Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
According to the AZ China blog a major tailings dam failure at an aluminum refinery in Luoyang, Henan Province over the weekend caused a mud slide that partially destroyed a nearby town.
“According to local newspaper reports, the dam wall suddenly broke and silt mixed with stones from the mountainside rushed down, and the village was totally submerged. This village is home to around 300 villagers and they were transferred in an emergency evacuation. No one was killed or injured.
“The villagers are living in a primary school in Xinan County temporarily. Sadly, the red mud buried many farm and domestic animals because it was too late to save them. It has been reported that the dam held about 2 million cubic meters of red mud and was about 1.5 km in length.”
Aluminum Insider reported that the Xiangjiang Wanji Aluminum refinery which has a 1.4 million tonne per year capacity was shut down and villagers evacuated ahead of the dam burst. Authorities have been cracking down on the industry recently, forcing refineries to tackle pollution and shutting down a number of bauxite mines in the province.
Read more at AZ China
2 Comments
GladstoneGoldMine.com
And here we go again……To much contaminated mining debris all over the Globe leaching into watersheds, due to a mining model that is BROKEN. Sub-gram to 2 gram stupidity!! This will keep happening when you have mining companies cutting corners anywhere so they can to survive. Some of these tailings LAKES…. NOT ponds are getting to big to manage properly, obviously? This is happening at a rate that should be unacceptable to the rest of the World.
It’s time for a model that actually works both environmentally AND economically. These giant pit mines are more of a threat to the World than being economic in any way when you look at ALL the costs involved in the negative legacies around the World. High-grade is the new/old way forward with much less collateral damage…maybe?
Gary McNeish
How many times does this have to happen before someone gets off their arse and does something? We can recycle Red Mud.