Arizona mining and global warming via environmental sensitivity

It is Friday evening and weekend plans are being formulated for parties and social gatherings. I have just returned from a dinner with three of the most ethical people I know. The cook is the best I have ever encountered: one of those “natural” cooks who make even the ordinary extraordinary. We started with Mexican beer and crips that reminded me of The Folk of the Faraway Tree who ate burst-balls that exploded with unique flavors in the mouth. Then a pasta with green beans and small, bright red tomatoes, and shrip barbequed outside to a crisp perfection. The wine pleased the palate and induced generalizations of intense insight. These are some of the highlights about mining that peppered our conversation.

In Arizona, Rio Tinto has garnered a reputation for environmental sensitivity that is paying handsdown in terms of new project development even though it is causing chagrin amongst less sensitve competitors.

How will society respond when global warming makes northern climes more temperate and desireable and carbon sequestration is possible? Will it be sustainable and appropriate to sequest carbon to the detriment of improving conditions in northern climes? Apparently there is an institute in Arizona debating this knotty issue.

What happens in Chile when a Reno mining company elects to line a new tailings impoundment as a matter of “social responsibility” and local universities and regulators resist this, lest it set an expensive precedent?

Can wet tailings be consolidated by putting a geomembrane to form a receptor on top of the pile and filling the receptor to load and squeeze the tailings? What you do do with the contaminated water squeezed out as part of an environmental improvement undertaking?

Is it reaonable to dillute contaminated overflow from a filling mine pit by “blending” with clean runoff from upstream catchements?

Should we rework old heap leach pads as a way to “clean close” them even though this may be a marginal economic proposition?

Because of the good, copious wine, I am not sure we solved any of these issues, but we debated them with vigor and enthusiasm. Afterall it was a friendly Friday evening gathering, and talk rather than solution was the objective. I would like to hear your opinions, so please comment below.