“Green” mining from volcanic salt springs will provide copper, gold or lithium
Will we be mining under the volcanoes? Credit: Cyrus Read, USGS / Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
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Today’s world is slowly switching to renewable energy, but it is not easy. One of the complications is that the development of the necessary technologies increases the demand for precious metals, which must be obtained somehow. Solar cells, wind turbines and energy storage systems need metals such as copper, gold or lithium. Current mining is not very environmentally friendly. It swallows a lot of energy and generates a lot of waste and emissions. But there are other options.
Jon Blundy. Credit: University of Oxford.
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Jon Blundy of Oxford University in the UK and his colleagues offer a remarkable method of extracting precious metals in attractive places – from hot spring water springs located under volcanoes. As a by-product and bonus, such mining would bring geothermal energy. The Oxford team focused on a source of metal that we have not used before. Many of the metal deposits we currently mine are actually a remnant of ancient volcanic activity. Blundy et al. decided to mine metals in places where volcanic activity is still alive and where the metals are in the form of solutions.
According to Blundy, active volcanoes pump large amounts of precious metals into the atmosphere. Some of these metals do not reach the surface and the air, but remain trapped in solutions found in hot rocks, at a depth of about 2 kilometers below the volcano. “Green” mining from these deposits could yield millions of tons of copper and interesting amounts of gold, zinc, silver, lithium and more. Obtaining metals from hot salt springs should be cheaper than conventional rock processing. Such extraction would burden the environment with much less waste and lower energy consumption. The advantage would be the possible use of geothermal energy, which is easily available in such places.
Logo. Credit: University of Oxford.
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Blundy’s team verified that such hot salt springs, containing a lot of metals, did exist. They drilled under volcanoes in Japan, Italy, Indonesia and Mexico and used data from other geophysical surveys. In the end, they concluded that reserves of precious metals were located under virtually every active or dormant volcano.
“Green” volcano mining will not be easy. Saline solutions under volcanoes are corrosive and can reach temperatures around 450 ° C. Their processing will require new technologies. A problem is that drilling into an active volcano is very unlikely to trigger an eruption. According to Blundy, it should be drilled in safe places above the igneous fireplace, but we don’t understand the volcanoes so well and we don’t see much underground. Such risks will need to be carefully considered.
Researchers estimate that volcanic hot salt mine mines could form within 5 to 15 years. Now they are looking for suitable sites where it would be possible to test pilot experimental operations. If such projects prove successful, “green” volcano mining could get green.
Literature
University of Oxford 29. 6. 2021.
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