Lab 3 - Mineral Resources(1)
pdf
keyboard_arrow_up
School
Sam Houston State University *
*We aren’t endorsed by this school
Course
1405
Subject
Geology
Date
Feb 20, 2024
Type
Pages
9
Uploaded by bab184658709
LAB 3: MINERAL RESOURCES GEOL 1405: Environmental and Geologic Hazards Lab Manual Purpose: To obtain an awareness and an appreciation of the importance of mineral resources to our way of life Learning Objectives: By the end of this exercise, you should be able to: -
Define and explain the terms “resource” and “reserve” as they pertain to economic minerals
-
Compute the amount of a given element in an ore mineral -
Analyze the amount of a mineral resource needed for a specific industrial application Key Terms: resource, reserve, ore, mineral Introduction: Humans depend on a steady supply of mineral resources extracted from the Earth. Think about the dwelling that you inhabit. Most of the materials used to construct your dwelling were taken from the ground. Concrete, plaster, paint, nails, screws, and bolts contain earth materials. Wood may be the exception, but trees do require soil to grow, and soil is an earth material. The minerals that we extract from the earth are nonrenewable resources. This means the amount remaining in the ground is decreased by the amount that we take from the ground. Therefore, recycling is important. As the world’s population increases
, there will be a continued increase in what needs to be extracted from the earth, despite recycling. Two important terms are “resource” and “reserve
.
”
Resource: -
Concentrations of naturally occurring solids, liquids, or gases, discovered, or only surmised, that are or might become economic sources of mineral raw materials -
The resource quantity of any mineral is fixed but unknown (for example, there is a fixed number of gold atoms within the planet, but we do not know the number) Reserve: -
The portion of the resource that has been identified and can be legally and economically extracted. (Note: T
he term “ore” is often used in reference to metallic reserves
) -
The reserve quantity is often known but may vary daily as technological, economic, and political factors change.
Figure 1: Per Capita Consumption of Minerals, 2020 and 2021 Many minerals are economically important because of their chemical composition. An ore mineral contains an element or elements that will be separated and refined. Some minerals will used because of the chemical properties of their entire composition. Minerals may also be economically important because of their physical properties. Electric Vehicles (EVs): Vehicles that run on batteries rather than using fossil fuels are considered by many to be the solution to a greener future. How “green” are electric vehicles?
After all, fossil fuels are required to generate the electricity in many localities. What happens to the batteries at the end of the vehicle’s
lifespan? The EPA research seems to show that electric vehicles are green indeed, at least in terms of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and climate change. See Figure 2 below. Figure 2: Lifecycle comparison of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs) for an Electric Vehicle and a Gasoline Car (Source: EPA https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/electric-vehicle-myths)
Figure 3: Projected Electric Vehicle Sales in millions worldwide (Source: National Blueprint for Lithium Batteries 2021-2030)
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help
There are so many factors that go into a study of this sort, too many factors to consider for this lab. For our purposes, you will be considering a few of the aspects relating to electric vehicles, specifically the batteries. Electric vehicle batteries are generally variations of lithium-ion batteries. A typical lithium-ion battery in an electric vehicle contains about 8 kilograms of lithium (larger vehicles with larger batteries will contain more lithium). The lithium is extracted from various lithium-
bearing minerals from “hard
-rock mines
” and from subsurface lithium-rich brines. Lithium and EVs: Calculating the proportion of lithium contained in each of the primary lithium minerals To do this you will determine the weight percentage of an element in a substance given the chemical formula: -
Step One: Calculate the molecular weight by adding the total atomic weight of each element (atomic weights x subscript) in the formula -
Step Two: Calculate the weight percentage by dividing the element you are interested in by the total substance molecular weight and multiplying the quotient by 100: ((atomic weight x subscript)/molecular weight) X 100% For example: What is the weight percentage of iron in hematite? o
Hematite = Fe
2
O
3
, rounded atomic weights: Fe = 55.85, O = 16 o
Step One: (2 X 55.85) + (3 X 16) = 159.7 (grams per mole) o
Step Two: ((2 X 55.85)/159.7) X 100% = 69.9% iron by weight (units cancel out) 1.
Determine the weight percentage of lithium in the following lithium ore minerals: a.
Spodumene, LiAlSi
2
O
6
__________wt. % Li b.
Petalite, Li(AlSi
4
O
10
) __________wt. % Li c.
Amblygonite, LiAlFPO
4
__________wt. % Li Atomic weights: Li = 6.94, Al = 26.98, Si = 28.09, O = 16, F = 19, P = 30.97 (rounded grams per mole) 2.
If an electric vehicle lithium-ion battery contains 8 kilograms (8000 grams) of lithium, calculate the amount of mineral necessary to provide this amount of lithium for each of the minerals above. a.
Spodumene __________ grams b.
Petalite __________ grams c.
Amblygonite __________ grams 3.
Calculate the amount of lithium in a large spodumene crystal. One of the bigger spodumene crystals was found at the Etta Mine in South Dakota and was described by F. L. Hess in 1911. This crystal measured 12.80 meters by 1.83 meters by 0.91 meters. The density
of spodumene is 2.374 grams per cubic centimeter. One cubic meter equals one million cubic centimeters. a.
What is the weight of this crystal in grams? __________ b.
Using your result question 1a, determine how many grams of lithium are contained in this crystal __________ c.
This crystal would provide enough lithium for how many average electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries? __________ 4.
In 2020 electric vehicles made up approximately 1% of all vehicles globally. What does this mean in terms of future demand for lithium-ion batteries? ______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________ 5.
Something else to think about or seek out online: w
hat is the lifespan of an electric vehicle’s battery? __________ 6.
What impact will this demand have on the price of lithium? ______________________________________________________________________________ Lithium carbonate is often the lithium-bearing material that is traded. Lithium carbonate was about $7,000 per ton in January 2021. That price rose to about $26,200 per ton by November 2021. (You can check the current price online) For an earth material to be part of the reserve and economically extractable, the operator must be able to make a profit. As the price of lithium increases, previously noneconomic lithium-bearing deposits become economic and part of the lithium reserve. 7.
What is most likely going to happen in terms of new mining operations? ______________________________________________________________________________ 8.
What will this mean about employment opportunities for geologists? (i.e., mining geologists and environmental geologists) ______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________ The two primary types of lithium mines are standard hard-rock mining and ones that bring subsurface brines to the surface and store them in a series of evaporation ponds. Open Google Earth
and type “
Greenbushes WA, Australia
” into the search bar.
9.
The Greenbushes lithium mine is currently the world’s largest hard
-rock lithium mine. What is the area taken up by this mining operation? ______________________________________________________________________________ In Google Earth
, now type “
Excon Salar, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
” into the search bar.
After Google Earth gets you there, you will need to zoom out a little to see the entire area. This is the roughly east-central portion of the Atacama Desert in Chile, specifically the Salar de Atacama, which is a large, thick salt flat formed by evaporation. Water is pumped in to dissolve the salts and then the resulting brines are pumped from beneath the surface of the salt flat and placed in the evaporation ponds that you can see in this view. It takes about 12 to 18 months of evaporation before relatively pure lithium compounds precipitate out of the liquid. The process requires more than half of the region’s available groundwater. 10.
Determine the area taken up by the three major evaporation-pond complexes. ______________________________________________________________________________ 11.
As demand for lithium increases, they are considering heating the ponds to speed up the process. What will this do to the total greenhouse gas emissions for electric vehicles? ______________________________________________________________________________ 12.
What energy source could they use to reduce the production of greenhouse gases? (Hint: see below) ______________________________________________________________________________ While in Chile you can also check out a solar energy facility at “Subestacion Andes, Antofagasta, Chile” and open-
pit copper mines at “Mina Excondida, Angtofagasta, Chile”.
Any type of mining comes with its own set of potential hazards. 13.
What types of environmental hazards are posed by mining other than greenhouse gas emissions? (You can do an online search or an in-person in-class discussion) ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ The questions that you have answered regarding lithium resources all assume that lithium-ion batteries will remain the primary battery type for electric vehicles. If you are interested, you may want to investigate some of the alternative EV batteries that may be on the horizon such as sodium-ion batteries and graphene batteries. No matter what type of battery is used, we will still need electricity. Open Google Earth
and type “Graphite Mine, County
Road 115, Burnet, TX” into the search bar.
14.
How do you think the lakes adjacent to the buildings formed? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Still using Google Earth,
type “Halliburton, Darby Lane, Malvern, AR” into the search bar.
15.
Again, how do you think this lake formed? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help
This used to be a barite (BaSO
4
) mine. The barite was mined here and processed for drilling mud used when drilling for petroleum or natural gas. As the excavation got deeper, the cost of extracting the barite became too high. The mine was closed and allowed to flood while barite from China was imported and transported to this site for a short time. The shape of the lake is consistent with the plunging synclinal layer containing the barite. In Google Earth
type “Gibbons Creek Reservoir, Texas” into the search bar.
16.
What is the purpose of this reservoir? (You can do an online search to help with your answer) ______________________________________________________________________________ The electrical generation power plant near the reservoir once used lignite (a low-grade coal) mined to the south of the power plant, the Gibbons Creek Mine. If you zoom out to about 12 miles eye altitude and look south and southwest of the power plant, you can see where the open pit strip-mining operation was located. You can see some artificial ponds/lakes and relatively treeless areas where the lignite was extracted. There are little roads with rectangles at the end of them that appear to be oil wells. 17.
Use the polygon tool in Google Earth
to estimate the perimeter distance and area of the mine: Perimeter __________ Area __________ An environmental impact report was required before mining could begin, and one of the requirements was to map trees and replace them as part of the reclamation process. Interestingly, the type of tree was not specified, so Russian Olives were planted to replace Post Oaks removed during mining, perhaps because Russian Olives grow faster. 18.
Do a search on Russian Olive trees and explain any potential environmental impacts from this substitution: ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
Table 1: Minerals and their properties MINERAL NAME MINERAL FORMULA SELECT PHYSICAL PROPERTIES/Unique Characteristics Barite BaSO
4
High density Bauxite (actually a rock) Mixture of AlO
.
OH and Al(OH)
3
Used in soda cans Beryl Be
3
Al
2
Si
6
O
18
Green beryl = emerald Blue beryl = aquamarine Bornite Cu
5
FeS
4
Known as peacock ore Chalcopyrite CuFeS
2
Brassy or gold color Corundum Al
2
O
3
H= 9, Red corundum = ruby Blue corundum = sapphire Diamond C H = 10 Galena PbS Lead ore Garnet X
3
Y
2
(SiO
4
)
3, various compositions H = 7½ Graphite C H = 1 Gypsum CaSO
4
.
H
2
O H=2 Halite NaCl Can be eaten Hematite Fe
2
O
3
Metallic and non-metallic luster Magnetite Fe
3
O
4
magnetic Quartz SiO
2
H = 7, piezoelectric Sphalerite ZnS Used in medicines H = hardness, based on Moh’s relative hardness scale (10 is high, 1 is low)
Hardness is a mineral’s resistance to being scratched
Other Minerals of Economic Importance: Many minerals are economically important because of their chemical composition. An ore mineral contains an element or elements that will be separated and refined. Using Table 1 above, answer the following questions. (Hint: You may need to look at a periodic table to remind yourself of the atomic symbols of the following elements) 19.
Which minerals are potential copper ores? ______________________________________________________________________________ 20.
Which minerals are potential iron ores? ______________________________________________________________________________ 21.
Which mineral is the primary source of lead? __________ 22.
Which mineral is a source of beryllium? __________ 23.
Which mineral is the primary source of zinc? __________
24.
Which mineral/rock is the primary source of aluminum? __________ 25.
Which mineral is an important source of barium? __________ Some minerals will used because of the chemical properties of their entire composition. 26.
Which mineral is used as table salt? _________ 27.
Which mineral is used to manufacture plaster? __________ 28.
Which mineral is used to make “heavier” drilling muds?
__________ Minerals may also be economically important because of their physical properties. 29.
Which minerals may serve as abrasive materials? (Think sandpaper, tile saw, etc.) ______________________________________________________________________________ 30.
Which mineral is used in pencil leads? (Hint: pencil leads do not contain lead) __________ 31.
Which minerals may be used as precious gemstones? __________ 32.
Which mineral may be used in watches and pressure gauges? __________
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help