Mining & Mineral Resources
A note from C&A's Director of Exploration within the Natural Resources Group (NRG), Ruffin I. Rackley, on the history of exploration in the U.S.:
"Gold is where you find it" was the guide to prospecting prior to 1950 and the prospector used gold as a guide in locating mineral deposits that were partially eroded. Back then the prospector, usually alone with a Jackass to carry his meager belongings, panned for gold in streams and knocked on outcrops until he found some valuable minerals, if at all. He probably let out a yell, staked his claim and recorded it in the local courthouse or mining district office, and started digging. Today, the professional exploration geologist, armed with two or three academic degrees, has to approach things differently because those exposed mineral occurrences of economic interest have likely all been found. Geologists have to work through hundreds to thousands of feet of cover using every geological, hydrochemical, geochemical, and geophysical method available to assist in the search.
Today finding an ore deposit requires an indirect approach. All earth resources, even some common varieties, such as sand and gravel, require some form of concentration process to make a commercial mineral deposit because the natural abundance of the sought-after element in the earth’s crust is normally much too low to be an economic deposit. Fortunately, most of the mineral commodities, including uranium, have a concentration process that provides a much broader target for exploration than the mineral deposit itself. These processes leave evidence of their presence over an area a few times to a few hundred times the size of the mineral deposits themselves. This allows the prospecting team to locate the actual mineralization much more efficiently in both time and money.
M. D. Campbell and Associates has an outstanding team, now called the NRG, who are already knowlegable in the prospective uranium areas around the United States and overseas, and who are ready and able to manage a substantial program to acquire known mineralization with a combination of classic techniques we and others developed in the 1960s and 70s and of those availble today. Then once significant mineralization has been found, we would further define the horizontal and lateral extent of the economic portions of the mineralization and then produce it for a client."
Mineral exploration and environmental investigations have many common characteristics. Both require a familiarity with the geologic literature and both involve drilling, sampling, and analyzing for anomalous compounds. Mineral exploration involves the search and evaluation of concentrations of economic metals and other elements found in naturally-occurring deposits at or near the surface of the earth. Mining involves the removal of overburden and ore-grade materials to generate economic benefit. Mining of some minerals is also conducted via in situ methods by the uranium industry, generally called solution mining. It is an environmentally friendly method of mineral extraction and can scientifically reduce production costs relative to those involved in surface and underground mining of the past. Value is created by mining a mineral commodity for use by society in making a product of value to society. For example, gold has an intrinsic value as is, but uranium needs to be chemically combined into "yellowcake" which is then enriched to make pellets for use in nuclear power reactor cores. Successful mining projects consist of multi-disciplinary activities, such as in heap leaching of precious metals, for example, and require a careful blend and balance of geological, chemical, geotechnical, engineering, financial, environmental and managerial expertise.
In general, mining and mineral resources are directly linked to the environmental field. The former is the first stage of supplying society with its building blocks while the latter is the last stage of cleaning up after society's needs have been met. As society learns to mine its needed raw materials in more environmentally-sound ways, so too will society learn to produce the products it needs in more environmentally-friendly ways by improving handling and storage techniques and by reducing waste. In the process of making a product, waste are produced which have historically been improperly handled and expediently disposed of at locations that often threatened the health and well being of humans and the environment. Now, environmental investigations search for and evaluate the residual concentrations of anthropogenic waste or by-products such as metals, hydrocarbons, solvents, pesticides, herbicides, and other industrial waste constituents found in and around industrial centers in concentrations considered, in many cases, to be potentially dangerous to human health and the environment, i.e., to other fauna, flora and other natural resources.
 The mining and mineral resources disciplines involve a number of activities, ranging from developing or reviewing mineral exploration programs for potential financial investors through developing mining plans to environmental permitting. When disagreements arise in such projects they usually are because some aspect of the project has failed. This may be a result of an ambiguous agreement between two parties, agreed to originally for the sake of project expediency. Now, each claim is based on their interpretation of the original agreement. Often, an investigation conducted to underwrite the project is later found to be allegedly flawed and a partner wishes to withdraw from the project, without financial malice or obligation. Litigation is often the result.
Litigation will continue to thrive on projects where expectations are not based on reality, but on an interpretation of apparent reality. The highly subjective and speculative nature of many investigations which support mining-project development are part of the risk of the undertaking, but prudent, independent investigations, conducted by appropriately trained, experienced personnel holding the appropriate professional geological certifications and state licenses are required to minimize potential loss, not to eliminate it. The distinction between the two forms the basis for much litigation.
 Other mishandled activities can also lead to litigation. These activities range from inappropriate economic analysis of the ore reserves, the projected cash-flow, or environmental permits of a proposed or existing mining project, to mine dewatering, water-supply development, and mine environmental impact statements (and environmental geology) prepared for state and federal regulatory approval. Litigation could also result in international projects and within groups of multi-national corporations.
Causes for litigation often focus on the highly subjective, or potentially ambiguous, aspects of the projects, such as ore-reserve assessments, cash-flow realizations, and cost estimates to meet environmental regulations. Disagreements in methods, interpretation of drilling data, chemical analyses, and geophysical surveys often result in litigation. Any of the above activities, analyses, evaluations, or assessments may have been conducted in a biased manner, by inadequate methods, or by personnel without appropriate training and experience or the requisite professional geological certifications and/or state licenses.
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