40-ton 'gold mine' discovered hidden in sewage pit
A gold mine will be exploited using the latest technology. According to Interesting Engineering, the US owns a "rare earth gold mine" not deep underground, but hidden in a sewage pit. An old sewage pit in Butte, Montana, could soon become a national strategic asset as the US Department of Defense is considering a $75 million grant to build a refinery, the final step needed to refine rare earths extracted from acidic mine water, moving towards large-scale production. If approved, the Butte project, focusing on the Berkeley Lake area, would boost the US's efforts to increase rare earth production. Rare earth elements are often dispersed, making mining expensive. Currently, the US is running an effort to reduce its dependence on China - a country that dominates the global supply of rare earths. With only one active rare earth mine in Mountain Pass, California, the US has long struggled to compete. However, new technologies that allow minerals to be extracted from wastewater could change that. In the current context, the US has turned its attention to rare earth reserves in Greenland, and recently conducted seabed mining. According to The New York Times, Berkeley Lake contains more than 50 billion gallons of metal-rich and acidic wastewater, waste from past copper mining processes. But hidden in this mixed waste are valuable elements such as neodymium and praseodymium, which are essential for making powerful magnets in smartphones, electric cars and satellites. If exploited effectively, researchers estimate that the lake could provide up to 40 tons of rare earths per year. Notably, the breakthrough technology behind this project comes from Paul Ziemkiewicz, a researcher at West Virginia University. His team has developed a method for extracting essential minerals from acidic mine water. The technique was first used in coal mines and is now showing great potential in Berkeley Lake, which has a much higher mineral content.
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