Drilling Begins in Wind Mountain Rare Earth Project
Drilling is underway at Wind Mountain, as Geovic Mining Corp and financial backer the Js Group have launched a second round of exploratory drilling targeting rare earth elements at the iconic local peak.
Drilling equipment was flown in and assembled with a helicopter, and the launch of operations was dependent on favorable wind conditions. Scott Stephens, of the Js Group, said Sunday (April 26) that the companies had successfully assembled a drill rig earlier this month and that crews were “roughly two weeks in” to drilling operations. He said the first test hole might be finished within a week.
Geovic has been permitted to drill up to 25 holes from seven 50-by-50-foot drill pads spaced out along the eastern flanks of Wind Mountain, which is located in Otero County, N.M. northwest of Dell City. Stephens said the companies hope to install three drill pads this spring. The drilling permit – approved by New Mexico mining authorities and the Bureau of Land Management – allows the companies to drill as deep as 750 feet, but Stephens said the holes will likely be closer to 500 feet in depth.
At 7,200 feet, Wind Mountain is the highest point in the Cornudas range, and dominates the grasslands of the Diablo Plateau in Hudspeth County and Otero Mesa in New Mexico. Based on initial test drilling, conducted in 2011 and 2012, Geovic geologists believe that a rare-earth-bearing mineral called eudialyte is found in a ring around Wind Mountain, at the intersection of the mountain’s volcanic rock and the surrounding limestone.
Geovic drilled to depths of less than 200 feet in its first round of exploration. The new round of test holes is designed to determine if eudialyte deposits exist at depth; how deep they might go; and how much rare earths they contain.
Geovic and the Js Group hope ultimately to develop a rare-earth mine at Wind Mountain; company officials have said they might create a “portal,” which would allow eudialyte to be extracted from below the surface, rather than from the side of the mountain. A class of heavy metals, rare earths are critical to a range of contemporary technologies, including military applications and all manner of small consumer electronics, and China currently produces almost all of the world’s rare earths.
When it was announced in 2011, Geovic’s plan for a mine drew opposition from New Mexico conservation groups, who had argued for permanent protection for BLM-managed lands on Otero Mesa, including Wind Mountain. The groups said that the “pristine” desert-mountain landscape should be preserved from extractiv industrial development.
Ernie Ernest
I want to know how the earth mining is working