Lithium Mining In NC

"GASTON COUNTY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS, 4/16/14) – A Belmont-based lithium producer [Piedmont Lithium] with ties to Tesla is one step closer to building a mine in rural Gaston County... On Monday, the company announced regulators approved a state mining permit after years of anticipation. Gaston County will have one of the largest lithium mines in the country. This has been years in the making and didn’t come without opposition."

Just to start the NC Dept. of Environmental Quality has only disallowed opening of only 4 mines in the past 50+ years. Probably because those 4 didn't grease enough palms to get it done like Piedmont Lithium has done. For almost 10 years they've been paying off landowners near the mine to sell, giving large campaign contributions to well place officials and politicians on their side, and generally throwing around a lot of cash to dismantle any opposition to the mine to get to this point.

So now they'll be gearing up for the cover-up stage as Gaston County begins its journey to entry on the list of environmental disasters along side Love Canal and others. Lithium mining is some of the most environmentally contaminating mining there is, especially for water resources.

Lithium mining uses millions of gallons of groundwater per day -- water that once pumped, also must be disposed of, along with any contaminants. Piedmont Lithium plans to reclaim some of the water to suppress dust (lithium mining dust is a known carcinogen) and to use in other mining operations. What happens to this now even more contaminated water afterwards has not been mentioned, and out of sight out of mind never results in anything good when it comes to companies whose only concern is profits.

The rest of the water will be discharged into the Long Creek sewer system, operated by Two Rivers Utilities and the City of Gastonia. From there, the wastewater flows into the South Fork of the Catawba River. FYI: The Catawba River is used as a drinking water source and fishing for a lot of people.

Once the ore is excavated from each pit, four are planned for this mine, Piedmont Lithium says it will begin filling them with rock, or allowing groundwater to fill them, a process known as reclamation. The company says it will reclaim the pits in progression, rather than doing so all at once. What rock will they use will no doubt again be determined by the bottom line, so it will likely be waste rock byproduct from the mining operation itself that contains high concentrations of arsenic, along with whatever chemicals used to extract the lithium from it. That's all going back in to the ground water, from which a lot of people use wells to tap into for drinking water, crops, and livestock. As for the ground water, because lithium mines use so much of it, will there even be any left to fill the the pits, or for the people who use it as their potable water source should it even be determined safe to use.

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anonymous Political April 16, 2024 at 11:48 am 0 0