Fed-state issues at Congressional Western Caucus hearing

Gov. Brewer was the main witness at the hearing held by the Congressional Western Caucus yesterday in Phoenix. The topic was disagreements between Arizona and the Obama Administration, particularly in regard to public lands.

Following the Governor's remarks, six agency heads, myself included, were asked to respond to questions from the 5 Republican congressmen in attendance. Scott Hunt, the Arizona State Forester, [typo corrected 3-18-12] was pressed to name individuals in the US Forest Service who were holding up decisions on forest lands. Caucus chair Rep. Steve Pearce of New Mexico said their new practice is to identify by name 'bureaucrats' who are normally anonymous, to pressure them to move faster or take more responsibility for their actions.

I was asked if we have received honest information about the uranium mining ban in northern Arizona. My response was that I thought that BLM had acted in good faith but the EIS process had been short-circuited when the Secretary of Interior announced his final decision as soon as the draft EIS was released, prior not only to the final EIS but before any reviews or comments had been made on the draft. In addition, senior Interior Dept. officials told a number of us participating agencies on a conference call that they had not read much of the EIS before the decision was made.

In addition to Mr. Pearce, Arizona congressmen Gosar, Schweikert, Franks, and Quayle were on the panel.

Tribe, environment groups join lawsuit over mining ban

The Havasupai Tribe has joined with a number of environmental groups to support the Secretary of Interior's 20-year ban on mineral exploration and mining in northern Arizona, according to the Flagstaff Daily Sun. Other groups weighing in on the U.S. district court lawsuit are Grand Canyon Trust, Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, and the National Parks Conservation Association.

A number of mining companies, organizations, and local communities are suing to overturn the ban. The Havasupai Tribe lands abut one of the withdrawal areas [right, land management and withdrawal areas. Credit, BLM]

AZGS reauthorized for 10 years

Gov. Brewer yesterday signed SB1299, the reauthorization of AZGS in statute, for another 10 years. Thanks to all of our stakeholders who sent letters or testified in the hearings, in support of continuing the agency.

The Governor also signed SB1171, which integrated the statutes from the AZ Dept. of Mines & Mineral Resources into the AZGS statutes. The two agencies were merged officially last July but it was done through a budget bill, leaving the statutes in separate chapters with some potentially confusing or contradictory language.

Cutting light pollution from mines

I heard last week that Rosemont Copper was developing a plan to use LED lighting for its proposed copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains, instead of the conventional sodium lighting, to reduce light pollution that affects the region's astronomical observatories. Company officials sounded pretty excited. This afternoon, Rosemont put out an announcement saying they have contracted with local company Monrad Engineering to design and install such a system. They note that company president Chris Monrad is the former president of Tucson-based International Dark Skies Association, whose mission is to “preserve and protect the nighttime environment and our heritage of dark skies through environmentally responsible outdoor lighting.” The Monrad report concludes that "The result is expected to be a lighting installation that generates about 10-15% of the amount of environmental light that ...would normally be allowed by a similar commercial development of the same scale in the same location using conventional lighting systems on a similarly sized parcel." [Right, narrow-band amber LED. Credit, Monrad Engineering]

This topic came up at the Holbrook town hall a few weeks ago, during a Q&A session about the proposed underground potash mine proposed in that area. American West Potash CEO Pat Avery told the audience that they also are looking into low impact lighting for their operations.

The use of these lighting systems in Arizona could help establish new standards for mining operations nationwide and worldwide.

Potash public meetings moved to larger venues

Two upcoming public meetings on proposed potash mining in the Holbrook basin have been moved to larger facilities in St. Johns and Snowflake to better accommodate the large crowds expected to attend and respond to public interest across the region. The new Holbrook Basins Horizon website is posting details about these and later upcoming meetings.

ST. JOHNS: American West Potash Public Meeting on Monday, March 19
A public meeting about the plans of American West Potash is scheduled for Monday, March 19th
in St. Johns. Featuring a presentation by AWP President Pat Avery followed by a question-and answer session, the meeting will be held from 6-7:30 in the Apache County Board of Supervisors
Chambers, Apache County Annex, 75 West Cleveland, St. Johns. This location is a change from
previously announced plans.

SNOWFLAKE: American West Potash Public Meeting on Tuesday, March 20
A public meeting about the plans of American West Potash is scheduled for Tuesday, March 20 in Snowflake. Featuring a presentation by AWP President Pat Avery followed by a question-andanswer session, the meeting will be held from 6-7:30 at the Northland Pioneer College Silver
Creek Campus, 1611 S. Main St., Room 101 in the Learning Center. This location is a change
from previously announced plans.

Events planned for April and May are listed in the Calendar of Events on www.holbrookbasin.org. Thanks to Kathy Hemenway for forwarding this info.

Financing for restart of Catalina Mtns copper mine

There's an interesting item in the Canadian news that Oracle Mining Corp. announced that it has "entered into a non-binding, indicative term sheet for project financing with Credit Suisse AG for a secured term loan of up to US$70 million in order to advance its Oracle Ridge Copper Mine re-start project in Arizona." The Oracle Ridge mine is in the Catalina Mountains northeast of Tucson. [Right, mine site. Credit, Oracle Mining]

But what also got my attention was the notice that this announcement is "Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for dissemination in the United States of America." I won't claim to understand Canadian securities law, but given the global nature of the Web, how can they expect we won't be able to read this news?

Anyway, the company says their goal is to restart the Oracle Ridge copper mine by the end of 2013.

Huge crowds at Tucson Festival of Books

The AZGS exhibit booth at the Tucson Festival of Books has been mobbed this weekend. Visitors started coming by at least an hour before the event opened on Saturday morning, making it difficult to finish setting up displays. [Right, Randi B. and Mike C. setting up AZGS publication displays early Sat. morning]

The crowds were huge throughout the day and didn't start thinning out until late in the afternoon. We sold out many of the most popular titles and everyone was busy all day, answering questions about Arizona's geology and landscape.

Confusion about fracking

The Arizona Daily Star ran a story the other day headlined "Fracking likely caused Ohio quakes officials say." The problem is that it becomes obvious after reading only a couple of sentences that Ohio officials did not say that.

The headline and the text of the story don't match. According to the article, the earthquakes were triggered by injection of waste water into geologic layers below the natural gas horizon. This is not hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") of the natural gas-bearing shale unit. The production well produces natural gas and water. The water is removed, piped to a waste water injection well and pumped into the ground, typically into deep saline beds. In Ohio, it is the waste water injection, not the fracking, that is linked to the earthquakes. The waste water disposal is completely separate from the fracking of the production well and the earthquakes would have occurred whether or not fracking was involved in the original well completion. [Right, drill rig. Credit, EPA]

This kind of confusion is contributing to the national frenzy over fracking. There is no fracking going on in Arizona yet I hear all kinds of questions or accusations about the damage it is supposedly doing in the state.

New report on plant distributions in the southwestern U.S.

Another new USGS report examines the habitat of 166 plant species across the southwest and predicted future changes in habitat distribution based on three different climate scenarios. [Right, ecoregions of the study area]

One of the conclusions is that "the assessment showed that species respond independently to predicted climate change, suggesting that current plant assemblages may disassemble under predicted climate change scenarios."

Ref: Thomas, K.A., Guertin, P.P., and Gass, L., 2012, Plant distributions in the southwestern United States; a scenario assessment of the modern-day and future distribution ranges of 166 species: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2012–1020, 83 p. and 166-page appendix, available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1020/.

Stratigraphy and depositional environments of the upper Pleistocene Chemehuevi Formation along the lower Colorado River

A new USGS professional paper (co-authored by AZGS geologist Dr. Phil Pearthree) proposes the Chemehuevi Fm as a formal lithostratigraphic unit and offers an explanation for its origins. I've excerpted the following from the abstract:

The Chemehuevi Formation forms a conspicuous, widespread, and correlative set of nonmarine sediments lining the valleys of the Colorado River and several of its larger tributaries in the Basin and Range geologic province. This is one of the most prominent stratigraphic units along the river below the Grand Canyon, and the formation records an important event or set of events in the history of the Colorado River. Our preferred interpretation of the Chemehuevi Formation is that it contains the remnants of deposits formed during a single major episode of fluvial aggradation, during which the Colorado River filled its valley with a great volume of dominantly sand-size sediment. The most likely cause for the aggradation is an extraordinary increase in sand supply, likely due to widespread climatic change. However, other explanations have not been ruled out. However, the Chemehuevi Formation contains the remnants of the most recent large magnitude (>100 m) aggradation of the Colorado River.

Ref: Malmon, D.V., Howard, K.A., House, P.K., Lundstrom, S.C., Pearthree, P.A., Sarna-Wojcicki, A.M., Wan, Elmira, and Wahl, D.B., 2011, Stratigraphy and depositional environments of the upper Pleistocene Chemehuevi Formation along the lower Colorado River: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1786, 95 p., available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1786/.

Arizona target of record global mineral exploration spending

The nonferrous metals mining industry "aggregate exploration total jumped 44% in 2010 and a further 50% in 2011, more than doubling from 2009’s recent low of $8.4 billion to the new all-time high of $18.2 billion in 2011" according to the annual World Exploration Trends 2012 report issued by the Minerals Economic Group at the PDAC conference in Toronto [right].

Arizona, Nevada, and Alaska accounted for almost two thirds of all the exploration spending in the U.S.

The report also noted that "Although gold continued to attract more than half of all spending in the
United States, base metals reached its second-highest percentage share in the past decade, based in part on increased copper exploration in Arizona and Utah."

UA camera captures spectacular Martian dust devil

NASA put out a news release describing an amazing dust devil on Mars imaged by the UA's HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Observer:

A towering dust devil, casts a serpentine shadow over the Martian surface in this image acquired by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The scene is a late-spring afternoon in the Amazonis Planitia region of northern Mars. The view covers an area about four-tenths of a mile (644 meters) across. North is toward the top. The length of the dusty whirlwind's shadow indicates that the dust plume reaches more than half a mile (800 meters) in height. The plume is about 30 yards or meters in diameter.

A westerly breeze partway up the height of the dust devil produced a delicate arc in the plume. The image was taken during the time of Martian year when the planet is farthest from the sun. Just as on Earth, winds on Mars are powered by solar heating. Exposure to the sun's rays declines during this season, yet even now, dust devils act relentlessly to clean the surface of freshly deposited dust, a little at a time.

This view is one product from an observation made by HiRISE on Feb. 16, 2012, at 35.8 degrees north latitude, 207 degrees east longitude. Other image products from the same observation are at http://www.uahirise.org/ESP_026051_2160 .

HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the orbiter's HiRISE camera. [Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona]

For a fantastic collection of other images of Martian dust devils, check out AGU's The Martian Chronicles blog.

AZGS' Ann Youberg featured in "Girls Doing Science"

We just discovered that my photo of AZGS geologist Ann Youberg examining debris flows from Flagstaff's Schultz wildfire, was showcased on the Girls Doing Science web site last year.

There's a great collection of photos of other women doing science at the site as well. Send your daughters, and your sons, to see how girls are changing the world.

And don't forget, March is Women's History Month.

Another lawsuit against Arizona mining ban

An email from the Northwest Mining Association was forwarded, informing their members that NWMA filed a complaint in federal district court in Arizona "seeking to overturn [Interior] Secretary Salazar’s Public Land Order withdrawing more than 1 million acres from operation of the Mining Law. Mountain States Legal Foundation is representing NWMA in this action. There are 7 claims for relief, two relating to violations of FLPMA and the NFMA; four related to violations of NEPA; and the seventh seeks to declare §204 of FLPMA unconstitutional because it violates the Presentment Clause of the U.S. Constitution." [Right, BLM map outlining the parcels included in the withdrawal from exploration and mining]

There are a number of reports circulating that other groups are planning suits, and not surprisingly, that several mining opponents will seek to intervene in support of the withdrawal.

Update, 3-8-12 5;14AM: the Mohave Valley News reports that Mohave County Supervisors on Monday will consider joining one of the lawsuits.

Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson testified in Congress against the ban last week.

EPA in Tucson to discuss Rosemont copper mine

EPA officials from San Francisco have been in Tucson the past couple of days to review the proposed Rosemont copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains, about 20 miles south of the city. We hear they spent a day with Pima County staff. On Tuesday afternoon they went to the Santa Ritas to see the mine site and adjacent canyons that opponents fear will be harmed by mining. [Right, site of proposed mine. Credit, Rosemont Copper]

[Update - I revised this post to correct an unintended implication that EPA met only with opponents. 3-6-12 9:28pm]

EPA last week issued a stinging critique of the project and of the Forest Service's EIS of the proposal.

Arizona has second producing lode gold mine

American Bonanza announced that they shipped their first gold production from the Copperstone mine, about 10 miles north of Quartzite, Arizona. The company reports that "the first concentrate shipment consists of 31.2 tons of concentrate grading an average of 22.8 ounces per ton of gold, containing an estimated 712 ounces of gold in concentrate." The mine is working to achieve the design gold production rate of approximately 3,000 ounces of gold per month. [Right, mine layout. Credit, American Bonanza]

Arizona's other lode gold mine, Gold Road, restarted production in August, 2010.

Fed-state-private partnership on Grand Canyon North Rim lands

Grand Canyon Trust, Arizona Game and Fish Department, Bureau of Land Management, Northern Arizona University, University of Arizona, U.S. Forest Service, and U.S. Geological Survey signed a Memorandum of Understanding, to form the Kane and Two Mile Research and Stewardship Partnership - "a collaborative group of scientists, livestock producers, and resource managers actively pursuing science-based solutions to the challenges facing this dramatic landscape," according to a news release from the USGS. [Right, Kanab Creek is the largest tributary of the Colorado River on the north side of the Grand Canyon. Credit: NAU Cline Library, Bill Belknap Collection, NAU.PH.96.4.80.16]

The Partnership has identified several key research initiatives designed to inform management across the 850,000 acres of private land, BLM, and USFS grazing leases that comprise the Kane and Two Mile ranches. "These include evaluating the sustainability and effects of various livestock management strategies, identifying key factors responsible for the spread of non-native species, developing methods for restoring semi-arid grasslands, and creating tools for monitoring environmental change – particularly the effects of climate and land- use change."

Periodic Table of Videos - check out copper

The University of Nottingham has produced a set of videos explaining each of the elements in the Periodic Table, including one for copper. Since Arizona is the Copper State, I've taken the liberty of embedding their clip here. Enjoy, and try out others in the Table.

Industrial Minerals Forum will be held in Scottsdale

The 48th Annual Forum on the Geology of Industrial Minerals will be held in Scottsdale, Arizona, May 2-4, with field trips before and after the main meeting.

The call for papers was issued last week with a deadline for submission of March 23. Registration is now open for the meeting, to be held at the Scottsdale Cottonwoods Resort.

Talks and poster presentations are invited on the following topics:

• important and potential industrial rocks and minerals
• the geology of commodities such as lithium, rare earths, mineral sands, magnesite, clays, fertilizer minerals, zeolites, manganese, silica, and gemstones
• aspects of the usage of construction materials and building stones
• exploration case histories and techniques, greenfield operations, reclamation examples and techniques
• outreach and education programs, societal and legislative challenges to mineral production
• reports on state, regional, and national developments

A session on Strategic and Critical Minerals and their role in a technological society is planned.

AZGS is organizing and hosting the meeting, with co-hosts Arizona Geological Society, Arizona Rock Products Association, Arizona Mining Association, and AIPG-Arizona Section.

There is still room for exhibitors.

A 2-day pre-meeting field trip across the Mogollon Rim and Colorado Plateau will visit a variety of industrial mineral sites as well as the classic geologic and mining locales. A 1-day post-meeting trip will head east through the Globe-Superior region.

The Forum was last held in Arizona in 1987.

Hundreds turn out for Holbrook town hall on potash mining

The first public meeting on potash mining in the Holbrook area brought out hundreds of residents and many from throughout the region last night. Pat Avery, CEO of American West Potash and Josh Bleak, CEO of Passport Potash, each gave overviews of their company's status and plans. I joined Pat and Josh on stage after their presentations to participate in a Q&A session with questions from the audience.

Teri Walker, with the Arizona Journal, laid out the opportunities and challenges facing the community with the proposed construction and mining jobs and economic development.

The focus of the evening was economic development and many in the audience asked about jobs and opportunities to provide goods and services to the mines. Pat projected an operation employing 400+, both mining underground and processing the salts at the surface, with an annual operating budget of $400 million.

Questions were raised about the potential health impacts on miners and plant workers, on ground water quality, and air quality.

The event was organized by the Holbrook Business Development Group, a recently formed volunteer organization. I estimated 300-400 in the audience but one of the organizers estimated it between 400-500 [right, residents arriving in Performing Arts Center at the Holbrook high school for the town hall. My really lousy cell phone photo]. Overall, there was a tremendous sense of optimism, but with a recognition that something this big and this new in a small community needed to be thought through carefully.