There is growing interest in extracting minerals from mining waste, with conferences held in the new area of remining in Europe and new prospecting ventures under way in Australia exploring mine waste.
The first to invest in this secondary prospecting was the Queensland government, which has funded sampling across 16 sites. Early results have found cobalt deposits rich enough to draw overseas investment.
New South Wales has recently launched a similar program, while work is under way by Geoscience Australia, the University of Queensland and RMIT to produce the first-ever atlas of mine waste in Australia.
Does mining the waste make financial sense in and of itself, or is it simply meant to assuage environmental and political concerns?
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Tapping Mineral Wealth In Mining Waste Could Offset Damage From New Green Economy Mines
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(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @03:44PM
I've always wondered when we'd start digging up our landfills to start tapping into minerals/resources buried there.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @03:55PM (3 children)
Money, the only thing worth caring about. Who needs breathable air or a functioning society?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday June 01 2022, @04:14PM (2 children)
Corporations seek to make money. In the event that you want them to do something that doesn't make them money. You need to legislate and enforce said policies or pay them to do what you want. Bribery works, unfortunately, it also works on those in power. I.E. the ones making said legislation.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @04:45PM
And? Money is very useful and how accountants manage human effort. When harm is done in pursuit of money, or repairs are left undone because they cost money, then the system is broken. Money should be enabling society to build a better world, instead it has become a golden idol worshipped by many, and human lives sacrificed daily for it.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @06:25PM
Until simply making money is no longer enough [theguardian.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @05:42PM (7 children)
It's already been done.
Johannesburg (South Africa) used to have a range of low bare hills running for miles near the city centre. They were the tailing dumps of all the early gold mines from when the gold rush started around there. They were nicknamed the Johannesburg Alps.
They disappeared a few decades ago when someone figured out the rising price of gold and modern extraction techniques made it worthwhile to mine them for the gold still in them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @06:02PM
The only link I can find is one from Fox News in 2015 (sorry) - New gold rush flattens Johannesburg's famous mining dumps [foxnews.com] and I'm pretty sure the tailing dumps had been disappearing for several decades already.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @06:13PM
I should have kept going. Here are two more links.
.... Since the 1970s Johannesburg’s tailings have been under a process of reclamation for latent minerals. .... [columbia.edu]
Resurgence in Johannesburg’s Gold Tailings Reclamation [womp-int.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @06:17PM (3 children)
Problem is some of those "modern extraction techniques" use some nasty chemicals, like arsenic, that ends up where you don't want them. So the "circular economy" is a really good idea as long as it isn't sputtering off nasty things for the rest of us as the circle goes round.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @02:32AM (2 children)
You're mixing up your Whodunit poisons. Gold mining uses cyanide, not arsenic.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @03:06AM
Thank you, they did get mixed up.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday June 02 2022, @05:21AM
Yes. you are correct. But they are not only looking for gold, although that is probably the case in S Africa. Elsewhere, they are looking to recover cobalt, lithium, nickle etc. They each use different processes and chemicals to recover whatever it is they are seeking.
(Score: 2) by Michael on Wednesday June 01 2022, @08:21PM
Also in the USA during the late 20th century on gold mine spoil heaps from the earlier gold rushes, since the technology used earlier couldn't extract the microscopic flake profitably.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @06:48PM (2 children)
i suppose one can mine di-lithium for one beautiful tiled floor -or- to go where no man has gone before. (i suppose that includes far away di-lithium deposits?)
note: 'twas pretty amazing to learn that the gigantic dig-dug machines in germanies open pit coal mining where 100% independent from imports of energy (oil, gas). they where 100% electric.
note2 (written in 2045): 'twas pretty amazing to learn that the robotic dig dug machines scouring the waste mining tails for infinium (catch-all for the stuff poo-pooeh as "green energry") where made and powered by the infinium machines and their harvested renewable energy.
unfortunately the great book-keeping disaster had to happen 2030 'cause everybody started to run-out of requirements for oil coupons... :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @07:08PM (1 child)
if you want to go to mars, you can start practicing right here on earth.
no wall plugs or atms or petrol stations on mars. what works on mars will also work on earth, heyya?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @06:29PM
You jest, but that's actually one of the biggest reasons for going to Mars: In order for a Mars colony to survive it must become sustainable as quickly as possible, and the technology they develop can then be exported back to Earth. As for why we can't do that here, there is too much cheating, graft, and sabotage by established interests and not enough motivation to overcome it. Mars has no established interests, and near-term survival is both a strong motivator and effective filter against fraud.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @12:29PM (1 child)
Wow, talk about an Oxymoron.
Mining is not and will never be Green!
Nice try though...keep green washing everything and eventually we will all believe the bullshit.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday June 02 2022, @01:42PM
There are ways to make typically-polution-causing industries green*er*, such as closed loop systems, or at least making intakes be *downstream* of outflows (which can be a precursor to making a closed loop system). Not striving in that direction because it's not Totally Green(TM) is more stupid than continuing as we are.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @05:16PM (3 children)
Miners of precious metals bring two kinds of materials up out of the ground: ore and tailings. The tailings are the materials that they have to clear out of the way to get to the ore. Often, the tailings are actually low grade ore. But the cost of refining this ore would be more than it could be sold for. So, the tailings just sit outside the mine being worthless, indefinitely. But if there is a rise in metal prices, it can suddenly make economic sense to refine the tailings, and they get refined. It's been going on forever.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @06:02PM (2 children)
i am not sure that a "rise in price" is a real driver.
just 'cause the price of a car increases, makes it more desirable ... to build?
also the phrase "make more economical sense" is strange.
consider for a moment that if we had infinite free energy at disposal, would it make "economic sense" to mine that single speck of gold on the moon?
i assume if whatever "thing" is providing that infinite and free energy, requires ONE speck of gold, then it would make sense to mine it on the moon for TWO infinite and free sources.
in a nutshell: mining requires energy. this is 99% the "economic cost" of mining.
if energy were free and infinite we could mine anything. ofc the device providing infinite free energy "has to be mined" first.
negative points if the energy required for mining has to be ... mined (includes drilling). this obviously sets a limite on what can be mined ...economically or comically.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @06:22PM
oops, the garden spirit just complained and said to mention the real possibility of my theorie leading to a world where everything is like driving thru ryhad or abu dhabi in a extra super big ev hummer with a 5000(! five thousand) kwh battery ... surrounded by mining tails :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @06:52PM
That's how market economics works. When the price goes up that encourages more producers to enter the market, increasing supply, and when prices go down the least efficient producers go out of business, decreasing supply. Precious metal mining follows this very closely, with mines opening and closing based on market forecasts. Reprocessing tailings is an easy way for new producers to enter the market and for existing players to increase supply during good times, while reducing processing and stockpiling the tailings is an effective way to save money during lean times. This works because extracting 99% of the metal is cheaper than getting 99.9%, so you only go for those extra decimal points when prices are high enough to pay for it.