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The Rio Tinto Boron Mine (formerly the U.S. Borax Boron Mine) in
Borax Visitor Center
at Trip Advisor.
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
The Rio Tinto Boron Mine (formerly the U.S. Borax Boron Mine) in Boron, California
Boron (formerly Amargo, Baker, Borate, and Kern) is a unincorporated place in Kern County, California, United States. Boron is southwest of Red Rock Mountain at an elevation of . For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defi ...
is California'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 that extracts rock or minerals from the earth.
Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially useful ore or ...
and the largest borax
The BORAX Experiments were a series of safety experiments on boiling water nuclear reactors conducted by Argonne National Laboratory in the 1950s and 1960s at the National Reactor Testing Station in eastern Idaho.
mine in the world, producing nearly half the world's borates
A borate is any of a range of boron oxyanions, anions containing boron and oxygen, such as orthoborate , metaborate , or tetraborate ; or any salt (chemistry), salt of such anions, such as sodium metaborate, and borax . The name also refers to es ...
. Ore reserves are sufficient for current economic production through early 2040's. It is operated by the Borax division of the Rio Tinto Group
Rio Tinto Group is a British-Australian multinational company that is the world's second largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP). It was founded in 1873 when a group of investors purchased a mine complex on the RÃo Tinto, in Hu ...
.Rio TintoHistory
Theborax
The BORAX Experiments were a series of safety experiments on boiling water nuclear reactors conducted by Argonne National Laboratory in the 1950s and 1960s at the National Reactor Testing Station in eastern Idaho.
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 Hydrate, 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, drywall and blackboard or sidewalk ...
. Further testing revealed it was the colemanite form of borax
The BORAX Experiments were a series of safety experiments on boiling water nuclear reactors conducted by Argonne National Laboratory in the 1950s and 1960s at the National Reactor Testing Station in eastern Idaho.
. Francis Marion "Borax" Smith bought the claim for his Pacific Coast Borax Company. Mining at the site by shafts began in the 1920s. Pacific Coast Borax
The Pacific Coast Borax Company (PCB) was a United States mining company founded in 1890 by the American borax magnate Francis Marion Smith, Francis Smith, the "Borax King".
History
The roots of the Pacific Coast Borax Company lie in Mineral Co ...
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 that extracts rock or minerals from the earth.
Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially useful ore or ...
in 1957. U.S. Borax was later acquired by Rio Tinto Group
Rio Tinto Group is a British-Australian multinational company that is the world's second largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP). It was founded in 1873 when a group of investors purchased a mine complex on the RÃo Tinto, in Hu ...
, which continues to operate the mine.
A pilot project to produce lithium
Lithium (from , , ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the ...
by sifting through mining waste 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.at Trip Advisor.
References
External links
*Mindat.org
Mindat.org is a non-commercial interactive online database covering minerals around the world. Originally created by Jolyon Ralph as a private project in 1993, it was launched as a community-editable website in October 2000. it is operated by ...
âBoron Mine, Kramer Borate Mining District (U.S. Borax open pit)
— ''history, geology, and minerals list/links''.
Borax Visitor Center
{{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