologist Jim Leenhouts told the group that the model will require a lot more data to make the model useful and much of that data is not available. The Northern Arizona Regional Groundwater Flow Model is intended to be used on varying water scenarios to predict the impacts on the aquifers.

No date was set for when the model will be completed.

AZGS will begin quadrangle-scale geologic mapping in the region this fall under the Statemap program with the intent to provide greater geologic framework information to constrain groundwater models.

Mars, chile peppers, and Tucson's Dark Skies

NPR's Science Friday broadcast from the UA in Tucson yesterday. They covered what planetary scientists know about Mars and what remains to be discovered. Guests included Peter Smith and Alfred McEwan from the UA Lunar & Planetary Laboratory and William Hartmann from the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson.




In the second segment, they covered both chile peppers and the reasons southern Arizona is close to heaven for astronomers. Host Ira Flatow interviewed Adam Block from the Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter and Douglas Isbell from Kitt Peak.

University of Arizona reorganization

Meetings will be going on across the UA campus during the next week to discuss the process of developing proposals for department consolidations and realignments.

University president Robert Shelton holds a town hall on Sept. 23. Dean Joaquin Ruiz will give his views on possible reorganization of the College of Science on Sept. 24 to staff with a meeting on Sept. 26 for classified and appointed staff about the continuing state budget cuts and the reorganization of the College of Science.

Herculaneum - buried by 60 feet of boiling mud and ash

After the OneGeology meetings in Rome last week, I took two days off to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum outside Naples. Both cities were destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

Pompeii was filled with ash falls and many of the residents died from poisonous gases.

Herculaneum, further west around the volcano, was filled with 60 feet of so of lahar deposits - a molten hot slurry of volcanic materials and mud

that flooded the walled city. We took the Circumvesuviana metro line to Ercolano and walked less than a kilometer down the city streets to the Herculaneum excavation. The top photo shows the old sea front of the city, with arched boat alcoves to the left. Note the vertical wall on the right is the excavated lahar deposit.

The lahar carbonized wood in the houses and buildings of the city but preserved tiles, mosaics, frescos with a freshness not found elsewhere in the old Roman Empire. The lower photo shows frescos and exquisite tile work in a Herculaneum home.

There is virtually no mention of the cause of the burial of either city in the ruins. Above Herculaneum and next door to the Pompeii ruins are modern bustling communities, forming part of the greater sprawling Naples region, all of which circle the base of this still active volcano. It last erupted in 1943 with minor ash and gases.

Grand Canyon not as old as recently claimed

Geologists Phil Pearthree and Jon Spencer from AZGS, and Jim Faulds and Kyle House from the Nevada Bureau of Mines are challenging a recent report that claimed the Grand Canyon started forming 17 million years ago. [right, National Park Service]

Tomorrow's issue of Science carries a technical comment that rebuts the interpretation of Victor Polyak and associates published last March, that used cave deposits to track water-level declines and attributed them to downcutting of the Canyon. The Polyak article received widespread attention in the geologic and general news media.

Our team determined instead that "water-table declines at these sites were more likely related to local base-level changes and Miocene regional extensional tectonics." They conclude that geologic evidence shows the Colorado River arrived in the western Grand Canyon region about 5-6 Ma.

A second critique of the Polyak interpretation is authored by Joel Pedersen and his colleagues, and raises complementary concerns.

The rebuttal by Polyak et al, comes down to them arguing that they see no absolute data that negates their interpretation, so therefore, they must be right. Not the most compelling argument, but read the whole debate yourself.

Dust devil on Mars

The Phoenix Mars Lander photographed a series of dust devils on Sept. 9. The start of a video sequence can be seen in the upper left of the photo. Follow the link below to see it move across the landscape.

According to the project Web site:

"The dust devil visible in this sequence was about 1,000 meters (about 3,300 feet) from the lander when the first frame was taken, and had moved to about 1,700 meters (about 5,600 feet) away by the time the last frame was taken about two and a half minutes later. The dust devil was moving westward at an estimated speed of 5 meters per second (11 miles per hour), which is similar to typical late-morning wind speed and direction indicated by the telltale wind gauge on Phoenix. This dust devil is about 5 meters (16 feet) in diameter. This is much smaller than dust devils that have been observed by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit much closer to the equator."

Arizona potash resource estimate released

The Arizona Geological Survey released the first calculation of potash resources in the Holbrook basin of east-central Arizona, indicating there may be more than 2 billion tons present. [right, isopach map of potash in the Holbrook basin from the report]

Calculating tonnage for the entire deposit, assuming 6% and 20% grades, as reported by exploration programs, yields 682 million metric tons to 2.27 billion metric tons, respectively.

The deposit underlies 600 square miles east of Holbrook, Arizona. The top of the potash is situated from 700 to 2000 ft below the ground surface; most of the deposit is found at about 1200 to 1300 ft deep. Maximum thickness of the potash is about 40 feet. Total volume estimates range from 5.68 to 6.45 cubic kilometers.

The report, “Potash and related resources of the Holbrook Basin, Arizona” (AZGS Open File Report 08-07) is by AZGS geologist Steve Rauzi, and is based on analysis of drill hole logs and cores. A summary of the report is in the AZGS quarterly newsletter published today that is being mailed out to 4,000+ readers, and available to read or download at our Web site.

The Arizona deposit is not currently included in the U.S. resource inventory of 6 billion tons, so could increase the national resource base by more than a third. Our release of these resource estimates comes amidst reports of potash shortages. Last week there was only 75,000 tonnes of inventory in North America at a time when there should have been 1 million tonnes, and warehouses in Port of Vancouver were described as effectively empty.

The Potash Corp. of Sasketchewan (PCS) says potash prices have more than tripled to more than $1,000 a tonne this year and inventories are at record lows. The PCS CFO said yesterday that potash producers are unable to supply 8 to 10% of world demand this year. He predicts a potash shortage for the next five years. A year ago, potash spot prices were about $200 per tonne and three years ago were in the $50-100 range.

Back from the OneGeology meeting in Rome

I'm just back from the kick-off meeting of the OneGeology-Europe (1G-E) initiative in Rome, a 29-nation project to build a continent-wide geoscience data network, comparable to the Geoscience Information Network (GIN) that AZGS is heading up in the U.S.

The project, funded by the European Union, invited me to be on their advisory board to help ensure our two networks will be integrated and interoperable. It’s pretty clear that we are in agreement on all the major concepts and directions of the two data networks. We are discussing ways to link the two projects across all the working levels. There is also a companion EU project for GIS data and capabilities, the European Spatial Data Infrastructure Network (EDSIN) run by Eurogeographics, that looks to be a great collaborator.

In a related note, we finished negotiating budget revisions and completing the standard paperwork on the NSF funding for GIN, so we got approval two days ago to launch our 3-year project. We are organizing a workshop on GIN for the GSA annual meeting in Houston, for Saturday, October 4 to expose GIN to the geoscience community and invite wider participation.

I hoped to be blogging from Italy but the pace was so busy that I could barely keep up with email let alone post about what was happening. But I did take two days after the meetings to visit the ruins at Pompeii and Herculaneum, buried by eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. When I catch up, I plan on sharing some observations and photos about this.