Near- to
Mid-Term Energy Mineral Sources: Bridging the Future to Alternative Energy
Ambrose, William A.1 (1) The
With increasingly rising oil prices,
energy minerals have become more economically attractive and offer a valuable,
alternative energy source for the future. These energy minerals include coal, coalbed methane, uranium, gas hydrates, gas shales, oil shale, tar sands, geothermal energy. The North
American energy mineral resource alone is enormous. It includes over a trillion
tons of identified coal of which 275 billion tons is technically recoverable,
>200 billion tons of oil shale, >250 million pounds of U3O8 producible at
$30/lb., approximately 690 Tcf (trillion cubic ft) of
coalbed methane, between 467 and 607 Tcf of shale gas, over 3 billion barrels equivalent of tar
sands, and 2.4 x 1019 joules of identified and undiscovered convection
hydrothermal resources (energy equivalent of 430 billion barrels of oil). The
potential North American gas hydrate resource may be many thousands of Tcf. Energy mineral resources are associated with varying
degrees of technical, economic and environmental challenges. Increased coal
production impacts mining safety, the existing transportation infrastructure
and mining impacts on environment. Oil shale production and refining requires
energy and large volumes of water. Both coalbed
methane and uranium commonly require disposal of water and radioactive
material, respectively. Although gas hydrates are not yet economically feasible,
they have been produced successfully in permafrost regions of
AAPG Search and Discover Article #90063©2007 AAPG Annual Convention, Long Beach, California