5 ms·
million mt? Is that million megatons? And which rare earth elements are they?
by yread 4y ago
million mt? Is that million megatons? And which rare earth elements are they?
- rajandatta 4y agoWouldn't it be 694 million metric tonnes? I million megatons is a hell of a lot.
- tasuki 4y agoProbably metric tonnes, but it's weird to use "Mt" to mean metric tonne rather than megatonne. The symbol for metric tonne is "t" [0]. It would certainly be less ambiguous to just spell it out. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonne
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dmitrygr 4y ago
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- gpcr1949 4y agoYou can't convert mass to energy like that in this context. A megaton just means a million tons (of TNT in an energy context). You can say: (the energy released when detonating) a megaton of TNT is equivalent to 46.55 g of pure mass to energy conversion (E = mc**2 type), but that would be irrelevant in this context because no one is planning converting this mass to energy, nor would it be possible.
- dmitrygr 4y ago
- moralestapia 4y agoLOL, 46 tons would hardly ever be news, that's about the output of a medium-sized mine per minute.
- ptk 4y agoThat’s astonishing. I clearly don’t have any type of intuition for the amount of earth these mines are extracting, because the number you’re putting out there seems comical.
- moralestapia 4y agoIndeed. Check this -> https://www.grida.no/resources/11419 https://www.grida.no/resources/11419 The volumes involved are huge!
- philipkglass 4y agoSee pages 14 and 15 of this presentation: https://mric.jogmec.go.jp/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/seminars2019_0313_04.pdf https://mric.jogmec.go.jp/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/seminar... It's mostly light rare earth elements. Over half of it is cerium and most of the rest is lanthanum. Most of the economic value is in the elements that are not cerium or lanthanum. It appears to have about the same proportion of neodymium and praseodymium (valuable light rare earth elements used in magnets) as the Mountain Pass, California mine, plus more terbium (more expensive heavy rare earth element also useful in magnets) than Mountain Pass.
- yread 4y agoAwesome, thanks this clears it up. And are these reserves measured, inferred or indicated? Is there a PFS?
- sbierwagen 4y agoAlso on that slide: "has average 3.14% grade". I assume that doesn't mean the rock consists of 3.14% of the target element, but is 3.14% of whatever ore they're targeting, right?
- loufe 4y agoYou're right, there's no way they would not tout the "15% grade" of the actual ore, if by some miracle there was 3.14% grade the entirety of their staked land. Ore is by definition the "economically feasible/interesting" subsection of the rock covered by the claim.
- dificilis 4y agoIt reminds me of a recent HN story telling us not to trust any number you see in a news story.
- jwilk 4y agomt = millitonne = kg, obviously.