Contributions of the group Corporate Landscape

Wildhorse Reservoir

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 21:27:09 +0000

slgwv has posted:

On the Owyhee River in extreme northern Nevada, at a higher water level than it's been in years. It was built by the Bureau of Reclamation for the Duck Valley Irrigation Project on the eponymous Paiute reservation. The Owyhee River flows north into Idaho to join the Snake River, and so (as I mentioned elsewhere) this little sliver of Nevada is actually in the Columbia River drainage. Surprisingly, and thru a convoluted set of circumstances, Owyhee is actually named after Hawaii! The left inset is a view just above the dam; the right is farther upstream, where the reservoir speads out more. This area typically has the coldest winter temperatures in Nevada, hitting -20 F or below routinely, and there's actually ice fishing on the reservoir then!

Open pit mine

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 07:00:22 +0000

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The Northern Belle pit in the Candelaria District, Mineral County, Nevada. The pit is large enough that I couldn't fit it all in the picture. This was one of the pits that fueled the 20th century heap-leach operations in the district. In a heap leach, low-grade crushed ore is stacked on top an impermeable sheet, usually thick plastic, and a leaching solution is sprinkled on top--often using the same sort of sprinklers that would be used for irrigation. The leaching solution trickles thru the heap, dissolving out the desired metal, and flows out the side on hitting the impermeable sheet. The leachate--the "pregnant solution" in the jargon--is then collected and the metal extracted. The solution contains reagents that dissolve the desired metal(s)--dilute cyanide, in the case of precious metals, because of the extraordinary affinity of the simple cyanide (CN-) ion for gold and silver. The technique allows extraction of metals from very low grade deposits, at the cost, of course, of excavating enormous quantities of rock. And cyanide contamination is a very real concern.

The left inset shows a different view of the pit, almost to the bottom. Altho it probably now contains some water after this season's winter storms, the lack of a pit lake shows how dry the area is--even by Nevada standards! The right inset shows a reclaimed heap leach--it's the smooth, almost trapezoidal ridge dominating the skyline. At least the sides have been bulldozed so they're now more shallow than the angle of repose, which lets vegetation (such as there is!) get re-established.

Minnesota Mine

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Sat, 18 Mar 2017 22:32:27 +0000

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Which is in Douglas County, Nevada, despite the name! This mine started as a copper operation in the 1920s, but became much more productive as an iron mine, from the early 1950s to ca. 1970. The mineralization was a magnetite (Fe3O4) body of metamorphic origin. The mine was an open pit, as can be seen. The inset shows a close up of the pit lake in the bottom of the mine. It shows how dry the country is, that the pit lake is so small!

Uravan, Colorado

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 20:17:16 +0000

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Or rather, the former site thereof. This was a company town established by U.S. Vanadium Corp. in 1936, and at one point had as many as 800 people living here, with amenities such as schools, medical offices, and a recreation center. When the great uranium rush started after WW II, the tails were reworked for uranium, and it was recovered as well henceforth. Uranium and vanadium are often geochemically coherent, as here. So, by sheer dumb luck, US Vanadium found itself sitting on one of the Colorado Plateau uranium deposits, which became such a focus of attention--and made a few fortunes--in the 1950s, at least until the Federal Government yanked the subsidies about 1957. The mine closed in 1984 due to falling prices and increased environmental regulation, and the entire area was reclaimed. "Uravan", obviously, is a portmanteau of "uranium" and "vanadium."

Commercial Area

nobody@ipernity.com (Roland) — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 07:44:20 +0000

Roland has posted:

Dortmund - Schüren

Easter Business

nobody@ipernity.com (Roland) — Sun, 05 Apr 2015 04:25:08 +0000

Roland has posted:

Dortmund

Chemical Plant

nobody@ipernity.com (Roland) — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 18:35:20 +0000

Roland has posted:

Kamen, North Rhine - Westphalia

Leviathan Mine, CA

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:15:26 +0000

slgwv has posted:

An abandoned sulfur mine in California, just over the state line from Nevada. It's now a Superfund site due to sulfuric acid formed by the oxidizing sulfur. Not only has the acid itself had a deleterious effect on draining into the local streams, but the acidity also leaches metals into solution up to toxic levels. This is a textbook case of "acid mine drainage" from abandoned mines.

Dortmund

nobody@ipernity.com (Roland) — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 19:24:14 +0000

Roland has posted:

Commercial Area

Northumberland Mine

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 03:39:10 +0000

slgwv has posted:

In the Toquima Range of central Nevada, USA. Overview looking back to the northwest. Currently inactive, but looks mothballed rather than shut down completely.

Northumberland Mine

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 03:37:33 +0000

slgwv has posted:

In the Toquima Range of central Nevada, USA. Close-up of the pumping pond for the heap leach, now all dry. The pumps would have pumped the so-called "pregnant solution" (i.e., gold-bearing) thru activated carbon to remove the gold cyanide complex.

Northumberland Mine

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 03:36:45 +0000

slgwv has posted:

In the Toquima Range of central Nevada, USA. Looking NW. A disused heap-leach pond is visible in the foreground. The mine is currently inactive, but looks mothballed rather than shut down completely.

Northumberland Mine

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 03:36:02 +0000

slgwv has posted:

In the Toquima Range of central Nevada, USA. Looking southwest from near the crest of the range. Most of the mine is over the reclaimed ridge to the left. Currently inactive, but looks mothballed rather than shut down completely.

Gabbs Mine

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 03:35:51 +0000

slgwv has posted:

A telephoto view. See adjacent picture for description.

Gabbs Mine

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 03:36:09 +0000

slgwv has posted:

Gabbs, Nye County, Nevada, USA. A magnesium/magnesia (MgO) mine that was active from WW II until just recently. It was originally the subject of an intense development effort around the beginning of WW II, because magnesium was a critical component of high-performance aircraft alloys, and it was feared that the Axis powers were way ahead in that respect. (A magnesium gap!) The raw ore was shipped to the newly opened plant in Henderson, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas, for processing into Mg metal. Lots of hydropower was available from the newly finished Hoover Dam, and the electrolytic process for magnesium separation requires lots of electricity. It's analogous to aluminum in that respect. The shipping route was very circuitous; there was no direct rail link, so the ore was trucked to Luning, NV (at that time a railhead--the tracks have since been torn up), shipped north to the transcontinental raiload outside Reno, thence eastward to Salt Lake City, and then southwest to Las Vegas on the rail link to Los Angeles! In recent years the mine had still produced magnesia (MgO) for refractory brick, but even that has fizzled. It closed a couple of years ago. The ore mineral was magnesite (MgCO3, magnesium carbonate), a product of local contact metamorphism of dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2). The left inset is a now-obsolete sign at the mine turnoff; the right is a telephoto view of the operations.

Florida Canyon mine

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:08:22 +0000

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Nevada, USA. Just off Interstate 80, the highway in the foreground. Large heap-leach operation at the north end of the Humboldt Range. The mineralization is in an old hot-spring sinter deposit.

Phosphate Mine, outside Vernal, Utah, USA

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:54:45 +0000

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Another view, showing the reclamation of the mined lands. Looking south; Vernal, UT, is barely visible in the distance.

Phosphate Mine, outside Vernal, Utah, USA

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:55:41 +0000

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In the Late Permian Phosphoria Formation. Owned by Simplot, a huge agribusiness.

Yerington Pit Lake

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Mon, 02 May 2011 17:10:02 +0000

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Yerington (Weed Heights), Nevada, USA. This is the fate of any abandoned mine that's deep enough to get below the water table--it floods to the level of the water table! Pit lakes are a serious environmental problem in lots of areas, including some other places in Nevada. What often happens is that, in contact with water and oxygen, sulfide minerals oxidize to sulfuric acid--and then, as the water gets more acidic, it leaches lots of metals into solution, where they make the environmental problems even worse. This is the mechanism behind so-called "acid mine drainage." Fortunately, the Yerington pit lake isn't particularly acidic, because less sulfide ore is exposed than in lots of other pits. It does have selenium levels high enough to exceed drinking water standards, though. You wouldn't want to water-ski in it!

Acid mine drainage is occurring, however, at the Leviathan mine in California, about 50 miles or so west:
www.ipernity.com/doc/289859/18665269/in/group/308219/self
That mine is in fact a Superfund site.