HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Rio Tinto Borax Mine
OR:
Rio Tinto Borax Mine on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

The Rio Tinto Boron Mine (formerly the U.S. Borax Boron Mine) in
Boron, California Boron (formerly Amargo, Baker, Borate, and Kern) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kern County, California, United States. Boron is southwest of Red Rock Mountain at an elevation of . The population was 2,086 at the 2020 census, up from 2,025 ...
is
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
's largest
open-pit mine Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock (geology), rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a Borrow pit, b ...
and the largest
borax Borax is a salt (ionic compound), a hydrated borate of sodium, with chemical formula often written . It is a colorless crystalline solid, that dissolves in water to make a basic solution. It is commonly available in powder or granular form, ...
mine in the world, producing nearly half the world's
borates A borate is any of several boron oxyanions, negative ions consisting of boron and oxygen, such as orthoborate , metaborate , or tetraborate ; or any salt with such anions, such as sodium metaborate, and disodium tetraborate . The name also refe ...
. Ore reserves are sufficient for production through at least 2050. It is operated by the Borax division of the
Rio Tinto Group Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian Multinational corporation, multinational company that is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP). The company was founded in 1873 when of a group of investors purchased a mine ...
.Rio Tinto


History

The
borax Borax is a salt (ionic compound), a hydrated borate of sodium, with chemical formula often written . It is a colorless crystalline solid, that dissolves in water to make a basic solution. It is commonly available in powder or granular form, ...
deposit here was discovered in 1913, by John K. Suckow, who when drilling for water found a deposit of what he believed to be
gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywall. ...
. Further testing revealed it was the
colemanite Colemanite (Ca2B6O11·5H2O) or (CaB3O4(OH)3·H2O) is a borate mineral found in evaporite deposits of alkaline lacustrine environments. Colemanite is a secondary mineral that forms by alteration of borax and ulexite. It was first described in 18 ...
form of
borax Borax is a salt (ionic compound), a hydrated borate of sodium, with chemical formula often written . It is a colorless crystalline solid, that dissolves in water to make a basic solution. It is commonly available in powder or granular form, ...
.
Francis Marion "Borax" Smith Francis Marion Smith (February 2, 1846 – August 27, 1931) (once known nationally and internationally as "Borax Smith" and "The Borax King" ) was an American miner, business magnate and civic builder in the Mojave Desert, the San Francisc ...
bought the claim for his
Pacific Coast Borax Company The Pacific Coast Borax Company (PCB) was a United States mining company founded in 1890 by the American borax magnate Francis Smith, the "Borax King". History The roots of the Pacific Coast Borax Company lie in Mineral County, Nevada, east of ...
. Mining at the site by shafts began in the 1920s. Pacific Coast Borax later became U.S. Borax, which subsequently opened the current
open-pit mine Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock (geology), rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a Borrow pit, b ...
in 1957. U.S. Borax was later acquired by
Rio Tinto Group Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian Multinational corporation, multinational company that is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP). The company was founded in 1873 when of a group of investors purchased a mine ...
, which continues to operate the mine. A pilot project to produce
lithium Lithium (from el, λίθος, lithos, lit=stone) is a chemical element with the symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid el ...
by sifting through
mining waste In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different to overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overli ...
began in 2019.


Borax Visitor Center

The mine's Borax Visitor Center, which includes a museum, historic mining artifacts, and a mine overlook, is open to the public.Borax Visitor Center
at Trip Advisor.


References


External links

* Mindat.orgâ
Boron Mine, Kramer Borate Mining District (U.S. Borax open pit)
— ''history, geology, and minerals list/links''.
Borax Visitor CenterPlacesearth.com: gallery of Borax Visitor Center photos
{{Commonscat, position=left, Minerals of Boron Borax mines Companies based in Kern County, California Geography of Kern County, California Mines in California Mining museums in California Mojave Desert Museums in Kern County, California Open-pit mines Borax Mine Surface mines in the United States Tourist attractions in Kern County, California