Hello, Carlsbad Caverns National Park! by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: Natural Entrance Trail-13 A view looking down and to the east while walking the path on the Natural Entrance Trail in Carlsbad Caverns National Park. My thinking in composing this image was to capture the look of the man-made walking path as it led into the depths of the cavern. All around would be the cliff wall and areas caught in reflected sunlight, but there would be that one “hole” leading into the darkness below.

Native Iron in Basalt in epoxy mount

Locality: Bühl, Weimar, Ahnatal, Kassel Region, Hesse, Germany

Pyrite, dolomite, Feitais Deposit, Portugal, photo by Pedro Alves

wait no please explain mineral processing!!!

I gasped in delight at the ask, haha. I love mineral processing.

Mineral processing is the theory of economically getting your desired element out of whatever it naturally comes in. So Li out of spodumene, or Cu out of chalcopyrite. It's usually split into hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy (liquid chemistry and melting the fuck out of it, respectively), and often taught as hard rock extraction, but you need it for Every Element, really. So you can also focus on extracting phosphates, or nitrates, or uranium! It's chemistry++~

Personally, I know the most about copper extraction and my focus is on hydrometallurgy/geometallurgy, although pyrometallurgy is near to my heart. Copper is coincidentally a really good example of how the two work because it comes as so many natural minerals. (Further explanations under the cut...)

So for copper minerals! You have a whole slew of oxides and sulfides. They occur in different part of your orebodies under different states of oxidation/sulfidation. Take Chrysocolla, Malachite, Chalcocite, and Chalcopyrite. (Cu-silicate)(an oxide), (Cu-carbonate)(an oxide), (Cu-Sulfide), and (Cu-Fe-Sulfide).

Mines usually use hydrometallurgy for oxides by sticking them in a leach heap and pouring sulfuric acid over the whole thing. The acid selectively picks up the Cu ion from silicates and carbonates, leaving the primary tetrahedra alone. The sulfides can work with this chemistry if the mineral's comfort zone is outside of the current conditions (Chalcocite does leach, but usually leaves a Cu ion in the structure as CuS) but minerals like Chalcopyrite are very poor leachers because the outer rim of ions are ripped away, leaving a somewhat-hypothetical "passive layer" of Fe/S that won't react with the acid. So if you have a mine with a lot of Chalcopyrite, you'll be leaving money on the table unless you do something.

So people use pyrometallurgy! Which is what we've been using since the Bronze Age, really. You crush the rock to micrometer grains, use the hydrophobic properties of sulfur to "float" the sulfides in water, then send all of it to the smelter and melt the shit out of it, while adding particular chemicals and minerals to enhance copper recovery while suppressing sulfides you don't want, like sphalerite and galena.

It's REALLY cool. I'm biased of course, but I absolutely love the whole cycle. xD Being in mineral processing also gets you on the backside of geopolitics because you're the only person who understands how to GET things and WHERE to get them and why it's not as simple as pulling Cu out of the ground.

Feel free to ask questions!! I love processing so much, and mining in general, even though I'm only a master's student.

((And NO STUPID QUESTIONS. The mining industry is a goddamn black box DO NOT feel bad if you don't know what stuff means or formulas, or processes. I swear I learn one new word a week. They also have fifty names for everything too because 50 names are always better than 1. 👍)

my villain origin story

Alive and awake but at what cost, really?

There's a basic biology question that I still have no answer to, so perhaps one of you can help me out: why are teeth literally filled with pain receptors?

Mineral deposits at the Dallol hydrothermal site on Karoum lake, Ethiopia

Photos by Loic Poidevin

Really enjoying the lighting at the kitchen window right now

Seemingly Unearthly Formations Encountered (Carlsbad Caverns National Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: Seemingly Unearthly Formations Encountered. Natural Entrance Trail-30 An image captured while walking the Natural Entrance Trail in Carlsbad Caverns National Park with a view towards an amazing display of underground formations.

not very in love with any theory that implies that there’s some other person or supernatural entity making the yellowjackets act the way they do. like let teenage girls (who are also sometimes 40 year old women) have a little autonomy over their violence and insanity

god tho i love looking at his model an the Textures....like theres areas where you look at him and go yeah that's a dragon, and then theres areas where you look closer and go hm! hey! what the fuck is that you got there buddy! whatcha doing there!!!

running into your ex jihoon….. spending time with him and realizing you never stopped loving him, that loving him is just ingrained into your bones, embedded like calcium….. and when he’s too stubborn to realize it or maybe just too stubborn to vocalize it, realizing that he’ll always be able to hurt you like this. and you must be an absolute fool, because you find yourself letting him, over and over again…

Thermopolis - June 2023 According to the sign built into the mountain, Thermopolis is the world’s largest mineral hot spring. That may or may not be true, but it is a wonderful place to visit. The first image is the sign on the mountian. The last is a wide view of the mineral deposits. And in between are various images of the mineral flows of Thermopolis. MWM