Laser in on this terrific mining idea

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Editor:

We have a big problem here in Kamloops —  the proposed Ajax mine.

The truth is we have a problem not just in Kamloops, but worldwide.

Our problem is mining — strip mining.

We have never done anything to change how we mine as it remains the same method we used 100 years or more ago.

There are a few better ways to get precious metals out of the ground that do not include using massive amounts of water and creating tailing ponds, but our world government — if there is a such a thing — won’t let us use it.

Instead, we rape the land and destroy many lakes and rivers, just to get a few dollars’ worth of gold or other metals from our precious earth.

One method I have become familiar with involves the use of lasers.

It’s a method that doesn’t leave tailing ponds 10 or more miles long, not does it use chemicals.

Now, the big problem is that the same method is being used in stealth technology by the military.

What if we could use the same idea to separate gold from rock? Would it indeed be a better plan than to starve cities of water and kill fish habitats, just to get a little gold out of a mountain?

I do not think that it should be kept a secret if it means less pollution.

No tailing ponds, no chemical residue left behind — what person would not want that?

The federal governments across the world need to get their proverbial thumbs out of their nether regions and begin to explore this new method of mining.

I have heard of many other scientific ways of mining that have not been used to date and it’s because what we use now works, even if it does put a blight on our landscape, kill our fish and other animals, leave arsenic and other poisons behind for millions of years and waste a lot of good drinking water.

Glenn Powell

Kamloops