Whelan's do level 1 through 3 environmental assessments, remedial, and reclamation work and permitting in mining, urban, and agricultural development. The company has reclaimed abandon mine sites, worked on various hazardous waste spill sites, and designed facilities for over 4000 cow dairies. The company is also in charge of engineering work on the largest air sparging clean up system west of the Mississippi.
Mining is essential for protecting the environment
and feeding the world as there is nothing in the civilized world that is
not made from or dependent upon materials produced from mining. The mining
industry is the most environmentally regulated industry in the U.S. and
has spent more money on protecting the environments than any other industry.
Less than 3/10 of 1 percent of the land in the U.S. has been disturbed
by mining since 1776. More than 1/3 of this land has already been reclaimed
by the mining companies and most of the areas presently being mined will
be reclaimed upon abandonment. Mining is a very expensive and risky business,
and It normally takes several hundred millions of dollars in investment
before an ounce of gold can be produced. To justify such risks the U.S.
operates under a law pasted in 1872 which has been extensively updated
and proven in the courts over the years to be extremely well conceived
and written to protect the environment and investments under changing technologies
and times -- this 1872 mining law must be preserved to insure
that the U.S. industry can raise the funds necessary to operate environmentally
sound mines. One only has to look at the many environmental
catastrophes seen in other parts of the world operating under strict governmental
controls to truly appreciate the positive effects that the 1872 mining
law has on the environment.
Protecting our environment from increasing urban development and population
growth is a constant challenge for the mining industry. More than 3 percent
of the U.S. land surface is covered with asphalt and nearly 60 percent
is plowed for farming. 2,750 acres of pavement is laid each day in the
U.S., which is enough to make a bicycle path 7 feet wide from coast to
coast. U.S. citizens consume 18 million tons of mined material each day
to produce such things as 640 acres of carpeting, 9.7 million square feet
of plate glass for windows, 4 million erasers, 3.6 million light bulbs,
21 million photographs, 550,000 pounds of toothpaste, and an endless number
of every day goods.
All the gold mined in the world since the beginning of civilization could be poured into a cube less than 18 cubic yards in size, which is about 88,000 tons. More steel is poured in 1 hour than gold since the beginning of time. Gold is essential to the computer, medical, jewelry, space, and financial industries. It is the most malleable element known, which allows one ounce of gold to be drawn into a wire 60 miles long and more than 200,000 sheets of gold paper can be stacked in a pile less than one inch high. U.S. citizens use about 80 pounds each day just to fill teeth. Hardness is 2.5-3, melts at 2,063 degrees F., specific gravity is 19.32, 1ppm = 0.029 oz/ton, 1 gram/ton = 0.032 oz/t, 1 oz = 31.1035 grams = 20 pennyweight = 480 grains.