Author Archives: gaussling

About gaussling

Gaussling is a senior scientist in the chemical business. He occasionally breaks glassware, spreads confusion and has been known to generate new forms of hazardous waste. Gaussling also digs aerospace, geology, and community theatre.

Idaho Cobalt Mining

2 Replies

As interest in lithium batteries continues to ramp upwards, interest in other metals like cobalt used in lithium batteries advances with it. Cobalt has been identified as a particularly problematic metal as the largest single source is in the troubled mineral rich Democratic Republic of Congo. Rightly or not, some are comparing cobalt from Congo to blood diamonds.

The Idaho Cobalt Belt (ICB) lies on the eastern edge of Idaho along the Montana border running to the northwest for about 60 km. Cobalt was identified in the area in 1900. An abstract in the USGS Publications Warehouse gives a brief technical description of the Idaho Cobalt Belt. The full paper can be downloaded from a publisher’s paywall site. (Why a government agency makes us pay for it’s information work product is beyond my comprehension.)

Another source describes the belt as “originally exhalative, stratiform mineralization within the Proterozoic Yellow-Jacket formation”. The Yellow-Jacket formation is connected with the Yellowjacket mine.

According to EastIdahoNews.com, the Australian firm Jervois Global has suspended the opening of cobalt mining operation in the ICB for an unspecified time. Jervois CEO Bryce Crocker said the move is “due to continuing low cobalt prices and U.S. inflationary impacts on construction costs.” Over the last 12 months the price of cobalt has dropped from $81,923/T to $34,930/T as of 3/30/23.

The number of cobalt-bearing minerals is too numerous to list here, but a thorough list can be found at minedat.org. Cobalt is rarely found alone, but instead is combined with other metals as a variety of minerals. Important ores of cobalt are Cobaltite, CoAsS, Glaucodot, (Co0.50Fe0.50)AsS, Skuttarudite, CoAs3, and Erythrite, Co3(AsO4)2 . 8H2O. Arsenic is found in 93 cobalt minerals. Other notably abundant elements found with cobalt are sulfur (72 Co minerals), nickel, iron and copper. Other elements associated with cobalt are listed in the minedat.org reference.

The Idaho Cobalt Belt is described as a “strata-bound copper-cobalt district hosted by the Yellowjacket Proterozoic Formation” (1).

According to the Cobalt Institute, there are 5 types of economic geological concentrations of cobalt: Sediment hosted, Hydrothermal and Volcanogenic, Magmatic Sulfides, Laterites and Manganese Nodules, and Cobalt-Rich Crusts.

The crustal abundance of cobalt can be seen in the graph below. From the graph it appears that cobalt, nickel, copper, chromium, zinc, vanadium and manganese have similar crustal abundances.

https://pages.uoregon.edu/imamura/122/lecture-1/lecture-1.html

Cobalt is rarely the sole economic mineral at a mine, at least outside of the Congo. Pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, extraction and electrolytic processing may be used in combination to produce streams of copper, nickel and cobalt. The beneficiation and recovery process of purified cobalt metal or cobalt salt will depend a great deal on the concentration and chemical nature of the elements present.

According to Mindat.com, the three cobalt-bearing minerals found at the Blackbird Mining District are: Siderite, Ludlamite and Vivianite. All three varieties of host rock are iron (II) minerals.

Cobalt has 2 common oxidation states, 2+ and 3+. According to a USGS reference, the atomic radii of Co2+ and Co3+ are similar to Mg2+, Mn4+, Fe2+ and Fe3+, and Ni2+, meaning that cobalt can substitute for any of these elements in many minerals. The practical consequence of the ability of cations to substitute is a large number of mineral variations. While chemically interesting, this poses complications for ore processing.

Like all metals mining, cobalt must be separated from the ore. Cobalt is not found as the native metal but rather as an ionic complex along with copper and nickel cations. The negative counter-ions are typically silicates and sulfides. Cationic metals ultimately must be reduced to the native metal, but first the desired metal cation must be selectively removed from a dog’s lunch of ionic and covalent species. The desired metal may be removed early in the separation process or after a long series of processing steps to remove other components.

All of the elements and their respective ionic forms have different physical and chemical properties. These differences are exploited in order to separate the elements.

(1) Nold, J.L., Mineralium Deposita, July 1990, Vol 25, Issue 3, p. 163-168. DOI 10.1007/BF00190377

Stochastic Terrorism

1 Reply

<begin rant>

Ran into a new term today- stochastic terrorism. According to Wiktionary–

Noun, (neologism, sociology, social media) The use of mass public communication, usually against a particular individual or group, which

  1. incites or inspires acts of terrorism which are statistically probable but happen seemingly at random
  2. perpetuates fear through coverage of seemingly random acts of terrorism

The word stochastic refers to being randomly determined–

I like words and this is a term that has a certain interesting tenor to it. I found it in this link. The author quoted Keith Olbermann –

“Donald Trump is a stochastic terrorist. He used stochastic terrorism to get somebody to attack the FBI after the Mar-a-Lago search and within days a man breached a local FBI headquarters to try to kill FBI agents. He used stochastic terrorism to get others to commit the insurrection of January 6. He used stochastic terrorism to inspire somebody to attack Democrats in 2018 and Cesar Sayoc sent out 12 liberals and he had a second list in his computer and I know because I was on it.“

“Trump is not just committing stochastic terrorism, he knows he is doing it, because it has worked for him, so well, and so often.“

The pristine definition of stochastic assumes truly random elements. The crowd responsive to #45 are self-selected and already aligned with him and sympathetic to his machinations, so any incitement is from a presorted set of people. #45’s casting about for someone in the crowd to take compelling action is obviously what he wants. It leads to media buzz focused on him. Stochastic Terrorism has a certain flourish that the word incitement lacks.

Understating #45’s words in milquetoast vocabulary like incitement is perhaps too feeble to capture our attention.

Keith Olbermann is a vocal far-left liberal by GOP measures. But maybe that’s because he pushes back openly and vigorously against conservatives. He may exaggerate a bit but conservatives are not strangers to exaggeration either.

<end rant>

Liptonian Symbolism, Again

Leave a reply

Originally posted April 23, 2009. Yes, it’s a shabby repost.

Never one to allow reason to interfere with sentimentality, my blackened heart is softened somewhat by the recent shipment of Lipton Tea bags delivered to Th’ Gaussling from an online admirer via the US Postal Service. 

The tea in this gift shall be symbolically applied to the local waterway, but not before being used to formulate some refreshing iced beverage via aqueous extraction.  A vessel filled with aqueous goodness (OPE-Our Pure Essence) will be charged with the anthocyanin and alkaloid laden forest litter for extended exposure to solar radiation. Brownian motion will be relied upon to disperse the colloidal value away from the biomass.

Once so processed, the fortifying beverage will be passed through a pair of kidneys as a symbol of my dark contempt for the IRS. This nephro-raffinate will be discharged into the municipal fluid collection system for a kind of Nicene rectification that will provide further philosophical processing of the symbolic gesture. Finally, after the Liptonian fluids have been subjected to Libertarian aeration and Calvinist filtration, the clarified symbol will be discharged into the river for its turbulent hero’s journey to the drinking water inlets of New Orleans and beyond.

Russia Spies on North Sea Infrastructure

Leave a reply

Reuters has reported that Russian ships have been observed in the area of North Sea energy resources of The Netherlands. MIVD head General Jan Swillens stated that “Russia is mapping how our wind parks in the North Sea function. They are very interested in how they could sabotage the energy infrastructure.”

The Reuters article went on to say “Dutch intelligence agencies MIVD and AIVD, in a joint report published on Monday, said critical offshore infrastructure such as internet cables, gas pipes and windmill farms had become the target of Russian sabotage activities.”

Norway is in a state of heightened alert because of recent appearances of unidentified drones buzzing over North Sea oil platforms, airfields and other sensitive sites. Norway has replaced Russia as a major supplier of natural gas. Norwegians believe that espionage, sabotage and false messaging are a means of intimidation. Though not a member of the EU, Norway mirrors the EU in many ways.

According to AP, seven Russian citizens have been arrested recently for flying drones or taking photographs of sensitive areas. In Norway it is illegal for Russian citizens or companies to takeoff, fly over or land on Norwegian Territory.

The clear intent of Russia Putin is to map out North Sea infrastructure for purposes of sabotage. Doing it in the open gives them the added benefit of intimidation. The UK and EU have considerable dependence on oil and gas from the North Sea. Plenty of communication cables lie there as well. Obviously, interruption of these resources will cause great economic and political disruption in affected countries. It is hard to believe, however, that Russia doesn’t already have data on the North Sea infrastructure.

Russia is sending a message that they consider North Sea Infrastructure a critical target for attack at some point. They know that winning a war is about removing your opponent’s will to fight. Collapsing your opponent’s economy and industrial base by shutting down the flow of energy is probably most likely very early in hostilities with the West. This should be nothing new to Western war planners. But to politicians and business leaders it might be a wakeup call.

Putin’s criminal invasion of Ukraine has given the West motivation to assess its defensive resources and move to beef them up. Putin has also given the West a picture of how the future world order could look. The West has ignored or underestimated the threat that Russia poses at its own peril. We’ve already begun Cold War II.

Putin’s Russia excels at brinksmanship and psychological operations. The Putin/Ukraine war is stalled for the Russian land forces at present, but he still has assets for conventional air and sea operations. Building on his lies that the “western Nazi’s” pose an existential threat to Russia, he can deflect attention elsewhere at least for internal consumption.

It is my sense that Putin and others like the NPRK would like nothing more than to be sure the continental US takes battle damage in the next big war. Just like our nuclear submarines, Russia’s large fleet of nuclear submarines can navigate around the world quietly in stealth. They can park off the US coasts and deliver whatever they want.

The West must absolutely stand firm on resisting Putin’s threats and holding back the conquest of his neighbors. I believe that Putin will remain a serious threat to the West as long as he is alive. His crimes are so extensive now that he can never safely retire from office and live in a dacha somewhere. It seems doubtful that his successor will be much different.

An open question is, why would Russia think that the West would preemptively attack them? Because we yearn for their vast stretches of taiga? Maybe they fear for their hydrocarbon reserves? Let ’em have their oil and gas. It is theirs. An attack on the Russian homeland would go nuclear early in a conflict. There is no future for anyone in nuclear war. Once that genie gets out of the bottle, there is no stuffing him back in like we did post-WWII. Like anyone else, the Russian people are nice folks. Except for their government. Rancid leadership is something their people will have to overcome.

What a Time to be Alive!

Leave a reply

What an amazing time it is to be alive. Spring is just around the corner, Major League Baseball is finally trying to speed up baseball games, and Melania’s husband has his tit in a wringer from his infidelity. Just think of it! Springtime in America!

It is a brainstem-level reflex for Melania’s Teflon Don to claim that every single accusation of malfeasance is politically motivated. Of course, this in itself is a political ploy. Like the Alien, Melania’s husband just keeps showing up. Remember how Ellen Ripley finally rid herself of the Alien?

Will the supporters of Melania’s husband ever give up on him? Given the prolonged tolerance of his incompetence and serial bad behavior, it seems doubtful.

Remember kids, if you are going to tell a lie, tell a big one and repeat it often! That way you can keep kicking the can down the road while people struggle to keep up with you.

China Swoops In As Peacemaker

Leave a reply

The Chinese leader Xi Jinping has arrived in Russia to meet with Putin. Ostensibly, this is part of a Chinese effort to lend support to Putin and urge a peaceful settlement with Ukraine. Putin and his propaganda machine have painted themselves into a corner with his dirty little war. Putin either needs to make some decisive victories or find an “honorable” off-ramp to declare victory.

Here is the obligatory quote from the Art of War by Sun Tzu: “When you surround an army, leave an outlet free”. In this case, Putin should be allowed to retreat to save face and lives. The Soviets got bogged down in Afghanistan and eventually left, but only after 10 difficult years. It is hard to imagine Putin backing out after only a year or two in Ukraine. To be fair, Putin has offered to withdraw his troops if certain conditions are met. Zelenski has declined Putin’s offer of what amounts to a sh*t sandwich.

The combination of the Russian military’s well documented and poor performance, Putin’s strategic blunder and subsequent economic hardships brought upon Russia would be difficult, but not impossible, to cover up. And, it contrasts strongly with his caricature as a hyper-masculine tough guy. However, the Russian propaganda machine is talented, well-oiled and enthusiastic.

China is obviously seeking to replace US hegemony with their own hegemony across the world. China has been grooming Africa using economic and infrastructure aid. This provides access to minerals and sites to occupy in a conflict. China is able to plan over the long term and a role as peacemaker in the Putin-Ukraine war can only help the cause of international influence. Contrast that with our (the US) role as international policeman. We’ve left a good deal of devastation around the world since WWII in the name of freedom, but we’ve done much good as well. Unfortunately, bad news seems to have a longer shelf life than good.

For China, part of the calculation in determining Russian military aid is the economic effect of entering into a proxy war against one of its main customers, the US. Supplying arms to Russia will be noticed rapidly on the battlefield. This could have an escalating effect on the level of aid supplied by the NATO states. I suspect that China already sees itself in an existential struggle with the US so maybe the decision to supply military aid will be easier. Military aid could be in the form of munitions, armored vehicles, guns of all sorts or just aid in intelligence gathering.

The shooting wars in Korea and Viet Nam as well as the NATO/USSR Cold War were waged by the US side because of something known as the “Domino Theory“. In short, western nations observed expansionism by the two principle communist states- the USSR and China. This expansionism was in the form of client states adopting communist governance shaped like China or the USSR. Western distrust of the USSR after WWII festered into serious paranoia within the US, giving way to a policy of intervention to prevent the expansion of the communist sphere.

All of this coincided with the development of efficient nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles like land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and long-range bombers- our Nuclear Triad. Both Russia and China have their nuclear triads. It turns out that inventing a nuclear weapon was much more difficult and expensive than reverse engineering them. Also, the abundance of uranium deposits around the world is greater than many considered.

Either China sees Russia as a like-minded strategic partner or it is worried about what it might become if Putin is overthrown. Maybe both.

Attacking Russia. WTF?

2 Replies

I’m about to say some things that may seem (or are) hopelessly naive. But sometimes we should stop and reexamine our basic assumptions.

So, I have to ask the question. Why would anyone in their right mind contemplate an unprovoked attack on Russia? The present-day Russian and former Soviet leadership has always made a show of holding back what they call “western aggression”. They justify their military buildup by claiming that NATO is an immediate and existential threat to their security. But seriously, who the hell would want to control Russia? They fear the push back on their own behavior which is to threaten the west. It would be a total disaster for everyone.

Yes, NATO is a threat insofar as they hold the line against Russian expansionism. Should states succumb to Russian control just because the leadership of Russia says so? Obviously not. Russian control seems to come with the loss of freedoms, stultified economic progress and political oppression. Putin’s war was initially justified, at least by what is available in the western press, as a strike on incipient Nazism in Ukraine which Putin declared as a direct threat to the security of the Russian state.

Everyone outside of Russia realizes that this is a bald-faced lie cynically devised to justify Putin’s dream of empire.

For arguments sake let’s say NATO attacks Russia for whatever reason and let’s say NATO wins. What have they won? A giant collapsed country full of permafrost and mosquitos populated with angry citizens living in economic collapse. The US and coalition forces couldn’t even control Afghanistan with its population of neolithic religious maniacs and their opium poppy fields. And we left the poppy fields intact too!!What chance would there be for western forces controlling a defeated Russia? It would be like the dog who caught the car. What next?

The same question applies to Putin. If he conquers and occupies Ukraine and then the other former Warsaw Pact countries, what will he have gained? Apparently, Putin guessed that they would roll over and comply. That was the state of affairs during the days of the Soviet Union. The USSR had a powerful and penetrating police apparatus with a network of remote prison labor camps and little presumption of innocence.

Unfortunately for Putin, Ukraine didn’t just roll over and concede. They are fighting back against certain authoritarian control and loss of their Ukrainian heritage. In doing so, it is revealed to the world that Putin’s conventional military is a paper tiger. Military planners the world over are taking notes on the modern conduct of war. Resources that might have modernized the Russian military have been funneled elsewhere for a long time.

Russia’s nuclear forces, however, are something to worry about. However, Putin and his cronies know about Mutual Assured Destruction. This principle has prevented nuclear war since Russia got the bomb. Putin knows that if he releases nuclear war shots, the resulting nuclear exchange will not only devastate all participants, but will bounce the rubble a few times as well. Even if land-based missiles are destroyed, the respective submarine fleets can continue to unleash nuclear hellfire at leisure. The meaning of victory becomes very hazy here.

As always, the Russian model of conquest seems to impose brutal authoritarian control to suppress opposition. Not because there is something wrong with the Russian people. But Russian leadership has been so oppressive for so long that there is no institutional template for alternative leadership.

This is very simplistic, but does Russia know that nobody wants control of their country? Imagine the folly of it. Since the days of Stalin they have worked themselves into a lather about the west. The cold war was a game of weapon/countermeasure cycles that has quietly developed into Cold War II. It is all so unnecessary.

I think it is fair to say that everyone wants a peaceful Russia that can participate in world trade, tourism, science and cultural affairs. A reclusive and paranoid Russia that is angrily stamping its feet and issuing threats to its neighbors is a Russia that will remain unhappy and dangerous. Decent people and rich culture are abundant in Russia. Their leadership doesn’t let that shine through.

Yes, we understand that Russia was viciously invaded by the Nazis some years back but they prevailed. At some point everyone has to look to a prosperous future. Yes Russia, this includes you. There is no similar threat to Russia in the world today. Just because the west responds to Russian provocations doesn’t mean that there is an intent to attack. Just because the economic engines of the west outperform them at present doesn’t imply imminent attack either.

I would love to visit Russia as a tourist. Russian hospitality is first rate and the countryside is beautiful. Many people around the world would love to visit. But until the people can break free of oppressive leadership, it will remain a hermit kingdom in the manner of NPRK.

Interview of Timothy Snyder on the Putin-Ukraine War

Leave a reply

An interview with the historian Timothy Snyder has appeared in the March 9th, 2023, internet issue of Der Spiegel International. The interview was conducted By Ann-Dorit Boy und Eva-Maria Schnurr. Snyder has very strong Euorpean history credentials with a Ph.D. in History from the University of Oxford. He is presently the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.

Photo from Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_D._Snyder

The interview starts with an important question for Germany-

“As Germans accept the debate on Putin’s terms, they can miss the obvious point: If we care about the comparison, we have to note right away that it is Putin’s Russia that is behaving more like Germany in 1941: Moscow, like Berlin then, claims that a neighboring people and state do not exist; Moscow, like Berlin then, is fighting a war of aggression; Moscow, like Berlin then, is carrying out eugenic, deportation, and mass killing policies. If Russia is behaving as the Germans did in 1941, then the Germans now have a second chance to respond to fascism. Will they take that second chance?“

Snyder makes the point that German reticence to aid Ukraine in the war is what Putin wants.

“In Russia, his [Putin’s] intention is to build a cult of innocence: No matter what we do, it must be justified, because we are always the righteous victim. Of course, this contradicts the actual history of the Second World War, in which Stalin chose to ally with Hitler, and in which Ukrainians actually suffered more than Russians, by any measure. Putin is also seeking to exploit the historical memory of Germans. He wants to trigger the German reflex that Russians must be victims and Germans must be aggressors.“

I will end here because the article needs no explanation from me. It’s worth the read.

Bizarre Food Offerings on Amazon

Leave a reply

I just can’t resist passing this along. Amazon is offering some odd food products, like pickled pigs lips and earthworm jerky. The worm jerky producer also offers the Edible Insects Bag of Mixed Edible Bugs. Grasshoppers, Crickets, Silk Worms and Sago Worms as well as Zebra Tarantulas.

Am I being a silly American provincial with uppity, narrow-minded opinions on food? In this case, absolutely! I have a long-standing policy against bugs and internal organs. There is one exception to the bug rule- I do enjoy snow crab legs. These benthic bugs are a delight slathered in melted butter.