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Mary and Gary Freeman, founders of a Florida-based lab provides firm, discovered a rich lithium deposit in Maine while searching for tourmaline, a putting, multi-colored gemstone discovered within the area. The timing of their discover is important because it may present the USA with a home supply of lithium for the clear power transition and probably be value $1.5 billion. Nevertheless, there’s robust opposition to growing a mine. “Maine has a number of the strictest mining and water high quality requirements within the nation, and prohibits digging for metals in open pits bigger than three acres,” reviews TIME. “There haven’t been any energetic metallic mines within the state for many years, and no firm has utilized for a allow since a very strict legislation handed in 2017.” Slashdot reader schwit1 shares an excerpt from the report: “This can be a story that has been performed out in Maine for generations,” says Invoice Pluecker, a member of the state’s Home of Representatives, whose hometown of Warren — a 45-minute drive from the capital metropolis of Augusta — lately voted overwhelmingly in favor of a short lived ban on industrial metallic mining after a Canadian firm got here on the lookout for minerals close to a beloved native pond. “We construct industries primarily based on the wants of populations not dwelling right here after which the underside drops out, leaving us struggling once more to select up the items.” “Our gold rush mentality relating to oil has fueled the local weather disaster,” says State Rep. Margaret O’Neil, who introduced a invoice final session that might have halted lithium mining for 5 years whereas the state labored out guidelines (the laws finally failed). “As we facilitate our transition away from fossil fuels, we should look at the dangers of lithium mining and contemplate whether or not the advantages of mining right here in Maine justify the harms.”
The Freemans’ level out that they plan to dig for the spodumene, then ship it out of state for processing, so there can be no chemical ponds or tailings piles. They liken the excavation of the minerals to quarrying for granite or limestone, which enjoys an extended, wealthy historical past in Maine. Advocates for mining within the U.S. argue that, because the nation outsources most of its mining to locations with much less strict environmental and labor laws, these harms are presently being born by overseas residents, whereas placing U.S. producers within the precarious place of relying on faraway sources for the minerals they want. Although there are greater than 12,000 energetic mines within the U.S., the majority of them are for stone, coal, sand, and gravel.
There is just one operational lithium mine within the U.S., in Nevada, and one operational uncommon earth aspect mine, in Mountain Go, Calif., which means that the U.S. relies on different international locations for the supplies important for clear power applied sciences like batteries, wind generators, and photo voltaic panels. Even after they’re mined, these supplies presently need to be shipped to China for processing because the U.S. doesn’t have any processing services. “If we’re speaking about vital metals and supplies, we’re up to now behind that it is loopy,” says Corby Anderson, a professor on the Colorado College of Mines. “It is the dichotomy of the present administration — they’ve incentives for electrical automobiles and all this stuff, however they want supplies like graphite, manganese, nickel, cobalt, lithium, and copper. The one one we mine and refine on this nation is copper.” Additional studying: Federal Ruling Approves Construction of North America’s Largest Lithium Mine
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