Molycorp Mountain

               

    INTRODUCTION

The mountain pass earth mine is an account of environmental disaster because " The molycorp mountain pass rare earth facility has recently filed for bankruptcy.

 The mountain pass rare earth mine is an open pit mine flank of the  just north of the community of Mountain Pass, United States.

The minerals that are mined include calcite, barite, and dolomite.

                                                              

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

• A few years ago Chevron owned the mine and when it was at its peak it was producing most of the world's supply of rare earth metals

The Mountain Pass deposit is in a 1.4 billion year old and contains 8% to 12% rare earth oxides, mostly contained in the mineral bastnasite. The minerals that are mined include calcite, barite, and dolomite. These are used in society because metals can be extracted from them. The metals that can be used are cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, europium.

Mountain Pass is a low grade ore because it is a open pit mine so that means they contain little copper and produce a lot of waste rock

Discussion

The bastnäsite ore was finely ground, and subjected to froth flotation to separate the bulk of the bastnäsite from the accompanying barite, calcite, and dolomite. flotation concentrate, acid-washed flotation concentrate, calcined acid-washed bastnäsite, and finally a cerium concentrate, which was the insoluble residue left after the calcined bastnäsite had been leached with hydrochloric acid.

In 1998, chemical processing at the mine was stopped after a series of wastewater leaks. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water carrying radioactive waste spilled into and around Ivanpah Dry Lake.

In all, about 600,000 gallons of radioactive and other hazardous waste flowed onto the desert floor, according to federal authorities. By the end of the 1990s, Unocal was served with a cleanup order and a San Bernardino County district attorney's lawsuit. The company paid more than $1.4 million in fines and settlements.

After preparing a cleanup plan and completing an extensive environmental study, Unocal in 2004 won approval of a county permit that allowed the mine to operate for another 30 years. The mine also passed a key county inspection in 2007..