Economic impact of mining on forum members

[Pine Donkey]

1325715260[/url]' post='287542']

be a long time before the gas burners take over and almost everything from palo verde goes to californy. besides, the fuel in palo verde comes from mines too. Lark.

 

According to my dictionary mining is, "To extract (ores, minerals etc.) from the earth." Based on this definition even the gas fired plants rely on mining.

This reminds me of a bumper sticker on my dads work truck when I was a little boy. It said, "If you can't grow it, you have to mine it". These are the only ways we can get natural resources in this world.

[BirdDog20]

My dad grew up in Tucson from the 30s. He used to hunt where the Sahurita (sp) and Pima mines are by Green Valley in the 50s before turning solely to Whitetail later. Nothing lives on those tailings. That land is useless. I'm also disappointed that we have lost access to the area by the Magee Ranch Rd b/c mines ate up access. Had several 100 point heads pegged there till about 2-3 years ago. I look across the valley from 36B to see if that little honey hole has been entirely displaced yet and its sad.

 

By the same token, supposedly Rosemont Copper is managed completely different. More environmentally friendly and compatible. Mind you this is hearsay. As much as I despise what has happened in the Sierrita's I see the economic need and the hope that the land left behind won't be completely useless but managed properly.

 

Funny thing how they held a town meeting in Green Valley which is by obvious eyesores, yet the Rosemont Copper site is no where near there. That big ugly scar on the Santa Ritas is a granite mine (if my dad's info is correct).

 

 

(Voted no impact - voip network engr in Texas).

[yotebuster]

1325715260[/url]' post='287542']

be a long time before the gas burners take over and almost everything from palo verde goes to californy. besides, the fuel in palo verde comes from mines too. Lark.

 

According to my dictionary mining is, "To extract (ores, minerals etc.) from the earth." Based on this definition even the gas fired plants rely on mining.

This reminds me of a bumper sticker on my dads work truck when I was a little boy. It said, "If you can't grow it, you have to mine it". These are the only ways we can get natural resources in this world.

 

Actually that bumper sticker is even false. ALL of our food comes from fossil fuels based fertilizer. We are burning through energy a million times faster then mother nature can produce it and we are just fortunate that she stored a few hundred million years worth of it for us in the form of coal, natural gas and oil. Everything we use comes from these. My farmer friends back home will tell you that the single largest expense in their farm is fertilizer, and it ALL comes from fossil fuels. Diesel prices don't mean squat to the big farmers back home, my friend spent 15,000 bucks on diesel last year and over $400,000 on fertilizer.

[.270]

oil based fertilizer? don't think so. that's another ruse that the huggers like to use. here is a site you should check out.

http://depletedcranium.com/once-again-fertilizer-is-not-petroleum-based/

fertilizer is mostly mined, but it ain't made outta oil. potasium, nitrates, stuff like that. potash is another big ingredient in a lot of it too. but it ain't petroleum based. potash might be a byproduct of pertroleum burning tho.

 

Az has somewhere around 6-7000 mgw of coal fired electricity right now. i don't think coal is ever going to be a big minority. coal units are generally base load units. that means they run WFO all the time. the little gas burners are used to take up the slack. most of em don't run much in the winter time in Az, because there isn't a need for the power. they run like a sonofagun in the summer. mgw hours of coal fired electricity in Az is way more than gas. they have built a buncha gas burners in the past few years, but they just aren't real big units. most of them are gas turbines, which is a stationary jet engine that spins a generator. some of the them are combined cycles, where they take the exhaust gas from a gas turbine and use it to heat up a little boiler and then use the steam to spin a little generator. they have built some gas fired steam units recently too, but not a bunch. gas turbines and combined cycle units are real popular. if the treehuggers get their way and they make em shut down Navajo, you will see a rash of gas burners for sure then.

 

copper is what most of us think about when we think of mines in Az. and they are a big money maker. be nice if we didn't need em, but we do. Lark.

[.270]

i've been around a power plant or 40. picked up a little experience with em. i guess they just as well shut down all them coal burners then it sounds like. last i knew ngs put out 2250 mgw at full load. did they curtail it? Lark.

[Codywhi]

Hey BirdDog20,

 

 

There are tons of animals that live on the tailings, the same Tailings you are talking about we have even seen Desert big horn sheep on.... Deer and pigs are everywhere on the Tailings, and the magee ranch road was closed down due to drug runners and other people not respecting the area... Its sucks that your lil honey hole is not there anymore,

[Pine Donkey]

1325731363[/url]' post='287628']

Hey BirdDog20,

 

 

There are tons of animals that live on the tailings, the same Tailings you are talking about we have even seen Desert big horn sheep on.... Deer and pigs are everywhere on the Tailings, and the magee ranch road was closed down due to drug runners and other people not respecting the area... Its sucks that your lil honey hole is not there anymore,

 

There have been deer and pigs throughout those tailings for years. I remember chasing deer in the Anamax property while a friend watched out for the security guards. I also remember a night we packed a beer cooler to the top of the tailings pond to party under the Christmas tree, only to be scared off when a lion was spotted. This was back in the early 80's, I still hear stories of big muleys living on the tailings. I guess they like whatever was planted up there to keep the dust down.

[yotebuster]

oil based fertilizer? don't think so. that's another ruse that the huggers like to use. here is a site you should check out.

http://depletedcranium.com/once-again-fertilizer-is-not-petroleum-based/

fertilizer is mostly mined, but it ain't made outta oil. potasium, nitrates, stuff like that. potash is another big ingredient in a lot of it too. but it ain't petroleum based. potash might be a byproduct of pertroleum burning tho.

 

Az has somewhere around 6-7000 mgw of coal fired electricity right now. i don't think coal is ever going to be a big minority. coal units are generally base load units. that means they run WFO all the time. the little gas burners are used to take up the slack. most of em don't run much in the winter time in Az, because there isn't a need for the power. they run like a sonofagun in the summer. mgw hours of coal fired electricity in Az is way more than gas. they have built a buncha gas burners in the past few years, but they just aren't real big units. most of them are gas turbines, which is a stationary jet engine that spins a generator. some of the them are combined cycles, where they take the exhaust gas from a gas turbine and use it to heat up a little boiler and then use the steam to spin a little generator. they have built some gas fired steam units recently too, but not a bunch. gas turbines and combined cycle units are real popular. if the treehuggers get their way and they make em shut down Navajo, you will see a rash of gas burners for sure then.

 

copper is what most of us think about when we think of mines in Az. and they are a big money maker. be nice if we didn't need em, but we do. Lark.

 

Lark I usually agree with everything you say, but considering my brother is the financial officer for Dakota Gas and manages a plant that makes Urea from coal then I have to cordially disagree with you on this. N-P-K is what farmers go by, its the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium a soil needs to grow something. Micronutrients are of minor importance to big business farmers, but N, P and K is the bare bones it requires to make a plant, which is unfortunately all that our ever poorer soils get replenished with. Of those three, Nitrogen is the most important one, potash, and phosphorus vary in each soil and will last forever in a soil until used by a plant, nitrogen is constantly being turned over and lost by the soil and refixed out of the air if the correct organisms are present in the soil to do it.

[Non-Typical Solutions]

A little off subject but I know that mining of Flagstone in Unit 10 really put a hurt on one of my favorite hunting spots, made the roads more user friendly thus more hunters, pushed rocks and trees all over the place.

 

But there are still some big mulies in there and they have found the water(rain,snow,etc) that now gets trapped in the tailings from this mining. Sometimes that can be good and sometimes that can be bad.

[Pine Donkey]

1325789641[/url]' post='287745']

A little off subject but I know that mining of Flagstone in Unit 10 really put a hurt on one of my favorite hunting spots, made the roads more user friendly thus more hunters, pushed rocks and trees all over the place.

 

But there are still some big mulies in there and they have found the water(rain,snow,etc) that now gets trapped in the tailings from this mining. Sometimes that can be good and sometimes that can be bad.

 

Tailings from flagstone?

[Non-Typical Solutions]

OK maybe my ignorance shining through.....all the crap left behind that they couldn't or wouldn't use???

 

Most of us could make a really nice patio out of what they leave behind but when you are in the middle of the good stuff the scraps that get left behind are still pretty nice slabs.

 

While teaching there in Ash Fork for 5 years, I got alot of pretty nice Flagstone and railroad ties from some of the locals who had connections. Made for some really nice landscaping materials.

 

I apologize for misuse of the term tailings hope I didn't offend any of you miners that are directly impacted by mining and know what you are talking about

[Pine Donkey]

1325791811[/url]' post='287753']

OK maybe my ignorance shining through.....all the crap left behind that they couldn't or wouldn't use???

 

Most of us could make a really nice patio out of what they leave behind but when you are in the middle of the good stuff the scraps that get left behind are still pretty nice slabs.

 

While teaching there in Ash Fork for 5 years, I got alot of pretty nice Flagstone and railroad ties from some of the locals who had connections. Made for some really nice landscaping materials.

 

I apologize for misuse of the term tailings hope I didn't offend any of you miners that are directly impacted by mining and know what you are talking about

 

I sure wish I could get some of those scraps for my yard, that stuff is expensive. When I went to buy some, everything I could afford looked like scrap to me.

[200"mulie]

MINE!! Arizona needs the money.

[Non-Typical Solutions]

1325791811[/url]' post='287753']

OK maybe my ignorance shining through.....all the crap left behind that they couldn't or wouldn't use???

 

Most of us could make a really nice patio out of what they leave behind but when you are in the middle of the good stuff the scraps that get left behind are still pretty nice slabs.

 

While teaching there in Ash Fork for 5 years, I got alot of pretty nice Flagstone and railroad ties from some of the locals who had connections. Made for some really nice landscaping materials.

 

I apologize for misuse of the term tailings hope I didn't offend any of you miners that are directly impacted by mining and know what you are talking about

 

I sure wish I could get some of those scraps for my yard, that stuff is expensive. When I went to buy some, everything I could afford looked like scrap to me.

 

That is very true.....

[.270]

fertilizer from coal? what'll they think of next? do they burn it to extract what they need or what? i thought you were talking about oil. oh well, live and learn. Lark.