Monday, 20 May, 2024 / Edition 8

Last week, oil and gas experts attended the 31st Williston Basin Petroleum Conference at the Bismarck Event Center in North Dakota. This edition of Core Elements will take us through the key features of the Williston Basin, before answering how many minerals are in the world and going behind the scenes in biomining.

Rasoul Sorkhabi

Editor, Core Elements

Williston Basin Highlights

Tom Reichner/Shutterstock.com

The Bakken play produces 1.3 million b/d, or about 10 percent of total U.S. crude production. Named after landowner Henry Bakken and a big prize for oil and gas companies, the late-Devonian-age Bakken resides within the Williston Basin in North Dakota and Montana.

A recent issue of The American Oil & Gas Reporter took an in-depth look at the Williston. Here are some highlights.

Key takeaways:

• Three Forks: In addition to the Bakken formation, the Williston is home to the age-equivalent Three Forks Reservoir, named for the three forks of the Missouri River that converge there.

• Old and new alike: The Williston basin has a wide range of operators. It regularly welcomes newcomers but remains home to the original Bakken producer Continental Resources—which drilled the first commercially successful horizontal and hydraulically fractured wells in the play in 2004.

• Huge potential: Even after two decades of production, nearly 90 percent of oil in the Bakken/Three Forks formation still remains underground. Companies are pursuing EOR, refracturing, and drilling three-mile horizontal wells to capture some of this oil. Some companies have drilled two-mile horizontal wells in as short as nine days!

• Meaningful merger: The $11 billion pending merger of Chord Energy and Enerplus Corp., which was announced in February, will create the largest operator in the Williston Basin.

Go deeper:

• Read the full report on the Williston Basin here. 

• For more info on what happened at the 2024 Williston Basin Petroleum Conference, visit their website.

• The North Dakota Petroleum Council has several other educational initiatives for students and teachers in the area. Learn about those here.

A message from AAPG Academy

How do operators get the very most from shale plays? Join AAPG Academy and BKV tomorrow, 21 May, at 12pm CDT to explore refracs and tri-fracs in the Barnett Shale, the original shale gas play.

How Many Minerals Are There?

Joaquin Corbalan P./Shutterstock.com

How many minerals have been identified and named so far? Rock & Gem magazine counted. The short answer is 5,975.

How do they know?

Rock & Gem turned to the International Mineralogical Association, which covers 39 mineralogical societies across the world and hosts a website with detailed information about minerals, for its provided tally.

Why IMA is important: Founded in 1958, IMA is a valuable entity for a number of reasons, but especially to coordinate and catalog all minerals recognized and described.

• A survey once showed nearly 20,000 different names in various countries and languages were given to 2,000 identical minerals.

• Within the IMA, the counting and cataloguing is conducted by the Commission on New Minerals Nomenclature and Classification.

Mineral fun facts: The Rock & Gem article also provides an interesting history of minerals. Here are some interesting notes:

• Some minerals—such as copper and iron—were known to ancient peoples and changed the face of civilization.

• In 1840, only 350 minerals were described. This increased to 2,000 by 1959.

• 93 mineral names honor women.

If you discover a new mineral:

• Anyone who has discovered a new mineral, from rockhounds to geologists and miners, can report it with supporting chemical, physical, and geologic information, here.

• If approved, the new mineral is added to the database and given an identifying number.

• The discoverer can also propose a mineral name based on chemical or physical properties. The name must have “-ite” in its suffix.

Read more: Read Steve Voynick’s article in Rock & Gem here.

Biomining of Rare-Earth Metals

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A recent article published in Nature covered how biomining is using microorganisms to extract desired metal elements from rocks, wastes, and other solid materials. 

New takes on an old process: Biomining is not new; its experimental procedure dates back to the 1950s. But now, research is further exploring two processes for separation of rare-earth elements (REEs). They are:

Acid leaching:

• Traditionally: The first step in biomining for REEs is to separate metals from nonmetals in powdered material. This is usually done by dissolving substances in chemically produced acids repeatedly.

• With bacteria: Microbes such as Gluconobacter oxydans also secrete acids to dissolve substances like phosphates for their own use. This naturally liberated acid could serve a collateral benefit for humans.

• Further research: The Idaho National Laboratory and the Ithaca-based company REEgen are researching how microbes can best be used for acid leaching. Alexa Schmitz of REEgen says, “It’s a little like kombucha.”

Elemental purification:

• Bacteria binds: The next step is to isolate individual REEs from other metals. A decade ago, researchers discovered that a certain microbe, Methylobacterium extorquens, produces a metal-binding molecule that concentrates lanthanide, which is then stored for later microbial use.

• Further research: Berkeley-based company RareTerra is experimenting with how this microbial process and storage can be utilized for various REEs. The company claims that the process would result in 99 percent pure REEs.

Why it matters:

• Biomining gets help from nature herself to extract, purify, and produce rare metals in cost-effective and environmentally friendly ways.

• Biomining can be used to separate REEs from industrial and electronic waste products, and thus helps recycling and environmental cleanup.

• Currently, the bulk of the world’s REE separation and purification is done in China. The world needs more REE producers.  

What to watch: Before you rush to invest in biomining, note that there is still much work to be done. Besides research and optimization of the procedures, technologies need to be scaled up from the lab and “bench” products to industrial and commercial plants.

Go deeper: Read the full article online.

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