Editorial The Yellow Brick Road?

A U.S. company, which supplies Brunswick with phosphate for its fertilizer plant in Belldune, N.B., is interested in using the yellowish mining waste product to produce sulphuric acid and a roadbed material. Yes, a roadbed material.

Apparently, the Louisiana-based company also produces a waste product from mining operations of its own. That waste rock, gypsum, is becoming a problem environmentally for the company. Some 2,000 tonnes are produced each month and finding a place to dump it is a tough job in a state where agricultural land is at a premium.

One solution being investigated is to sinter the gypsum with pyrite to produce sulphuric acid and a hard sinter product that could possibly be used as a roadbed material.

A huge quarry at the deep-water port of Canso in Nova Scotia already supplies crushed rock to southern states which use it as a road bed material, so the market is certainly there.

Not only would the two mining companies have a solution to their environmental problems, but the same ship that brings the phosphate rock north to New Brunswick could be used to ship pyrite south, making for a more efficient movement of goods.

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