Nine lives gambled and lost on the dice of three numbers:  900; 1,640; or 4,512.  These are the three dice-numbers that are at the center of Crandall Canyon’s Murray Energy versus Agapito versus MSHA debacle that turned to tragedy. 

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Haul truck, ASARCO mine, Sahuarita, AZ

Originally uploaded by free2camp19

Here is a link to a part of YouTube I will visit only once: umpteen short videos of mining trucks. Kind of dull I thought. But you may enjoy these MTV-type productions if you get a thrill watching big equipment to the strains of old county-western songs.

A little self-promotion if you will indulge me.  I could, however, claim that this posting is to facilitate you finding information that may be of value to you.  Regardless, I note here that I have just posted at this link a longish piece Acid Rock Drainage Management Plan.   The impetus for this peice came from a dinner discussion and an SME presentation on a promised INAP wiki on the whole of acid rock drainage and management.  They will be a while at their magnus opus, so here is the benefit of individuality and speed.  But never forget that the the Institutes of Justinian, as well as the King James bible were generated by a committee. 

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Originally uploaded by pedro.custodio

At last week’s PDAC, the e3 Environmental Excellence in Exploration Award was presented to FONDS RESTO-ACTION NUNAVIK, a Quebec-based initiative that is raising funds for the remediation of abandoned exploration sites in the Nunavik region of the province. André Gaumond, president of VIRGINIA GOLD MINES, spearheaded the initiative and is managing the program.

He would not remember me, but I met him once in an old building in Quebec City. I had gone to look at the Eleonore deposit for a US company considering a bid–the one that was won by Goldcorp. The one they paid $600 million for.

Two or so years later, I listened to him talk about his Nunavik activities at a conference in Vancouver. He is passionate about this. And we applaud his passion. Virginia Gold Mines continues to explore in Quebec. And I would invest in their success.

I cannot help but wonder if they are eyeing properties in Nunavik. Or is this just the philathropic act of another of those men grown rich? Seems better to me to be cleaning up abandoned Canadian mines than pouring money into corrupt African nations. So we must support this award and encourage him to continue.