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Geology News
Metals Current Events

The price of gold rose above $1130 an ounce for the first time ever today. A decline in the value of the dollar is thought to be the trigger for higher prices for gold and other precious metals.

On Friday, the price of gold rose to $1,101.90, an all-time record high. Some investors speculate that foreign banks may be purchasing gold to reduce their risk of holding US dollars.

“A financial analysis of the global copper market predicts uncertainty in the short term but the possibility of “severe shortages and much higher prices” in the longer term.” Quoted from the Arizona Geology Blog.

Scott Kleine of Great Basin Minerals shares a few photos from his visit to a working gold trommel at a location near Sumpter, Oregon.

Related: Uses of Gold.

Lots of people are extremely interested in uranium exploration and mining projects in Arizona and Colorado. Lee Alison links to a number of news articles here, and here, and here from his Arizona Geology Blog.

Kuensel Online, Bhutan’s daily news site, reports that the Department of Geology and Mines in Bhutan is in discussions with foreign interests who would like to have exploration rights to the entire country.

Mercury is a global pollutant that ultimately makes its way into every aquatic ecosystem through the hydrologic cycle. USGS published a study that examined mercury in top-predator fish, bed sediment, and water from streams across the United States.

Some locations in Asia and Africa are being used as dump sites for other countries’ unwanted electronics. This is causing contamination issues in these areas, as well as health problems for people who explore the dumps in search of precious metals.

An X-ray laser was successfully able to cause an aluminum sample to become transparent. While the effect lasted only briefly, scientists believe they have created a new form of matter.

The United States Government is looking for a place to store thousands of tons of mercury. There are suitable locations in Washington, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, South Carolina, Nevada, and Texas – but not surprisingly, most people don’t want a toxic substance in their area.

An article at GSA Journals (pdf) reports that United States universities do not have a vigorous program for economic geology. Many economic geology professors are no longer active in the field and fewer than 40 graduate-level economic geologists are graduating each year. That is the status for a nation that has a very high demand for metals and a declining resource base.

USGS has published a Fact Sheet on copper. It includes information on the uses of copper, how it forms, supply, demand and future projections.

Did you know that copper consumption in the United States is declining but consumption in India and China is rising rapidly?

A 2,000-year-old bronze sculpture, found underwater off the coast of Croatia, is helping scientists learn more about biomineralization. This article has in-depth information on the chemical processes that have affected it over the years.

The shapes and colors that you see in an aerial fireworks display do not happen by chance. They are deliberately produced by clever people who apply principles of art, chemistry, physics and math.

The banded iron formations are thought to contain twenty times more oxygen than is currently in Earth’s atmosphere – yet these formations were deposited when Earth’s atmosphere was not rich in oxygen. How did this occur?

This picture slideshow features 10 famous shipwrecks. Some of the treasures found in the ships include copper ingots, elephant tusks, gold coins, silver coins, pearls, satin, silks, and more.

Diamonds sometimes acquire trapped traces of platinum group elements such as platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium and iridium when they are formed. “When these elements are encapsulated as mineral inclusions in diamonds, their unique isotopic ’signatures’ help geologists determine where the diamonds were formed and how old they are.” Quoted from the NSF release.

The Iron Mountain Mine in California was one of the largest copper mines in the world in the early 1900’s. Since then it has discharged some of the world’s worst water. Now there could be superfund money to clean it up.

Manganese and iron, along with other useful metals, are prevalent on Earth’s seabeds. This article explains how these materials formed nodules and crusts by biomineralization.

Silver nanoparticles may prove to be an effective alternative to anticoagulant and thrombolytic treatments. The nanoparticles would help prevent blood clots, and in turn, promote heart health. This article goes into detail about the research that has been done so far.

The-Vug.com has a list of mineral shows being held across the United States in late May and June. Included are shows in Virginia, Nebraska, Montana, Ohio, California, Colorado, Alabama, Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Connecticut, Oregon, Indiana and other states.

A meeting at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution brings together experts on the formation and extraction of deep sea mineral deposits. These are massive sulfide deposits in areas where black smokers expel hot metal-laden fluids from Earth’s interior.

An article on the InfoMine website summarizes a survey of mining companies completed by the Fraser Institute. A severe pull back in exploration is expected and 30% of exploration companies might go out of business.

Recycling plastic, metals, paper and other commodities is getting harder to do because the prices being offered for recyclable materials have dropped to very low levels. Now it can cost a lot more in labor and fuel to collect and process than the materials are worth.

China imported a record amount of copper during the month of February, 2009. Could this be a sign that their economy is starting to rebound?

Scientists in South Korea are developing a way to remove lead from the human bloodstream. The metal ions are attracted to magnetic particles, which are then drawn out of the blood.

In 1982, researchers tested the cognitive abilities of hundreds of Pennsylvania workers; some were exposed to lead on the job, others were not. Twenty-two years later, the original participants were reassessed – and their scores were quite different.

Artist and professor Michael Oliveri captures images of vaporized metals using an electron microscope. The metals, such as zinc and gallium, are heated until they turn to vapor, and form some interesting landscapes after cooling.

See the photos with detailed descriptions at the artist’s website.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold plans to lay off most workers at their Chino Mine in New Mexico. Last month they cut about 800 jobs at their western copper and molybdenum mines. Falling commodity prices and the economic downturn are blamed for the cuts.

Recent archaeological investigations have placed a new date on copper mines in the Khirbat al-Nahas area of Jordan about 30 miles south of the Dead Sea. They are now thought to have been in industrial-scale operation during the 10th and 9th centuries BC, making them the likely location for the legendary King Solomon’s Mines.