| Teseko - TKO.t ($ 1.78) has been trying for 6 years to obtain an aquifer permit for an in-situ copper recovery (ISCR) operation. Used mainly for uranium extraction, the company has long touted ... "where a mixture of 99.5 percent water and 0.5 percent sulfuric acid dissolves copper into the bedrock. Then the copper solution is pumped to the surface and processed into copper cathode sheets. The pH of the water and sulfuric acid solution is similar to that of “common household vinegar.” This is only half correct. The company plans on recycling the raffinate, meaning the solution grows in concentration with each and every pass through the rock. When eventually processed it will be much more than "household vinegar". |
 | From 1996 to 1998, the BHP Copper company developed the project on what is now part of Florence Copper’s site. They conducted a 90-day pilot test to see if the in-situ method worked on the site. Stacy Gramazio, Florence Copper’s manager of communications and public affairs, says that that test was successful. And that is a dead deliberate lie. Even after being rinsed for over 22 months after a 90 day test more than 20 years ago, those holes still are still reporting unacceptable 'exceedances'. And the reason? Almost certainly because the copper ore is very highly radiometric ... so radiometric that they are the highest levels found anywhere in Arizona. |
 | Bottom line? It was scientifically proven that the ISCR process WOULD leach highly radioactive contamination into the groundwater. (In fact every ISCR ever constructed has corrupted ground water) Has that stopped Taseko and their mindless paid minions? There is NOTHING comparable to the extremely high concentrations of radiochemicals at the Florence Copper project. (Table 18 page 49) Sample quartz monzonite Leach Test
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