KOMPAS.com – Harta karun Lapindo mud in Sidoarjo some time ago it became a hot issue in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A treasure trove of metal potency rare land This is called the Geological Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) if the potential for rare earth is very high in value.
However, it turns out that information about this potential has been around for a long time, but the information is very closed.
This was stated by a Lecturer of Analytical Chemistry and Environmental Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universitas Airlangga (FST Unair), Ganden Supriyanto.
“The issue of the discovery of rare earth metals in the Lapindo Sidoarjo mud actually has existed for a long time, but the information is very closed so that not many people know about it,” said Ganden, quoted from the Unair website.
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However, due to the unstable social condition of the community, information regarding the discovery of rare earth metals in the Lapindo mud has not been widely communicated to the media or the public.
Even Gaden has data on the rare earth metal content of lapindo mud which was studied in China.
According to him, the content of rare earth metals in the Lapindo mud had previously been studied in China and found a fairly high content.
“We have analyzed it in China and it seems that rare earth metals are high in the area,” he explained.
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Ganden revealed that the reason for the overflow of mud held in the Lapindo Sidoarjo mud embankment was probably due to the high value rare earth metal content.
So, the volume of Lapindo mud disposal into the Porong River is not that much. Even a few years ago, one of the youth groups applied for a permit to explore rare earth metals in the Lapindo mud to the Governor of East Java.
“At that time, Pak Imam Utomo was still the governor of East Java, so I was also asked by the DLH East Java to assess whether what was stated by the youth organization was true,” he said.
Ganden continued, the process of exploring rare earth metals by youth groups is by taking dry lapindo mud then heating it like a stove and observing the metal contained in it.
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Observations showed that there were more than 100 grams of rare earth metals per 1 kilogram of Lapindo Sidoarjo mud soil.
“So after being heated and researched, it turns out that there is indeed a lot of metal in the Lapindo mud,” he concluded.
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