Copper mining better, needed
Letter To The Editor - Mesabi Daily News (03/25/12)
During the last 10 or more years, there has been much activity and
discussion in this area about mining ore containing copper and other metals. Iron and copper are by far the most useful and necessary elements in today’s society. Because of the geologic
history of this planet over the last two billion years or so, Northeastern Minnesota had and has large deposits of ores containing both of these sometimes crucial elements.
When I was majoring in geology at UMD in the mid 1950s, our two
professors told us that between the volcanic rocks along the North Shore of Lake Superior and the iron formations on the Iron Range, there was a large deposit of Duluth Gabbro that extended
for many miles toward the northeast.
Gabbro is an igneous rock similar to granite, but it is coarser grained and darker colored. They said there was a good possibility of ores of copper and other metals being in the Gabbro.
Today the formation is called the Duluth Complex and the more it is drilled, the more ore they are finding.
In our 2005 Dodge Durango I counted 12 electric motors and one generator. Examples of the motors are the starter, windshield wipers, window openers and heating and cooling fans and blowers. When I started counting motors in our house and elsewhere, I
stopped at 20. Washer, dryer, freezer, refrigerator, microwave, fans and blowers, blender, can opener, electric knife, etc.
On the large end of the scale are the huge generators and motors,
transformers, transmission lines, telephone lines and all the wiring in homes and other buildings. If I said that the number of miles of copper wire in use on this planet was in the billions, I don’t think I would be exaggerating. Even a small electric
motor has yards of cooper wire in it.
Copper is the only practical element to use for all these purposes.
There are some people who oppose any copper mining, period. These same people depend on the copper products I just mentioned in their everyday living. They either never think about that or if
they do, they “sweep it under the rug and stomp on it.” They keep bringing up places like Sudbury, Ontario, and its past pollution.
There has been bad pollution in the past in some areas. The pollution was caused by the smelters. In the smelting process, the copper ores are roasted at high temperatures to separate the sulfur from the copper and other metals. At these temperatures the sulfur combines with oxygen in the air forming sulfur
dioxide, so2. It is a bad news gas with about twice the density of air. It sinks and collects above the land and water.
It kills vegetation and reacts with water forming sulfuric acid, H2so4, which is a strong, corrosive acid. It is also the acid
in car batteries that start your car whenever you turn the key. Also, car batteries are made up of alternating plates of lead oxide and lead which can be another toxic element under some
conditions. Today’s car batteries last more than seven years and are recycled.
There won’t be any smelters here to separate the sulfur from the metals. There is a new process that is going to be used, I don’t know just what it is yet. That is what PolyMet and various
agencies are talking about right now.
The “environmentalists” don’t know what it is yet either. To them, no matter what it is, it will pollute everything. They come up with false statements and numbers involving things they
know nothing about, just to “toot their own horn.”
There is only so much copper ore left on this planet. The ore is found only in a limited number of places. The copper deposits here are anywhere from the third biggest to the biggest one in the
world. If we don’t mine copper here we have to import it. Our trade deficit will increase, which we don’t need. We become dependent on other countries. We know all too well what that can
lead to with the oil situation. The world needs copper and lots of it.
Copper mining here will be very closely monitored by various agencies. It has already been studied closely for seven years and millions have been spent on it.
Mining copper here will benefit everybody in this country. There will be many long lasting, good paying jobs. Area schools and cities will be much better off. The state and federal governments will get more tax money.
It is time for the so called “environmentalists” to wake up, open
their eyes, quit trying to live in the past, get off of that narrow minded, one track only, path they are following and
see 2012 the way it is.
P.S. I just looked at a 6-foot, two-wire extension cord and found 240 feet of copper wire in it. A 100-foot, three-wire has 75 strands, 7,500 feet or 104 miles of copper wire.
Frank Franson
Tower
