FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[sirAnthonyKlein]

Are you in favor or are you against mining? Tell me your reasons…

[Chris Foltz]

So long as it doesn't destroy the environment I'm all for using natural resources...

[GneissWare]

[Jesse Fisher]

Most people are content to just be consumers there days. Some of us feel the need to also be producers on some level. Above all else, however, one must take care not to foul the nest in the process.

[kieferthora17]

My friends dad died this way, a common event in coal mines is a sudden gas explosion. Such an explosion of a harmful gas can take place when human beings unmindfully put pressure on a weak spot where the gas has an outlet to escape. These explosions are very sudden and do not give enough time to victim to rush to safety. These kinds of explosions cause many injuries every year. Quality, protective clothing can help overcome this risk extent. Sadly his dad did not survive. Since then we made the advocacy ‘no to mining’.

[Chris Foltz]

Sorry for your loss, but that's extremely selfish...

[Darryl]

Given the quality of conversations that normally occupy this forum I am not sure my comments are relevant but I want to make then anyway because many who read this forum are involved in geology in one way or another and questions such as this seem to come up frequently in public hearings on various projects. My objectives are to show that questions must be carefully phrased to be useful and to perhaps generate some thought and/or discussion on the definition of "mining".

Unless this question belongs to another conversation and is only a fragment thereof, it is a question that can not be logically answered. It is equivalent to asking: Are you in favor of or against - agriculture, drinking water, painting houses, getting married and any number of other equivalent questions. They simply do not have any practical answer. Even the anwer given by one respondent: "If it can't be grown it must be mined" is conditional, it assumes the commodity in question is essential or desired. If the commoditiy to be obtained isn't needed or wanted then there is no need to mine it or grow it.

A more properly phrased question might be: Assuming a commodity is either needed or wanted and can be obtained by mining, are you in favor of or against this particular mine?
at this time?
under these conditions?

To make matters worse the questioner didn't define mining. Three examples show the range of possabilities:

1)The definition of surface mining might be streatched by some to include picking up cobbles from the surface. That isn't an absurd example because it is against the law in a certain state in the U.S. to remove rocks from state parks and I know of one where SOME of the cobbles have enough precious metals in them to be worth over a hundred dollars apiece. On a weekend I could pick up a couple of dozen, make a few quick bucks and no one people would notice the missing stones because for all other intents and purposes they look exactly like those w/o any precious metals. Even if I did ithis for years, the total number of cobbles removed would be in the hundreds out of many many thousands scattered over hundreds of squart miles, most far removed from where visitors normally walk. I doublt hardly anyone would notice and the environment would certainly not be damaged. And if pickup up cobbles isn't quite mining but digging them up would be then is digging up tree stumps mining? Or is mining going to be restricted to situations where a large amount of "waste" material must be moved?

2) If we restrict the definition of mining to removing material from the subsurface then what about leaching of soluble compounds from the subsurface? This has recently been proposed and the mineral rights obtained to several square miles of land near where I live. The total amount of material removed would be a few thousandths of 1% of the total, the material removed highly valuable and all the solutions involved non-toxic and non-polluting as far as I know.

3) And if we stretch example 2 a bit further, is removing water from the subsurface mining? If so there go water wells. drinking water and irrigation water for many many people.

Questions such as this one need definitions and conditions to be meaningfull and usefull in any way. Otherwise they are simply an invitation to an argument. And while I am ont this topic: Is the questioner for against chocolate?

Darryl

[Tracy]

What is the connection between the question posed to FMF and the post's subject line? There is no reference to scam prevention in the initial post. Could you please provide some context, ideally the basis for your question?

- Tracy

[Susan Robinson]

Mining is okay, as long as it's done responsibly. However, the coal ash and oil sands wastes are examples of toxic messes that are difficult to contain, much less get rid of entirely.
The future of mining may well be focusing on our huge landfills and what we've carelessly thrown away that could have been recycled.

[Pierre Joubert]

This topic is really a 'cat amongst the pigeons'! A typical case of land 'rape' is the diamond mining companies that operate on the coast of Namibia and some areas in the Western and Northern Cape. If you Google the coastline of Southern Namibia, you will be shocked to see the devastating effect of this greedy 'land-rape'.
To us small miners (my wife and I), the matter is simple; you dig your hole and when you're done, fill it up!

[fionagriffin17]

[Chris Foltz]

,& not utilizing a Natural Resource is as bad as wasting a Natural Resource...Luddite...

[Matt_Zukowski]

Jordi:

This question is so vague as to be useless, and as Tracy posted, misleading considering the subject line. My opinion, for what its worth, is that this thread be locked, or better, deleted.

[Darryl]

I agree with Matt's opinion of this tread and his suggestion to lock or delete it.

[Pierre Joubert]

This thread, as I understand it, directly refers to an article - see link

https://blackhawk-mining.com/2012/11/13/mining-scam-prevention/
(link normlaized by FMF)

I see no reason to close this topic. I just wish the originator supplied a link from the beginning. I also wonder whether he is the same person posting similar topics on a number of other forums.

[Jordi Fabre]

[James Catmur]

I suspect that we will get lots of one line comments from new members (probably all the same person)

Given that mining includes wells for drinking water it is very hard to be against it, as many people rely on wells for their drinking water. But even that type of mining can be done well or badly - look at how people in the mid west are lowering the water table through their mining and the likely long term effects. So done badly such mining is not good, but when done well it can be.

Now work up from there

James

[Tracy]

I find it curious that the originator of this thread posted a question and left us all here to battle amonst ourselves, even when prompted to provide some basis/context. How many posts have swirled around so far? Pierre, thanks for providing the link, but better had it come from SirAnthonyKlein, whoever this person is.

I am not weighing in on the arguments because I feel this is a complex topic with valid points on either side, and I don't lean strongly toward either camp. Mining can be good and it can be bad.

I thinking we're already at or near the "dilution point" on a subject with no easy answer, and am also in favor of locking or deleting this post.

- Tracy

[Pierre Joubert]

[Tracy]

Thanks Pierre, and if so then 'nuff said.

- Tracy