WorldWide Drilling Resource

47 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® AUGUST 2018 Oil/Water Exploration by Harold White How does water get to the top of a mountain which is higher than the surrounding area? This ques- tion is asked a lot. I should say to ask a scientist, but let’s just guess ourselves. Water is hydrogen and oxygen, which in the clear blue sky, there is a lot of moisture unseen until the temperature and the dew point are within 4% of each other. This causes visible moisture, you can see clouds forming, then some clouds will rain on mountain tops. This may not be the main answer, but we got water to the top of the mountain. Maybe there is a cycle like this underground, or in the mountain. Maybe some of the water is being lifted to the top by the hot water steam pressure which cools before it gets to the top. Mount St. Helens volcano was a steam blast. How high water can go depends on the pressure behind it. We can see how much happened at St. Helens. Water in the form of steam and the pressure it created blew the top off, and ash went so high, it went around the world more than once before it all settled down. It also blew a forest down. The trees were delimbed when the blast blew them all off. Water went up the core of the mountain in the form of steam. There was a lot of power wasted at St. Helens, and power is valuable. I have written a lot about St. Helens, and there is a lot more to tell. I have written about the value of the hot water and the steam that is available in the area. I have done a lot of research to find out if I can really help stop a volcano from erupting again. The answer is whether I can find companies or people who will drill the hot water creeks I have found in the mountain to relieve the pressure and stop the blast. This could be done. Drilling companies are looking for geothermal hot water leases and I know how to find hot water. The Volcano Kilauea in Hawaii is not a steam blast from what I see on television, it is a lava flow. There are a lot of volca- noes which have, and will take a lot of lives. Taking the steam out should stop the blast and save a lot of lives, as well as control a lot of energy. Harold Harold White may be contacted via e-mail to michele@worldwidedrillingresource.com GEO Fluorite is an important industrial mineral composed of calcium and fluorine. In terms of color, it is one of the most varied minerals in the mineral kingdom. While pure fluorite is colorless, various impurities can cause a range of colors, which may be very intense and almost electric. Fluorite occurs throughout the world. It is deposited in veins by hydrothermal processes, and is often associated with metallic ores. The mineral is found in the fractures and cavities of some lime- stones and dolomites. In some areas, fluorite-rich veins may be weathered to depths of greater than 240 feet. This weathered ore is a mixture of clay, fragments of fluorite, and detached wall rock. It can be mined open pit with draglines, scrapers, or power shovels to depths of around 160 feet. Below this depth, underground mining methods involving modified top slicing or overhead shrinkage stoping are used. In the mining industry, fluorite is often called “fluorspar”, and is sold as a bulk ma- terial or in processed form. It is used in a wide variety of chemical, metallurgical, and ceramic processes. Acid grade fluorspar is used mainly in the chemical industry to manufacture hy- drofluoric acid (HF). The HF is then used to manufacture a variety of products, includ- ing fluorocarbon chemicals, foam blowing agents, refrigerants, and a variety of fluoride chemicals. It is also used in toothpaste. Ceramic grade fluorspar is used in the manufacturing of specialty glass, ceramics, and enamelware. It used to make glazes and surface treatments which produce hard glossy surfaces, opalescent surfaces, and a number of other appearances, making the consumer glass objects more attractive and more durable. The nonstick cooking surface known as Teflon™ is made using fluorine which comes from fluorite. Metallurgical grade fluorspar is used in the production of iron, steel, and other metals. Fluorspar can remove impurities such as sulfur and phosphorous from molten metal and improve the fluidity of slag. Every ton of metal produced uses 20-60 pounds of fluorspar. Specimens of fluorite with exceptional optical clarity have been used as lenses. A very low refractive index and dispersion enables the fluorite to create a lens capable of producing extremely sharp images. Today, instead of using natural fluorite crys- tals to manufacture these lenses, high-purity fluorite is melted and combined with other materials to produce synthetic fluorite lenses of even higher quality. These lenses are used in optical equipment such as microscopes, telescopes, and cameras. The World of Minerals MIN