Alec Martin

How Minerals Make or Break a Mine

What does it take to create a civilization? To create a system that binds a group of people together into a culture? It takes fuel—the Sun. It takes material—harnessing the elements of the universe. And it takes ideas. A spark that can transform raw elements and energy into something more. With those three things, anything is possible.

Alec Martin is an economic geologist and mineralogist who conducts research primarily in geometallurgy, working with a number of mining companies, including Freeport-McMoRan. He graduated from BYU with his bachelor's in geology and is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Arizona, studying copper porphyry systems. He presented to the department on February 26 about how minerals make or break a mine.

If it isn't grown, it must be mined. That's a common saying in Martin's industry. Our society is incredibly dependent on the minerals that we mine from the Earth. An iPhone alone uses 40-46 elements in its manufacturing, many of which are important rare earth metals. We also utilize what are known as critical minerals, which are essential to our economic or national security, such as batteries, magnets, and medical and weapon systems. Because of this, Martin's work is profoundly impactful.

Much of the research that Martin conducts focuses on how to improve our ability to identify and extract metals from the Earth. Mines look for ore deposits, where metals are uniquely concentrated after a certain threshold such that it becomes profitable. An acceptable grade for ore deposits widely varies between the different metals. Copper, for example, requires a grade of 0.5% in order to be economically profitable. Gold, however, only needs a grade of 0.0001%, or one part per million. That's the equivalent of one gram of gold per one ton of rock. Not only is the concentration of metal important, but also the amount of metal that mining companies can actually extract from the deposit.

That's where Martin comes in. Martin and his team use complex instruments in one of the most advanced mineralogy labs in the world to identify the grade of ores and sift through the enormous amount of material that they work with. They use mineral maps, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, laser ablation, and many other techniques, all of which are revolutionizing the industry.

For Martin, geometallurgy has become not only a job but a passion. His work is directly contributing to the welfare of our society by improving the number of resources we can find and retrieve. We as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have a special connection to geology. We believe in supporting civilization and being stewards of the Earth. He invites students who would like to contribute in a similar manner to consider economic geology and the amazing careers that it entails.