Top mining blogs

MiningIQ.com recently compiled a list of their top 11 mining blogs, which prompted a spate of suggestions from readers for additions to the list. I'm familiar with some of these but there are a lot of ones new to us that sound interesting.

UA's HiView is like a "Google Mars"

The UA HiRISE Mars camera team has developed a new viewer that allows you to "download high-resolution images of the Martian landscape almost instantaneously and explore the surface of the Red Planet" from your own desktops. HiView is like a Mars version of Google Earth. HiRISE images are typically gigabytes in size, but with the new viewer "users can select a portion of the image and download only that portion of the image, so the user doesn't have to wait hours for the entire image file to download."

Quake upgraded to M3.1

This afternoon's earthquake that occurred 16 miles south of Colorado City is now being shown as magnitude of 3.1, versus the initial report of M=2.9. There is also one report of it being felt in Kanab, Utah. [Right, quake location from USGS]

Two small quakes )M=2.1, 1.7) occurred in the same area between 1 and 3 AM on Dec. 12.

Environmental Permitting Requirements for Potash Mining in the Holbrook Basin

The Arizona Dept. of Environmental Quality has released an information sheet on Environmental Permitting Requirements for Proposed Potash Mining in the Holbrook Basin. The list includes air and water quality and waste disposal permits but cautions that "There are a variety of other ADEQ permits, approval and registrations which may come into play, depending upon site-specific needs and plans." Because no potash mining applications have been submitted, ADEQ says they are not "able to predict the precise environmental permitting requirements which may apply to such facilities."

Each permit is described as typically taking 6 months to a year to obtain, once all materials are properly submitted.

American West Potash has publicly stated its goal of having a mine in operation by January 2014. [Right, AZGS interactive map of potash corehole locations]

[Thanks to Kathy Hemenway for passing along the link to the ADEQ info sheet.]

Freeport signs labor deal for giant Grasberg mine in Indonesia

There are reports that Phoenix-based Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold signed an agreement today to end a strike at the Grasberg mine in Indonesia, the second largest copper mine in the world. Mineweb.com says the deal provides union workers about a 40% pay raise over 2 years. [Right, Grasberg mine. Credit, MetalNewsStream]

"Freeport had warned investors it may not achieve its fourth-quarter production and sales targets owing to the [3-month long] strike."

"The mine, in Indonesia's eastern Papua region, also has the world's biggest gold reserves and produces silver."

The news report looks at some of the economic and political factors in the strike and settlement.

Series of earthquakes south of Colorado City

There was a magnitude 2.9 earthquake a few minutes ago (4:36 PM local time), 16 miles south of Colorado City in northern Arizona. This follows two smaller quakes that occurred in the early morning yesterday. A magnitude 2.2 event was recorded in about the same location at 1:03 AM on Dec. 12, followed by a magnitude 1.7 quake at 2:44 AM.

There were two similarly small quakes a few miles to the northeast on Dec. 8.

[Right, M2.9 quake in red. Others in yellow. Credit, USGS]

Arizona mining news

Industry sentiment was generally upbeat at the annual SME Arizona conference which took place in Tucson last week. Among the tidbits (not all of which are new) are that at the planned Ray Mine expansion, Asarco is adding additional life to the Elder Gulch tailings, about 6-8 years worth depending on final elevation, by raising the dam height. At the same time, they are working on a 6-year project to permit and build a tailings facility about 4 miles southwest of the mine on 7,400 acres of land they plan to buy from Arizona State Lands on Ripsey Wash. The Ray Mine is currently assembling their 21st 400-ton Leibherr haul truck. Insiders know that mine manager Steve Holmes' legacy is the advancement of mine fleet data collection and use of the Ardvark drilling systems.

Moly Corp mentioned the recently acquired Santoku facility in Tollesin, Arizona is a key part of their rare earth vertical integration/magnet manufacturing strategy.

Additional drilling is increasing the size of the resource at Resolution Copper presently at 1.6 billion tons. Speculation is that the expanded area underlies the Oak Flat campground, which is part of the proposed land exchange recently approved by the U.S. House. A pre-feasibility study should be completed in 2012, and the feasibility study in 2014. First production is scheduled for 2021, with full production in 2026. The project is forecast to create 1400 direct and 2300 indirect jobs. The No. 10 shaft is now sunk 4860’ below the surface. Company officials describe the volume of the mineralized zone as about the size of nearby Picket Post Mountain. To mine the deposit will require that the equivalent of a typical 20-ton highway truck load be hoisted up the shaft every 15 seconds for 40 years.

And we hear that Asarco’s exploration chief Tom Simpson is leaving this week to go to work for Newmont in South America.

Meteor Crater LiDAR data available

A LiDAR data set for Meteor Crater, Arizona is publicly available via the OpenTopography facility at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. The data were collected in March 2010 by the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) with NSF funding.

The survey area is a rectangular polygon, roughly 5.44 km on a side, enclosing the Barringer Meteorite Crater and its ejecta blanket. The project area is located 60 km southeast of Flagstaff, AZ and 30 km west of Winslow, Az. The polygon has a surface area of 29.7 km²; the requirement indicates two point densities one for the crater walls and rim of 8 pts/ m², and one for the surrounding area of 4 pts/m².

Thanks to Chris Crosby at OpenTopography for passing along this info.

Editorial calls for restoring Water Resources budget

Catching up on the news while I was out of town, I just read the Dec. 3 editorial in the Arizona (Phoenix) Republic, calling for restoring the state budget for the Arizona Dept. of Water Resources.

ADWR, like the rest of state agencies, has taken drastic budget cuts over the past four years, closing branch offices and reducing staff by about 2/3.

The Republic argues for restoring ADWR's budget to 2009 levels.

They conclude that The agency's director represents Arizona in negotiations over the Colorado River, which supplies more than a third of Arizona's water. To defend our interests, we need a strong team with the ability to do in-depth research. Arizona is particularly vulnerable because we have "junior status," part of the deal to get the Central Arizona Project. If shortages are declared, we lose all our allocation before California gives up a drop. [Right, Colorado River watershed]

My conversations with Legislators and state budget officials indicate that most everyone expects the Fiscal Year 2013 budget, which begins in July 2012, will be flat, even if revenues improve somewhat. Even if that were not the case, competition for any potential increased funds will be more than stiff, given the demands for education and social services.

UA finds meteorites trigger Mars dust avalanches

Planetary scientists at University of Arizona report that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbit is revealing at least 20 new meteor craters, 1 to 50 meters wide, forming on the Red Planet every year. And the airborne shockwaves appear to be triggering thousands of dust avalanches in the areas surrounding the impact craters, according to Kaylan Burleigh at UA in a story in New Scientist describing results in a new journal article (Icarus, DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2011.10.026).

[Right, a "similar but more dramatic" dust avalanche on Mars. Credit, UA/JPL]

Small quake under Lake Mead

It's been a while since we last saw an earthquake at Lake Mead, but another magnitude 2 event took place at 10:11 AM Nevada time this morning, near Boulder City. This one was just over the state line in Nevada but the epicenters for small quakes like this are not that precisely located. [Right, quake epicenter in red. Credit, USGS]

Polish company's bid for Quadra FNX includes Arizona's Carlota mine

The state-owned Polish mining company KGHM has a deal to buy out Canadian-based Quadra FNX, including the latter's Carlota copper mine in Arizona. Business Week reports the price of $2.84 billion is the "largest overseas acquisition by a Polish company."

It was only last month that Quadra FNX announced it would 'wind down' production at Carlota due to higher costs and lower ore grades than expected. [Right, Carlota mine in 2008. Credit, Robert Shantz] The mine is in the Globe-Miami mineral district, southeast of Phoenix.

Mining Foundation of the SW, 2011 Hall of Fame

The Mining Foundation of the Southwest's 2011 Hall of Fame was held in Tucson on Dec. 4, with guest of honor Laurence Golborne Riveros [right, credit MFSW], the current Minister of Public Works and former Bi-Minister of Mining and Energy for the Republic of Chile. He was honored for his leadership to develop new ways to encourage mining and mining policies in Chile and for his collaboration with industry, the mining support vendors, and local community during the dramatic rescue of 33 trapped miners at the San José Mine, in the Atacama Region in 2010, that captured the world's attention.

The 2011 Medal of Merit recipients were Ralph Sievwright and Marco T. Einaudi. Mr. Sievwright served as chief negotiator for Magma Copper in its labor negotiations for over 40 years and advised the company on mining law and compliance with complex environmental laws. "He is, and was, well-known as a leader in Arizona in these fields of law practice." Mr. Einaudi is "perhaps best known in Arizona for his synthesis of skarn deposits related to porphyry copper systems of southwestern North America."

A Special Citation was awarded to a group of companies that supported the Chilean mine rescue.

"For their impressive contributions, committed collaboration with each other and the Chilean government during the mine rescue, and for advancing underground mine rescue technology, the Mining Foundation of the Southwest acknowledges the companies listed below with a MFSW Special Citation."

Aries Central California Video
Atlas Copco
Center Rock Inc.
Drillers Supply International
Geotec Boyles Bros.,
Layne Christensen Company- Jeff Hart
NASA
Schramm Inc.
UPS
Zephyr Technologies

[excerpted from the MFSW announcement]

iPad tour of America's mountains by Arizona geologist

Flagstaff geologist/photographer/pilot Michael Collier published a new iPad app last week, "Wonders of Geology: An Aerial View of America's Mountains" which is currently featured as a "new and noteworthy" selection. Publisher Mikaya Digital calls it "one of the most beautiful, informative geology applications yet created." For a quick preview, you can check out the trailer via their new official site (just click on the mountain image at the top right of the page).

Michael is author of 17 books on geology and recipient of awards from the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Park Service and the National Science Teacher’s Association. In 2005, he was named winner of the American Geological Institute’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Public Understanding of the Geosciences for his decades of work.

I saw UMass geology prof and private pilot Chris Condit at AGU in San Francisco last week. Chris and Michael have flown together for decades. Chris talked about flying with Michael over parts of the Appalachians to photograph some of this iPad app and how spectacular the final results are.

Founding of International Geo Sample Number organization

The founding assembly of the International Geo Sample Number organization (IGSN) signed the non-profit incorporation papers in San Francisco on Wednesday during the AGU meeting. [Right, founding members and other attendees at the signing. IGSN President Kerstin Lehnert is right of me in the photo. Photo credit, Lamont-Doherty]

The IGSN is 9-digit alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies non-biological samples from our natural environment and related sampling features.

The following founding members signed the statutes of the organization and elected its Executive Board:

• Arizona Geological Survey, USA
• Boise State University, USA
• City College of New York, USA
• Leibniz Institute for Ocean Sciences GEOMAR, Germany
• GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Germany
• Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, USA
• Oregon State University, USA
• Scripps Institution of Oceanography / UC San Diego, USA
• University of Minnesota, USA

Membership of the CSIRO-Australia, Geoscience Australia, and the US Geological Survey is pending and expected to be completed shortly.

AZGS, acting on behalf of the Association of American State Geologists (AASG) is working with the USGS to establish a US naming authority for IGSN under the auspices of the AASG-USGS US Geoscience Information Network (USGIN). This would provide the service to any earth science organizations that don't want to set up their own authority or have too few samples to justify the effort.

The USGS already has over 2 million items in their incipient ScienceBase catalog, 90% of which are from state geological surveys.

Four new positions in Geoinformatics at AZGS

We opened four new jobs in AZGS last week in time to announce them at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. With 21,000 attendees and likely the largest geoinformatics gathering in the world, it's an ideal location to recruit. All 4 positions are posted at the AZGS Employment page:

IT Systems Support Specialist

Geoinformatics Content Specialist

Technology Transfer Specialist

Geosciences & Geospatial Client Applications Developer

Two small quakes near Kaibab along Utah border

Two small quakes hit about 8 miles west of Kaibab, Arizona, just south of the Utah border, yesterday (Thursday). A magnitude 2.2 quake occurred just before noon, local time, followed a few hours later by a M=1.8 event. The area has historical seismic activity associated with the southern end of the Intermountain Seismic Belt. [right, quakes shown as small yellow boxes. Credit, USGS]

3,000 posts and more to come

Well, I made my 3,000th post on this blog over the weekend. My blogging regimen has been a lot more irregular the past 6 months especially due to travel. But it's still fun and rewarding, so I plan to keep on blathering away.

In fact, I'm writing from San Francisco, where I got in last night for the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. AZGS staff are giving or co-authoring 11 talks and posters here this week, covering Geothermal Data, GeoSci markup language, post-wildfire debris flows, Peach Springs Tuff, federated data networks.

They expect 22,000 attendees at the meeting. We're doing our first-ever exhibit booth at the meeting, showcasing the State Geothermal Data project and the National Geothermal Data System.

I hope to be blogging from the meeting but between 2 talks, 2 posters, running the booth, formal committee and business meetings, and a lot of one on one confabs, it's going to be a frantic week.

Growing interest in Ground Source Heat Pumps

There are about 700,000 Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP), also called Geothermal Heat Pumps, installed in the US, but the industry says the potential is for 100 million eventually. Every state in the country is suitable for GSHP, although the installations vary according to local soil moisture conditions and some other factors.

Yesterday, I co-led a workshop at the annual meeting and expo of the National Ground Water Association, in Las Vegas, that covered web-based information available from state geological surveys that are of particular value to water well drillers. A focus of our discussion was on data we are gathering nationwide on Ground Source Heat Pump factors for inclusion in the National Geothermal Data System. This includes installation reports, thermal conductivities, heat flow and gradients, soil moisture, among others.

Afterwards, I had some time to meet with geothermal experts in NGWA and the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA). Both have training and accreditation or certification programs for drillers and installers of geothermal heat pumps. You can find lists online of those professionals in Arizona who are IGSHPA certified installers.

Potash mine in operation by 2014?

The Holbrook Arizona Journal confirmed reports circulating that Denver-based American West Potash says it's possible they could have an underground potash mine in operation as soon as early 2014 in eastern Arizona. That's two years earlier than many expected any mine might be working. The newspaper cites Holbrook city officials as source of the news. [Right, location map with AWP and adjacent land holdings. Credit, AWP's NI-43-101 report]

The paper also states, "By March 2012, Avery plans to begin filing applications for permits with various regulatory and oversight agencies including the Arizona State Land Department, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, and Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources."

That latter reference is incorrect. The Dept. of Mines and Mineral Resources was merged into the AZGS in July but never had any regulatory or oversight duties. I suspect the reporter meant to refer to the State Mine Inspector.

In another story a few days ago, the paper published a nice summary of "What is Potash?" that also included a brief analysis of world developments.

And in related news, Mineweb.com published a piece by market analyst Rick Mills entitled, "Why the world's biggest miners like potash," with the subtitle, "The world's three largest mining companies are all investing heavily in the potash sector which suggests this bulk commodity has plenty of growth ahead." He summarizes the many global factors that underlie the demand for potash.

One factor I have not heard before is that "Just when we need more soil to feed the 10 billion people of the future, we'll actually have less-only a quarter of an acre of cropland per person in 2050, versus the half-acre we use today on the most efficient farms," according to David Montgomery, author of the 2007 book Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations. That means more fertilizers may be needed to increase the productivity of remaining croplands.