The future miners of the earth's subsoil

The future miners of the earth's subsoil All photos illustred are copied from the WEB

by Luigi Franco, LAMANNA (*)

The immediate future of humanity, in my opinion, must not be projected towards the conquest of space but must be directed towards the subsoil of the earth. From now until 2050, the demand for minerals will increase by more than 300% and extraction will grow at unprecedented rates.

Worldwide there is already a real "hunting" for new materials, in particular those called "rare earths", because they can replace, as already happens in certain industrial and strategic sectors [1] those that are normally used as a source of energy together with other minerals [2], always present in the subsoil, but less valuable.

All photos illustred are copied from the WEB

As valuable products I refer to rare earths (in English "rare-earth elements" or "rare-earth metals") which are a group of 17 chemical elements of the periodic table or Mendeleev's table (it is the scheme by which the elements are ordered on the basis of their atomic number Z and the number of electrons present in the atomic orbitals s, p, d, f.), and precisely scandium and yttrium (atomic number 21 and 39 respectively) and lanthanides (atomic number between 57 and 71). Scandium [Sc], and Yttrium [Y] are considered "rare earths" since they are generally found in the same mineral deposits as lanthanides and possess similar chemical properties.

Rare earths: resource distribution and production

The term "rare earth" comes from the minerals from which they were first isolated, which were uncommon oxides found in gadolinite [Gd] extracted from a mine in the village of Ytterby, Sweden. In reality, with the

exception of promethium [Pm] which is a very unstable mineral, specifying that the elements that make up the rare earths are not found in relatively high concentrations within the earth's crust.

In fact, today, the main problem with their extraction is the fact that, although present, in low concentrations, they are bound within other minerals or in the form of compounds.

Rare earths are abbreviated to RE (Rare Earths), REE (Rare Earth Elements) where the vast majority of REEs are associated with three minerals: bastnäsite [La, Ce, Y], monazite [Ce, La, Pr, Nd, Sm ] and xenotime [HM]. They are rare earth oxides separated after extraction with solvent or REM (Rare Earth Metals); they are generally divided into light rare earths (LREE, from lanthanum [La] to promethium [Pm]), medium (MREE, from samarium [Sm] to holmium [Ho]) and heavy (HREE, from erbium [Er] to Lutetium [Lu]).

All photos illustred are copied from the WEB

Below I want to illustrate what you already know, that is, in detail the fields of industrial use of rare earths.

Particularly: they range from the renewable economy to the military and aerospace one, to artificial intelligence passing through the electric car trade, and then, again, optical fiber and the production of latest generation smartphones. Therefore, today, rare earths are fundamental for the world economy for the present and the future.

To go more specifically, rare earths are used: in the automotive sector - especially for the electric and hybrid sector, now in great ascent - for rechargeable batteries, as permanent magnets for wind turbines - offshore and for the construction of electric engines. They can also become phosphors (particular substances capable of producing luminescence and that completely cover the screen, supplying them with energy or, as they say, exciting them) for TVs and LCDs and more generally they are important for the creation of all the latest electronic devices generation.

In particular, they are used in the development of advanced technologies in the field of aerospace, defense (precision missile systems, radar, satellite) and renewable energy (wind, solar, electricity).

Very important, in this particular pandemic period is the development in the medical health sector - Health Care - (permanent magnets for biomedical imaging devices or diagnostic images, such as magnetic resonance; modern surgical machines, such as those for robotic surgeries), and even in the petrochemical and crude oil refining process (Fluid Cracking Catalysts - FCC [La, Ce]).

China is currently the most important exporter of "rare earths" in the world, with an annual production of about 130 thousand tons (2019 data) and holding about 40% of the world's reserves underground.

Followed by the U.S.A. with 15%, Myanmar (11%) and Australia (10%).

Therefore, if we want to achieve the objectives of what was discussed in the last days of October at the "G20 in ROME" and at the United Nations "COP26 of GLASGOW" conference on climate change, it is necessary to

have the ambition to make the extraction of these rare earths, because those used up to now in the strategic industrial sector have only had the aim of limiting the emission of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.

Therefore I think that the time has come to shed some clarity on this topic, because, in addition to enhancing the geopolitical use that is made today on the use of these rare earths, it must be noted that to extract these minerals, in some particular places of the earth, it is necessary to go to look for them and dig them, even in the great depths of the earth's crust, if not beyond, because, these new fossil fuels are the only "renewable" minerals (ie to produce clean energy: advanced energy technologies, wind turbines, batteries for electric cars and energy-efficient lights; optical fiber; magnetic refrigeration, etc.) that will radically change our way of life, our children and future generations to come.

Ownership of REEs (Gupta e Krishnamurthy, 2005) I would like to point out that the earth's crust has a variable thickness from 3 km up to 35 km, which increases in the areas of the mountain ranges up to about 60 km and is the upper part of the mantle that constitutes the hydrosphere (together with the surface waters) and the lithosphere the part composed of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks and has a density of 2.8 Km / dm3 and a temperature of about 500 ° C whose limit of this temperature, at the crust-mantle level, reaches about 2,000 ° C. The creation of new mines at these depths will be a real problem in the near future. Those of today exceed several hundred meters, therefore it is urgent to study new technological extraction methods, new support products (100% biodegradable) and new safety devices. This is necessary in order to reach those depths that are inhospitable for the human being.

The environmental impact of REEs (Rare Earth Elements), due to their extraction and refining, is extremely high due to highly risky processes for the surrounding ecosystem and for human health.

That is why, our research will focus on excavation methodology and technology, in particular on the use of future "Industrial Robots", today called underground miners, that is, those robots that will replace us in most of our current work of mining, considered very heavy and dangerous for man, These excavation and extraction systems with the use of Industrial Robots will adopt an extremely non-invasive and non-destructive technological procedure compared to today's methodologies.

Going into more detail, this is our project, designed by us for a different type of industrial automation, different from the one already known, which instead this new technique provides, with a digitized system, the identification of minerals, extraction, the use of minerals and the disposal of "waste materials". The whole process will be developed with the launch, through the FONDAZIONE INTERNAZIONALE DI CENTRO STUDI E RICERCHE - ONLUS (NGO) of which I, as President, represent you. Project conceived for the creation of an Innovative Industrial Pole, exclusively dedicated to the research and development of new, technically advanced and highly digitized equipment, research and development of support and extraction materials, coming from the latter resources, from the earth's subsoil, but even from the depths of the sea.

Our Industrial Robot has been studied and will be designed to be used in those very dangerous underground places, where human work is not safe because due to the presence of high temperatures that are present at those depths, with enormous pressure problems and, with a huge presence of faults, gas and water. Our research also continues with the study of new rock consolidation systems, due to the presence of rock instability at those depths.

Undoubtedly a very dangerous job for the human being.

Our Industrial Robots will be able to identify new deposits of rare minerals and to dig up to the deepest level of the earth, where humans cannot operate, to extract these new rare raw materials, pointing out that, starting from today, we it will take about 5-10 years to bring a new mine into production, with the addition of all the necessary logistical and refining burdens, where the latter (refining) will have a fundamental and avant-garde ancillary technology for these new ones projects called "greenfield".

I would like to point out to non-experts that already today, especially in Chile (South America), a very advanced process is used with the use of microorganisms to extract, in an economic way, elements such as copper and gold from the rocks.

We have already seen that these bacteria could improve the extraction of all known "rare earths" by up to about 500%.

Microorganisms "feed" on rocks by extracting ions in a natural process called "biomining" [3]. That is, they operate on the demolition and transformation of organic material, which is fundamental for the development of the cycle of elements.

These microorganisms are a protein of bacterial origin, which the Penn State University researchers have called lanmodulin, whose three-dimensional structure has recently been defined.

The peculiarity of lanmodulin is to be able to extract and bind lantonoids, hidden rare earths, better than us "technologists", with a particular protocol with an affinity 100 million times greater than other metals, such as calcium, and for this reason it is used as a "filter" to find these elements and separate them from the rest of

the rock (a complex ecosystem, rich in variables subject to continuous changes where there are predisposing factors connected to specific territorial typologies and environmental characteristics). The protein remains stable through different absorption / desorption cycles, allowing it to be used over and over again to enrich rare earths even with different solutions.

Furthermore, this high refining capacity, at an industrial level, allows us to indicate the above as a "green method". This method is used on a large scale using particular multistage solvents (SX) to separate the individual elements, commonly in an aqueous solution of hydrochloric acid or nitric acid, which are naturally dangerous for humans and the environment. but the manufacturing industry in the sector (such as the Chinese state giant China Minmetals Group) is able to guarantee the high risk, without polluting, with the use of hermetically sealed mixing-decanting tanks.

I also allow myself to give some examples: with "olivine" [4] (a new mineral that has a hardness of 6.5 - 7), a mineral composed of silicon, magnesium and iron, it is known to be the most present mineral deep underground, where geological processes have created, over the millennia, new minerals, still unknown to us, and with the alloys of neodymium [Nd] which, together with iron and boron, create magnets (for electric cars and hybrid and for wind turbines - [Pr, Nd, Dy, Tb]) four to five times stronger than those already in use and made with any other material.

Our studies suggest that the construction of "robotic mines", particularly in the subsoil at great depth, this, the subsoil, we know that hosts rocks with large concentrations enriched with "rare earths", and industrial robots, could be the direction fruitful for the scientific and economic development of the planet earth for the near future.

This type of Industrial Robot will be managed by humans through a control room composed of sector technicians who control from the computer, via remote control on the ground or in other places, several kilometers away from the location of the mine.

Finally, I refer to what the current president of the "G20 of ROME", Dr. Mario DRAGHI, president of the Italian Government Council, said in his final report that <<…. "We have decided to leave coal behind" with the stop to the financing of coal plants in 2021 .... >> but, in my opinion, it is certainly not a viable strategy in the short term because millions of jobs are destroyed .

I think that today, in addition to the huge problem of unemployment, which would be created in the world, the decrease in coal mining would exacerbate the so-called "balance problem", since the demand from individual REEs is now excessive compared to the current extraction quantity, due to an enormous market demand.

I wonder, why just today, in the midst of world crises, politics has started to run so fast, in the name of who, of what, of progress or of the "green" transition, in whose book "Capitalist Realism", by Mark Fisher ( 1968-2017), published in 2009, Fisher analyzed the effects of "neoliberalism" on contemporary culture, the one that has brought us today to this point of no return and which, in my opinion, is the result of a very specific geopolitical strategy rather than of an actual technical-scientific need, which is the subject of this article, or environmental, as they want us to believe riding the wave of the Swedish activist for sustainable development and against climate change, Greta Thunberg.

Furthermore, the premier dott. Mario DRAGHI, <<…. "For the first time, the G20 countries have committed themselves to keeping within reach the goal of containing overheating below 1.5 degrees with immediate actions and medium-term commitments. We would have preferred that all countries had confirmed the "deadline" of 2050 for zero emissions…. >> while on the sidelines of the United Nations "COP26 of GLASGOW" conference on climate change he said of <<…. - reiterates Draghi - I believe there is still room for progress on these issues. Surely we will have news on the contribution that the private sector can make to climate finance.

These are truly stratospheric numbers, from what we understand today: 100 and more, 120, 130, 140 trillion dollars. This requires a response from governments on how to help the transition knowing that funding is not a problem. There is unprecedented public funding "… .. >>.

Therefore, I take the liberty of concluding, with the utmost respect that I have towards the government leaders mentioned above, and without disputing anything to the great work done, I only allow myself to underline that, to get into the concrete solution to the problem, the project of the new technology of excavation, using "Industrial Robots", what I have called above ground miners, in my humble opinion and on the basis of my experience in the sector, is a project that alone, until the year 2050, has a value of single market investment of approximately $ 2 trillion.

It is necessary to point out a lacuna to the gentlemen participating in the G20 that, for reasons of market control, a recognized stock exchange must be created urgently, as someone before me, a few years ago suggested that, for the elements of the "Rare Earths", a stock exchange does not exist to date, such as the one that exists for the trade of conventional metals, which are zinc, copper, nickel and lead and which are traded on the London Metal Exchange (LME) and gold and silver which are traded on the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA).

NOTE: [1] - Sectors: photovoltaic, solar thermal, solar thermodynamic, wind (energy), hydroelectric (energy), geothermal (energy), marine or oceanic (energy).

[2] - Silicon is the most widespread and available mineral on our planet, but there is a serious problem of environmental impact due to its refining.

[3] - the Biomining process is currently used to produce about 5% of the world's gold and 20% of the world's copper. It is also used to a lesser extent to extract elements of nickel, zinc, cobalt and rare earths. But perhaps its most exciting potential is the extraction of rare earth elements, which are crucial around the world, from cell phones to renewable energy technology.

[4] - Olivine is basically made up of many rocks, especially the ultramafic and mafic magmatic ones (poor in silica), both intrusive (eg peridotites, gabri) and effusive (eg komatiites, basalts). Olivine is the first mineral to crystallize from a melt originating from the partial fusion of the earth's mantle (primary melt). Olivine can also be a product of the metamorphism of ultra-basic metamorphic rocks (eg serpentinites) and of sedimentary rocks such as impure limestones and dolomites. Widely present in the lava of Etna (active Italian volcano).

Olivines melt at very high temperatures and are therefore used as constituents of refractory and abrasive materials, in high frequency electronic devices, for the construction of thin films, ceramics, alloys and adhesives for high temperatures. Peridot, on the other hand, is classified as a semi-precious stone and used in jewelry.

Olivine sand, suitably mixed with silicates and catalysts, is excellent in foundries because of its refractoriness and stability at high temperatures.

(*) Luigi Franco, LAMANNA Independent Technical Consultant in the sector of Tunnelling, Mining and Underground Technology President of the Fondazione Internazionale di Centro Studi e Ricerche, ONG 132, via dei Serpenti, 00184 ROMA, Italy, U.E. Email: lamannaluigifranco1@gmail.com

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