Introduction:
The Mountain Pass Mine is located on the south flank of the Clark Mountain Range just north of the incorporated community of Mountain Pass, California, United States. It is a open-pit mine that contains rare earth elements. Those minerals include calcite, barite, and dolomite. Metals that can be extracted from the mine are cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, and europium. In the article "Molycorp shuts down Mountain Pass rare earth plant" they discuss how the Mountain Pass Mine shut down due to low production rates even though it held rare earth elements.
"Mountain Pass was expected to be America’s flagship source of rare earths. But the company struggled to ramp up production, and the mine operated in the red for years."
Background Information:
This mine is located in northern California, which is close region to the Clark Mountain range. The mine has an ecosystem of dry desert.
They use an open pit mine, which is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by removal from an open pit or borrow. Molycorp Inc. own and operate the mine. This company is one of the only U.S companies in which they make devices like winter turbines, electric vehicles using rare earth minerals. Rare earths are used in a variety of many different electronics and clean energy technology. There are 17 rare earth elements. Some of the elements are praseodymium, neodymium, europium. These materials are used to make photographic filters, permanent magnets and hard drives, and last to make florescent light bulbs. They can be found within minerals such as bastnaesite and monazite, which makes them expensive to mine for. These minerals are considered high grade ore. They are important minerals because they provide create day to day needs.
"Mountain Pass was expected to be America’s flagship source of rare earths. But the company struggled to ramp up production, and the mine operated in the red for years."
Discussion:
Molycorp Inc. uses two methods of mining. One is the old method, which created environmental degradation. They used air emissions which created harmful chemicals in the air. They solved this problem by using flue gas and treatment plants to minimize CO2 and other harmful emissions. The other method is the green mining method. This process included water waste production and water use. The fresh water being used can be recycled (120 acres of evaporation ponds will be eliminated, and fresh water consumption will be reduced by 90%.) Molycorp Inc. is developing better regulations to achieve there goals to save money and reduce environmental harm. In 2002, Molycorp Inc. had to close down due to the violation of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation ACT, and the Clean Water ACT. After getting shut down they had to restore the mine and use environmentally safe laws.
Conclusion:
Since Mountain Pass Mine contains rare earth elements Molycorp is taking action to restore the degradation that occurred by using the Green Mining old method of mining.This is due to the fact that the company violated the environmental clean act.This was a problem for the corporation to shut down because of the rare earth elements that are extracted from the mine.These elements are used to create many products that most of use in our daily lives . As a consumer we spend very little time thinking about the cost to how we mine to get our products with out beginning environmentally safe.
Works Cited:
"Green Mining." Green Mining. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012. Web. 14
Jan. 2016.
"Molycorp Shuts down Mountain Pass Rare Earth Plant | MINING.com."MININGcom.
Cecilia Jamasmie, 25 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.
"Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Jan. 2016.
Web. 13 Jan. 2016.
"Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine Modernisation Project, California." Mining
Technology. Kable Intelligence Limited, 2016. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
Wiens, Kyle. "A Visit to the Only American Mine for Rare Earth Metals." The Atlantic.
Atlantic Media Company, 21 Feb. 2012. Web. 14 Jan. 2016. 