Mongolia holds third place in the world for fluorspar mining, mostly from the Gobi Desert...
 | ABSTRACT The study illustrates the value of Google Earth in viewing Mongolia’s ‘Fluorspar Rush’. This rush is little known, being under the radar screen of public attention and until quite recently has been of little interest to mineral exploration companies on western stock markets.
The goal of the study is limited but important – to motivate the reader to use Google Earth to gain a holistic regional view of the Fluorspar Rush.
It is hoped this report will enable policy makers, regulators, industry and NGOs to gain a clearer understanding of the Fluorspar Rush, and so assist in policy and action.
Strong synergy is shown to exist between SME mining companies and artisanal miners, SME and large mining companies and between artisanal miners and large mining companies. The reason being that although fluorspar is required by large scale metallurgical and chemical industries, the mineral is most efficiently sorted by eye and the production of metallurgical grade fluorspar is often best achieved by manual hammering to produce lumps of the desired size. Furthermore, fluorspar tends to occur in veins that are amenable to artisanal methods that minimise the use of open-pit mining machines.
Circumstantial evidence is presented that fresh fluorspar is visible by satellite remote sensing at active fluorspar mines and fluorspar processing depots. However in the Gobi Desert field evidence shows fluorspar to be generally absent in the first couple of metres below the surface, suggesting regional removal of the fluorspar by leaching. If correct, then this interpretation has implications for fluorine in coal, fluorine in clays and fluorine in vegetation and drinking water supplies.
The paper describes the main features of Bor-Undor, a soviet town built in the Gobi Desert as a 'mono-city' devoted to fluorspar mining and processing. Near the town are visible large-scale surface collapse holes due to underground fluorspar mining.
The value of Google Earth in highlighting environmental issues is illustrated by the remarkable images of dust deposition for several kilometres downwind of a tailings lagoon, the grazing of livestock on the areas of settled dust, and evidence of large herds using the tailings lagoon as their main source of drinking water.
A surprising outcome of this study is the ease of using Google Earth to track ‘big bags’ of fluorspar from their rail loading sites in Mongolia to transhipment to Chinese trains in Erenhot.
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