Mining in Greenland -- can conveyor belts, diamond wire saws, gondolas and electrical generation work to mine from Fiskenaesset? Yes, well-proven technology exists.
How long can conveyor belts get? One in India is 35 km long. It is described as "steel cord" and I assume does not look like the conventional conveyor belt but nevertheless works efficiently in moving rock from one place to another over rough terrain.
mining-technology.com
See page 4 of the following document for how lead/zinc was mined from the Black Angel deposit in Greenland using gondolas.
geus.dk;
I looked into quarrying technology, and this is the best link that I found. My guess is that $100 a tonne cost might be a good rough estimate after reading through this. Diamond wire saws are very quiet to operate, and easily scalable technology. Of interest is the fact that marble has historically been quarried from Greenland.
deq.state.mi.us;
How could the electricity that gondolas, diamond tipped wire saws, and conveyor belts need be generated? Well, it is apparently extremely windy around the ruby deposits (a reason for Siggartartulik's name, which means "place of the howling wind"). My suggestion is to look into wind power to generate most of the electricity. The technology related to wind power has been advancing a lot in recent years, and for a place like Greenland might be the easiest alternative. In windy places, the cost per KWH of generation can be quite low -- as low as 4-5 cents. Of course two issues would need to be solved -- some sort of battery storage for the electricity or fuel based generation when the wind stops, and possibly an issue to look into with the wind farms being a potential hazard to birds.
I think that management should be seriously looking into this stuff and spending a lot of time on it if they are not already. If they are not "thinking big", someone else may think big and take over this company at a fraction of what it is worth. |
