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GeneralLithium Prospect Weinebene, Carinthia

20th Apr 2011 17:51 UTCChristian Auer 🌟 Expert

http://www.kleinezeitung.at/steiermark/deutschlandsberg/osterwitz/2702763/lithium-weinebene-fuer-welt.story


An Australian mining company wants to buy the largest Lithium locality in Middle Europe, http://www.mindat.org/loc-5609.html.

Good news for all Be-phosphate maniacs, although right now nothing changed visibly as I had to realize today.

20th Apr 2011 18:41 UTCAlfredo Petrov Manager

Considering how essential lithium is becoming, there has been a rash of news reports about companies reviving an interest in Li-bearing pegmatites in USA, Afghanistan and now even Austria too! But, considering how cheap and easy it is to extract Li from brines in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, is it likely that anyone will ever extract it from hard rock? These might be just stock pumping scams.

20th Apr 2011 19:15 UTCChristian Auer 🌟 Expert

Yes Alfredo that`s a tuff question. But the more precicely question is if we both will be still living when they start ....

20th Apr 2011 19:30 UTCAlfredo Petrov Manager

Eat your spinach and broccoli, Christian, stay healthy, and don't be such a pessimist :)-D

20th Apr 2011 20:25 UTCRoger Lang Manager

02422590016033213233296.png
Hi Chris and Alfredo,

spinach and broccoli are not likely to help that we may see mining in german (or similar-> AUT ;-) ) speaking europe ;-) ... the enviros will certainly stop this project as in central europe mining is a very bah bah today. Lithium for electric car batteries .. fine, go to Chile, but do not destroy our beautiful landscape ... This NIMBY mentality p***es me off. We just had elections in Rhineland-Palatinate. The Greens were the absolute winners in terms of increasing votes .. and they ran the campaign with nice posters: Bergbau stoppen, Natur schützen. For our english speaking people: stop mining, preserve nature. Now the greens want to stop nuclear, go wind, PV etc, promote electromobility and so on and so on. But the raw material shouldn´t be mined here .. nono!


I am waiting for the day when these loons realize that batteries are made from stuff you have to mine first. And that neodyme is necessary for wind turbines. etc etc. The only chance for this project maybe the chinese ... as with REE they may restrict export and if they control the Chile etc deposits (they control a lot of commodities in Africa already now) they may artificially reduce availability so that a project like the Weinebene may be of strategic value - but if not i second Alfredos opinion .. just stock pumping.


Frustrated greetings (after another day in the Rohstoffsicherung business *)


* no english translation i find to be adequate, help me out pls ;-)


cheers

Roger




image source: http://www.gruene-vulkaneifel.de


Disclaimer: visiting the site may be harmful to common sense ;) .. just kidding

20th Apr 2011 20:41 UTCŠtěpán Krejsek

It would be great to reopen Cínovec / Zinnwald deposit, there is about 900 000 tons of lithium in Zinnwaldite.

But as you said, green brains will be very active to stop that.

Well, I would appreciate to stop nuclear, few days without electricity and people would change their opinion.

20th Apr 2011 20:45 UTCŠtěpán Krejsek

Roger Lang Wrote:

> image source: http://www.gruene-vulkaneifel.de

>

> Disclaimer: visiting the site may be harmful to

> common sense ;) .. just kidding


For those, who speak german.

20th Apr 2011 20:58 UTCRoger Lang Manager

Stepan,

if they switch off all nuclear power stations in GER 21.5 Gigawatts of installed power have to be replaced. In terms of wind turbines with lets say 5 MW (new generation, very optimistic call) this would lead to 4300 new turbines. To maintain baseload capacity multiply with ~ 7. Lot of neodyme i think. Lot of copper cable for the necessary grid enhancements. Lot of steel, lot of everything. But please do not mine that stuff here. Buy it from ... the Chinese maybe? And coal/lignite? Ouuuh no, the evil CO2. Water storage power stations in the black forest .. ouuuhhh no, destroying the landscape (Schluchsee-Project). Maybe we should get used to more candle light dinners with our beloved ;)


And as long as baseload cannot be assured by wind and solar due to lacking storage facilities we import electric current from France, and Slovakia and and .. guess what power stations .. i live near Cattenom in Eastern France on the german side, half the time of the year the Vichy power line is active, providing us with nuke energy.


Cinovec/Zinnwald is under examination again as i read in some newspapers. But the greens already started lobbying against all mining in the Erzgebirge. NIMBY. Thats it. Hypocrites.


Cheers

Roger

20th Apr 2011 21:01 UTCChristian Auer 🌟 Expert

Did you read the 1st comment on the articel?

I`m absolutely on your side Roger - as usual. The Green dreamers should think more global like http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,757063,00.html (sorry again in German but see the pics!).

20th Apr 2011 21:11 UTCRoger Lang Manager

Chris,

yepp, i read the first comment which was firing me up a bit more ;)


We call the watermelons Sozialromantiker here ... and if we are unlucky the ministry of economy in Rhineland-palatinate will have a green minister soon.


Not so nice a prospect


cheers

Roger

20th Apr 2011 21:16 UTCPeter Andresen Expert

It's a rather funny idea that what's not mined now is lost? What's not mined now might be mined later, and then perhaps there are a dump for our grand grand children to look at too ;)


Will the mineral (field) collectors die out with emptied resources? Probably...

20th Apr 2011 21:21 UTCPeter Andresen Expert

What we perhaps should be awear of in this thread is that it's getting very political...


And perhaps not all minerals have to be dug up right now. Not that I don't agree that the people in Chile and China should have the same rights to have real nature in their neighbourhood like we have in Germany and Norway...

20th Apr 2011 21:25 UTCRoger Lang Manager

Peter


Peter Andresen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> It's a rather funny idea that what's not mined now

> is lost?


not the question discussed here i think ... IMO it was more about general strategy of central european energy and commodities/raw material supply.


What's not mined now might be mined

> later,


that´s right, i have once worked on a reevaluation of Pb-Zn deposits in the Northern Eifel/Belgium when prices rose. After we were ready and drilling was done - with good results for a small scale mobile mining - prices went down and the stuff is still there. But to fit the supplies for an energy roundup as proclaimed by the german-angst driven Bundesregierung after Fukushima and election disaster (the latter were decisive of course) there is a need for a lot of raws which has to come from elsewhere .. because the greens won´t tolerate any mining here.


and then perhaps there are a dump for our

> grand grand children to look at too ;)


that would be ok .. but i still collect on dumps that my grand-grand-fathers left ;)

>

> Will the mineral (field) collectors die out with

> emptied resources? Probably...


Until resources are empty there is quite some time to go i think. And then we may collect on mars


cheers

Roger

20th Apr 2011 21:49 UTCRoger Lang Manager

Peter Andresen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> What we perhaps should be awear of in this thread

> is that it's getting very political...


Yes, but this is the nature of the beast if you deal with commodities - mining is the main supply for minerals around the world and without mining most of the minerals we collect wouldn´t be dug out. If we hadn´t any quarries and mines in GER: no minerals. If all mining will be stopped: no minerals except a few outcrops you may work on but in GER you will probably be prosecuted for digging in a nature reserve, Agenda21 area, ... (just choose your favourite protection category).


We had some discussions in other threads re mining in 3rd world countries and a possible moral responsibility of collectors. If you think about the circumstances of mining around the world more than the half of prolific sites should be a moral no no for collectors. Is that not politics?


You may toss and turn it but there is always politics .... as a collector i try to stay out of it, but as a geoscientist in the commodities sector (albeit only 20 % of my working time) i can´t filter this totally. And if my BS detector rings i hardly can stop to rant a bit ;)


Cheers

Roger

21st Apr 2011 00:35 UTCPeter Andresen Expert

Roger, I would use even more potent words (these are not political, but based on religion and belife) to some of the issues you add to this discussion, moral and ethics:


Is putting money into the pockets of the dictators in Burma ok - I say no! That point the UN agree with me, right?


That is a question of moral and ethics, right, because we don't suport dictators?


Then back to the political beast: well doesn't the Green say quite clear that consuming have to be reduced, in contrary to the market economist that screem like blind horses: growth, growth, growth! Ending in economic ruins, as we have just experienced after some US banks were let loose, out of control... The beast is us, and do we want to control our self?


You are right, Roger, politics are a part of our hobby too, but there is not always easy answers to how descisions are made about protection against exploration. So when the argue to protect an area from mining because of the threat to a moth, an entomologist might be ready to use the crack hammer on you...and if the moth is particular important to pollinate an orchid almost exstinct, then you got a botanist on your neck too... And perhaps that small orchid just had the right chemical substanse in it to cure some strange illness that you happend to get in the future... how bizzare...


Life is a lot of politics and bad and good descisions, and as a little bit knowledgeable of geology, why don't spend some time... in a geological sense. With the hurry that we humans wants to change this planet, we have absolutely no control of what the ending results of our changes are.

21st Apr 2011 07:24 UTCChristian Auer 🌟 Expert

Back on topic!

http://www.eastcoastminerals.com/irm/content/home.html and click on 4-Feb-11 button.

21st Apr 2011 10:10 UTCPeter Andresen Expert

Sorry for leaving it, Chris!


It really looks like they have plans to start mining there, which would hopefully make some interesting dumps! I got some nice samples from Martin Slama from there, but are still missing the weinebeneite. So if you find some... ;)

21st Apr 2011 10:23 UTCChristian Auer 🌟 Expert

Martin Slama and me were there some years ago collecting. Its an unique situation there as the mining company brought some trucks high grade ore to a separate place, about 8km away. Only for us collectors so that we still have the chance to find weinebeneite ;-)

Took GPS yesterday of that dump and will add it to the description.


I collected at that dump too yesterday but unfortunately after 26 years most is badly corroded nowadays. Just cleaned the stuff and just saw some roscherite, uralolite and fairfieldite - but not worth keeping.

21st Apr 2011 11:03 UTCRoger Lang Manager

Mornin´ folks

Chris, after visiting the homepage of the company i am reluctant to say that there will be any mining. Checking the other projects - all explorational status, no mining, no economic ore grades or tonnages. And the share value is that of pennystocks. So Alfredo might have been right with his initial assumption. Maybe they try to get bought out by a bigger company if they hold the rights ... just speculation. I was in the Koralpe area 25 years ago for the last time. Only thing i remember were some strange paramorphs after andalusite :-) from which i kept none over the years now,


cheers

Roger

21st Apr 2011 11:15 UTCUwe Kolitsch Manager

"Bergbau stoppen, Natur schützen. For our english speaking people: stop mining, preserve nature."


Actually, this refers NOT to metal mining but stopping the Eifel volcano cones from being quarried away (a lot of them have already more or less disappeared - don't know, however, which percentage of the total of volcanoes).

22nd Apr 2011 00:33 UTCHenry Barwood

The comment was made that it is easier and more economical to separate Lithium from Brines. The problem is that those brines are starting to be depleted and the cost of extraction is rising. Two deposits in North Carolina, USA still have extensive reserves of spodumene and may see mining within the decade if the world economy doesn't completely tank.

22nd Apr 2011 06:08 UTCChristian Auer 🌟 Expert

More data: http://derstandard.at/1297215954683/Lithium-Vorkommen-wird-australisch


Deadline for the project is May 31st !

22nd Apr 2011 08:34 UTCJoachim Esche 🌟 Expert

only as a hint for the further discussion

global footprint


PS: I'm not a member of a green party

28th Apr 2011 13:11 UTCRoger Lang Manager

Uwe Kolitsch Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> "Bergbau stoppen, Natur schützen. For our english

> speaking people: stop mining, preserve nature."

>

> Actually, this refers NOT to metal mining but

> stopping the Eifel volcano cones from being

> quarried away (a lot of them have already more or

> less disappeared - don't know, however, which

> percentage of the total of volcanoes).


hmmm... the eifel volcanoes that have yielded soooo much micro- and macrominerals because of mining ... and now serve as geotopes for geotourism as the quarries have opened windows to earths history ....

back to serious:

1st there is no more metal mining in GER, if there was ..... are you sure they would endorse it Uwe?

2nd you´re right about this particular poster - it is Eifel specific but so is NOT the attitude of the greens in Rhineland-Palatinate against ANY mining/quarries. I can tell from an insider perspective.

3rd - look at all new "Berggeschrey" in the Erzgebirge and Lausitz etc .. all projects face green resistance before they even really started.

NIMBY mentality .. if you tell them they should abandon their iPhone what would you expect they will do?


Obviously there is a mentality in Germany that we can buy all our raws elsewhere and that we don´t need mining. Maybe those people will wake up soon...


cheers

Roger

28th Apr 2011 13:42 UTCRock Currier Expert

I suspect that brine sourced lithium will be with us yet for some time. One of the really big resources is the great salt lake of the Salar de Uyuni. Lithium producers have been trying to work a deal with the Bolivian government for quite some time, but Alfredo Petrov tells me that because of the conditions the government set on extracting the stuff were so extreme, that the companies went elsewhere to mine the stuff.

28th Apr 2011 14:21 UTCUwe Kolitsch Manager

"1st there is no more metal mining in GER, if there was ..... are you sure they would endorse it Uwe?"


Their problem is fear caused by ignorance. If they (and the average concerned citizen) would know more details about modern mining, they would certainly approve mining initiatives and projects (especially since the laws in Germany are very strict concerning environmental protection in such cases).


2nd you´re right about this particular poster - it is Eifel specific but so is NOT the attitude of the greens in Rhineland-Palatinate against ANY mining/quarries. I can tell from an insider perspective.


Ok.


3rd - look at all new "Berggeschrey" in the Erzgebirge and Lausitz etc .. all projects face green resistance before they even really started.


See your first point.

28th May 2011 16:01 UTCChristian Auer 🌟 Expert

Someone asked me yesterday if he can use my pics of the mine here on mindat for a news report ....

Something is going on.


Another articel: http://www.zeit.de/2011/22/A-Lithium

22nd May 2012 07:46 UTCChristian Auer 🌟 Expert

Wieso wundert mich das jetzt nicht ??

http://kaernten.orf.at/news/stories/2533987/

19th Oct 2013 19:42 UTCChristian Auer 🌟 Expert

Seems its starting now! http://kaernten.orf.at/news/stories/2610129/
 
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