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people online in the last 1 minutes - 0 members, 0 anon and 0 guests. (Most ever was 29 at 13:36:32 Sat Aug 3 2002) |
| geowizard | Re: The Next Frontier of Mining It's all a matter of marketing. Maybe a Hotdog vendor in the Bronx could sell a hotdog in Ethiopia? :confused: Marketing REE's is dependent on the buyers. The buyers represent the market and they write the checks. So, the buyer dictates whether that commodity is delivered in ounces, pounds, or by the rail car. Since REE's are used in industrial applications, it can be assumed that the consumers want capacity from their sources. The product has to meet the demand of the consumer. The product must also meet the specifications of purity within certain constraints of variability. Contracts for shipping REE's are long term - not short term. The producer has an obligation to produce a given quantity at a given purity for a certain minimum period of time. The contractual obligations related to entering into the REE market or any market dictates that the seller is in a position to produce. A small scale producer doesn't fit into the REE market. A small scale producer probably cannot establish a business model that includes refining REE's to a marketable form. On a small scale, exploration, mining, and the costs related to developing a business selling REE's is simply not a practical venture. - Geowizard |
| baub | Re: The Next Frontier of Mining Dredger, One big problem, among others, is there is no US buyers for small amounts that a little mining company would produce. Australians might be able to sell to China at terms favorable to both parties. Perhaps there are beaches one could work that would produce enough REEs easily in Oz. There's a lot to learn about REEs. Safe storage for both raw and refined products is one. Analysys of ores another. Getting paid by the buyer is another. b |
| dredger | Re: The Next Frontier of Mining Hey, Professor, Guys, I am trying to hook up with a miner involved in a new REE mine in Auss, also has a tailings deposit, he likes the excavator sucker concept for the tailings deposit, Just waiting to see what developes, :smile: |
| dredger | Re: The Next Frontier of Mining Hey Professer JJ. Another good post, thanks, phil. |
| baub | Re: The Next Frontier of Mining Thanks Dr. JJ. |
| jjedwab | Re: The Next Frontier of Mining The problem is not so much in prospecting, but in the delays for getting mining permits : "Faster project permitting times could reduce U.S. dependence on REE imports-NCPA" http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/content/en/mineweb-political-economy?oid=184732&sn=Detail The quoted report considers also the case of AK |
| baub | Re: The Next Frontier of Mining Thanks Geo, good info. b |
| geowizard | Re: The Next Frontier of Mining Let's shed some light on the subject:  So, copper produces a "blue" light. :confused: Well, that's close, but what colors are emitted by other metals when they burn? And... incidently, we are talking about "Atomic Emission" as opposed to "Atomic Absorption". :smile: Light is a wave. It has wavelength. Cool! So, here's the spectrum of light:  Blue is 450 to 495 Nano Meters (nm). Copper is actually at 324.7 nm Gadolinium is 407.9 nm Dysprosium is 421.2 nm Europium is 459.4 nm Neodymium is 463.4 nm Gold is 242.8 nm Having provided illumination, you can see the importance of Atomic Emission Spectroscopy! - Geowizard |
| geowizard | Re: The Next Frontier of Mining When I was a puppy, my father, a gold prospector, had a carbon arc spectrometer that he had constructed. The spectrometer used two carbon rods that were connected to a voltage source and when the voltage was turned on, an arc occurred, much like arc welders produce. The spectrometer would burn a sample in the arc and you could see a noticeable discrete color associated with each different mineral. Copper, for example was blue. Note: Never look at an electric arc without proper eye protection! Anyway, the apparatus was not able to be calibrated and and was to a certain degree incomplete. A spectrometer needs to have a means of dispersing the color spectrum into the full range of colors. That is done with a prism or a diffraction grating. The "solution" is an Atomic Absorption Spectrometer like the one posted above. All of these things cost money. Cheap solutions offer less information, are often not reliable and are prone to error. Information about what is in a rock has to be given a degree of importance. If it isn't important, then the instrumentation can be chosen accordingly. If the information is important and has "value" then an equally valuable, reasonably high quality piece of instrumentation should be chosen. Follow through: Find an AA spectrometer. This is a "proactive" effort! It's like prospecting! You have to go out and look for one! Lately, I have found assay labs going out of business. There are other labs going out of business. They have a fire sale and sell lab equipment. Lab equipment is required to prepare the samples for analytical analysis. The samples need to be weighed accurately. Then the samples need to be crushed and pulverized. Then the samples need to be digested into a solution. - Geowizard |
| jjedwab | Re: The Next Frontier of Mining I have no ideas about these matters. I was once interested in the cause of very fragile samples (like carbonaceous meteorites) landing on earth without being pulverized or molten. I asked Ed Anders, and he told me that when exploding in the high atmosphere, some pieces happen to be shoot to the rear, and fall back to earth at "terrestrial" speed. JJ |
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