Reducing Water Needs Through Sustainable Sandharvesting
High-Grade metamorphic terrains, located in thousands of places around the world with many right here in the United States, shed or erode minerals of economic importance. We are working on a 40 square mile piece of New York State Owned Land (we own the mineral rights on these State Lands), located in the southeast Adirondack Mountains, called the Great Sacandaga Lake (GSL). Our mineral rights should remain private and not revealed to the general public, at this time.
The GSL is a man-made lake with environmental, navigational, recreational and fisheries problems. The lake is operated by a New York State Public Benefit Corporation, called the Hudson River Black River Regulating District (District) and is the most critical watershed of the Hudson River. Our prior work (Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Mineral Chemistry) suggest that the lakebed is significantly rich in Rare-Earth Oxides, Lithium minerals (these minerals and others are important to the United States Department of Energy’s “Critical Materials Strategy”), Iron, Titanium and many other minerals. See USDOE link at bottom of page. The District is currently awaiting State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) permission to become a co-applicant on our New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) Navigable Waters Permit, to core and do seismic reflections on the lakebed sediments down to bedrock.
This idea marks the first time anyone has married mining (sandharvesting) and water impoundments anywhere in the world and it merits noteworthiness because it could eliminate freshwater needs (water impoundment) in many parts of the developing world. We chose as our first test case, the GSL and you may get a glimpse of our idea by studying our website, gsldeepening.com or searching Great Sacandaga Lake Deepening Project.
http://www.energy.gov/news/documents/criticalmaterialsstrategy.pdf