The 395 and Owens Valley-Eastern Sierra Region

Mining is difficult on multiple fronts. It is a destructive process and mines on public lands are governed by the 1872 Mining Law, which does not require royalties to be paid to the government. However, mining provides the basic materials we require for everyday life. The general public is going to have to make the noise to drive the change. If reclamation bonding is increased, I would assume that the materials price would increase accordingly. Alternatives include recycling, but I think recycling requires a lot of power which again could be driven by cost. Mining consumes a ton of power which the energy companies love. Mining also provides well paying jobs and support for small communities especially in the Great Basin. Would the general public be willing to pay more for their goods and services to save the environment or landscape? Hard to say, but the current high prices aren't pleasing most folks. I will acknowledge that I worked at a gold mine and in the industry in a previous life. Super cool experience with fantastic people, community, and technology.

It's hard because everything we have is somehow related to mining....our Tacomas wouldn't exist or operate without it.

 

It's a very tough thing, because modern industrial society needs metals to run. However, mining often creates very nasty environmental problems that affect human health and lead to expensive remediation, often paid for by the taxpayers. Look up the Berkely Pit Superfund site in Butte, MT sometime for an example.

 

One of the things I've noticed has been those here in the US are often very against mining however, if the hole in the ground is elsewhere? Not a problem. Classic NIMBY.

 

^^^ One of the things I constantly have to remind myself of.

Frankly, this is true of much that goes on in US (perhaps world?) society today, and causes much of the "us" vs. "them" that I wish we could tamp down. It'd be so much more beneficial to everyone if we could talk about issues where we disagree, work to see each others perspectives, and try to come to solutions that try to address multiple viewpoints.

You know, compromise. Such an old-fashioned approach, I know. OK, I've said my bit, now back to our (made-from-the-output-of-mines) phones, and our social media echo chambers.

 

Yeah, export the environmental costs of mining. And any number of other polluting things.

 

For clarity, the specific mining project proposed here is for gold. There is no shortage of gold. Nothing to do with rare earths or any sort of strategic mineral resources.

This is a typical money grab, pure and simple. Certainly one can be for or against that, but let’s not confuse the issue with concerns about electronics, batteries, motors, or anything else. There are such resources in other pretty places where one could explore the trade offs between environmental protection and access to critical mineral resources. That has zero to do with this particular operation however.

 

I know this place is a special one for you; adjacent to an even more special location. And with good reason. As I've mentioned - and written about in my trip reports (Worth More Than Gold | Inyo West #1 – AdventureTaco) - I'm in full agreement with you that I'd hate to see this spot drilled or mined.

Still, while gold may be more plentiful than other rare earth metals, etc. it's still used in all the same devices (and more). All of them (IMO) are money grabs. No one is mining them out of the goodness of their heart.

Or maybe I'm missing something?

 

Mining is a 100% money grab whether it's gold or guano.

 

The difference is that gold is literally a store of value and a financial asset. Over 20% of global consumption last year was central bank purchases and about 45% was for jewelry. Industrial usage is not what drives demand and has a small effect on the price. You mine gold for money, period, not for national security reasons or because you want to make iPhones or missiles. If any country restricted their exports of gold no one would care and it would have no effect on our ability to manufacture any goods or even have a modest effect on their price. Gold is available from too many sources, domestic and foreign, for anyone to attempt to control it or use it as strategic leverage.

Rare earths are an entirely different kettle of fish. Their production has been concentrated in a few countries, in fact they aren’t very financially valuable which is part of the reason they ended up concentrated, and suddenly losing access to them is a realistic concern with serious strategic and national security implications. It very much is not just about money and profit opportunities.

Lastly, before we pivot to digging up rare earths in critical environments, it is worth noting even for rare earths in most cases it is the refinement of them that is challenging and for which there has been a concentration of refinement infrastructure rather than the ore itself being rare. “Rare earths” aren’t rare in the sense they are hard to find, rather they have a low concentration in lots of places around the world but the refinement infrastructure is capital intensive and has its own environmental problems. And you just don’t make much money from them either. So for those reasons typical economic incentives have resulted in extreme concentration of production in a few places much like happened with semiconductor packaging epoxies. When normal economic incentives don’t align with long term national security goals then you need to interfere with the market and potentially reduce certain kinds or regulations. That is absolutely not the case for gold.

 

False equivalency, see above.

EDIT: To be fair, I 100% agree mining companies are about a “money grab” no matter what is being mined! I’m just saying how much you might want to accommodate them very much depends on what is being mined.

 

Not equating the value of gold and guano. But both are mined for profit. When there is no profit to be had or the resource runs out, mining stops.
I think we can agree there are many examples of this throughout history.

 

The Berkeley Pit is a great example of lasting impacts associated with historic mining. I believe that BP is paying for a majority of that cleanup at this time. BP assumed multiple mine cleanup liabilities when they acquired Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) like the Leviathan Mine in California and the Yerington Mine in Nevada. There are other historic mining properties where cleanup is being funded by the government because the original RP/mining company doesn't exist anymore. Defunding of government entities such as the USFS, NPS, EPA, FEMA, etc. could have detrimental impacts to future cleanup of sites and emergency response (like the Gold King Mine release or any major fire/hurricane), not to mention appropriate management of public lands.

Probably about time to get back to talking about hitting those exploration roads!

 

It's my understanding that there are no processing facilities in the US for "rare earth" minerals and that it's all done in China. You could mine them in Idaho, send them to China, and then ship the finished products back here. I'd wager that substantial subsidies would be required to begin processing here.

 

In our own backyard. Mountain pass mine on the 15 east of Baker extracts and processes rare earth material.
“The Mountain Pass Mine, operated by MP Materials, is the only active rare earth mining and processing facility in the United States, processing rare earth minerals. It extracts, separates, and refines these elements into high-purity compounds.

 

Yep! And its history is largely reflective of the history of rare earths:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Pass_Rare_Earth_Mine

Originally was the source for nearly all rare earths worldwide, polluted badly, shutdown by competition from China and costs of compliance, languished in repeated bankruptcies, eventually revived by various congressional actions due to concern with national security issues. And of course as is the American way, presently owned by hedge funds making sure they get some sweet profit off those congressional actions…

 

Holy cow, I followed your link and am completely blown away by the writing and amazing photos! That's some incredible country.

 

I haven't been into the 395 country since my field camp in the El Nino year of 1998. I remember it being quite spectacular and I've wanted to get back there ever since then. I suppose it's well passed time I got back there and did some exploring.

 

Where at and who with? I did my last two weeks of SJSU's 2008 field camp working around Virginia Lakes and camping at one of the sites on Lee Vining Creek. I really need to get back up to Virginia Lakes and hike up to Dunderberg Peak and Mt Olsen again.

 

It was through Western Washington University. We traversed around from Yosemite Valley (the granodiorite history), Point Reyes (the San Andreas), Mt. Diablo (Franciscan Complex), Big Maria Mountains (mapping high-grade metasedimentary rocks), Calico Hills (mapping complex structures), Zion (mostly hiking), Grand Canyon (history of the rocks), Death Valley (Turtleback Complex), and finally camping and Lee Vining Creek like you did. We mapped moraines at Lee Vining.

 

That's a lot of moving around. I think that UNR had a similar program when some friends went to their camp in 2007.