CHEMISTRY PROJECT: MINING PLANET X-1031
(MINING.DOC)
Name: _____________________
Date: ______________________
1. Memo to Members of the Planetary Chemistry Study Team: Before The Company
can get the necessary permits from The Federation to begin mining operations on Planet
X-1031, our study team has to come up with the answers to some difficult questions
about the impact our proposed activities will have on the atmosphere of the planet.
Imagine that! These bureaucrats are actually concerned about the air quality on some
uninhabited rock so far away none of us will ever visit. Perhaps they are planning to go
there once we finish trashing this place so bad it is finally uninhabitable, even by
bureaucrats! Ha! Anyway, let’s get this done so they’ll get off our backs and give our
bosses the go-ahead to make even more Credits. (Funny, there’s never a pay raise for us
real workers, huh?)
-- The Leader
2. Facts about Planet X-1031: This is just one of many our astronomers discovered in
the last century and sent unmanned probes to. This one has gravity pretty much like here,
and moderate temperatures due to a nearly circular orbit around a well-behaved middleaged medium-sized star not much different than our own. (The axis of rotation is tilted
for some reason, probably some ancient collision with an asteroid, so it has extended
periods of meteorological change, but not enough to warrant serious redesign of our
standard mining droids or processes.) The database says it has large deposits of
interesting materials easily available near or at the surface, but we’re going to have to
modify them before they are useful. That’s where it gets interesting.
a. There are large—and I mean LARGE, like 70% of the surface of the planet or
more—pools of liquid ammonia. (Yeah, it’s definitely cold and cloudy there, but the
high atmospheric pressure helps keep the ammonia from boiling off, too.) The solid
surface above the level of these pools reads out as high in copper(II) carbonate. (Imagine
this ugly place: teal-colored rocks everywhere! Yuck!) However, there are also thick
brown swampy areas that appear to our sensors as iron(III) hydroxide. In addition,
thanks to internal heating of the planet by radioactive decay, there are large deposits of
crystalline covalently bonded carbon at the surface as well. (Historical note: Our
ancestors used to call that material diamond, until private ownership was outlawed during
the Revolution.)
b. The problem is with the impact on the atmosphere. We have to come up with
calculations which show the amount of removal or addition of the “big three” gases from
or to the atmosphere as a result of our proposed operations there. (You remember this
was a law passed by the Federation back when it was realized that we had passed the
point of no return with our global warming problem back in ’09.) Our answer has to take
the form of X number of kilograms of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor into or
out of the atmosphere per 1000 kilograms of (subject material, in this case copper) that
we mine in its final, useful, pure elemental form.
3. Proposed Chemical Processes:
a. The iron(III) hydroxide goop will be shoveled up and heated. (Thankfully, we
have unlimited electrical energy for motors and heating due to the new model
thermonuclear generators.) We could condense the water vapor again, if we need it, or
just let it go off into the atmosphere. The equation is as follows, but you’d better balance
it, and all the ones that follow, to be sure we got it right. These bureaucrats will doublecheck every detail of our answer.
__ Fe(OH)3  __ Fe2O3 + __ H2O
b. The iron(III) oxide will be heated with the carbon crystals (what a shame: I
heard from an old lady once that they were really pretty…she said they actually sparkled,
sort of like a really good zircon, only better!) to get liquid iron, if we heat it hot enough.
__ Fe2O3 + __ C  __ Fe + __ CO2
c. (We need the iron later; hold that thought for now.) With the right catalyst,
and the right conditions of temperature and pressure, ammonia from those large pools can
be combined with oxygen from the air to make nitrogen(II) oxide and water vapor.
__ NH3 + __ O2  __ NO + __ H2O
d. The nitrogen(II) oxide can be made to combine with oxygen, again from the
atmosphere, to make nitrogen(IV) oxide.
__ NO + __ O2  __ NO2
e. The nitrogen(IV) oxide can be made to dissolve in liquid water to make nitric
acid. The NO can be returned to the previous step. (That’s going to make the accounting
messy, but I’m confident in your ability.)
__ NO2 + __ H2O  __ HNO3 + __ NO
f. The nitric acid will be used to dissolve the ugly teal-colored rocks to make a
solution of copper(II) nitrate and releasing water and carbon dioxide.
__ CuCO3 + __ HNO3  __ Cu(NO3)2 + __ H2O + __ CO2
g. The copper(II) nitrate can be used in a single displacement reaction with the
iron made previously to separate the element copper, which we need to make wires and
superconducting magnets for the transportation system for this ugly planet. I don’t care
2
what happens to the iron(III) nitrate and neither do the Federation rules, so we can just
leave it there as fertilizer for the plants, if there ever are any on this planet. (The biology
study team is working on that angle now, but that’s their headache. They have found all
sorts of weird lifeforms that do not use the conventional chemistry of green plants.)
__ Cu(NO3)2 + __ Fe  __ Cu + __ Fe(NO3)3
4. Summary: So there it is. Taking those seven reactions together, what sort of impact
do you see for the atmosphere of Planet X-1031? I think you’d better figure it out in
moles first, then change to kilograms. Amplify your answer to amounts per 1000 kg of
copper. Give the answers in kilograms. (Thanks to that Clements guy last century, who
left us the hated Factor-Label Method, huh?) Don’t worry about filling out the forms; I’ll
do that. Just get me the info and your detailed explanation, in case I’m summoned to go
explain it to someone up the chain. Good luck!
-- The Leader
…………………………………………………………………………………………
SOLUTION:
__ Fe(OH)3  __ Fe2O3 + __ H2O
__ Fe2O3 + __ C  __ Fe + __ CO2
__ NH3 + __ O2  __ NO + __ H2O
__ NO + __ O2  __ NO2
__ NO2 + __ H2O  __ HNO3 + __ NO
__ CuCO3 + __ HNO3  __ Cu(NO3)2 + __ H2O + __ CO2
__ Cu(NO3)2 + __ Fe  __ Cu + __ Fe(NO3)3
Per 1000 kg of copper mined in this way, the following will be removed from or released
in to the atmosphere:
Gas:
Oxygen
Carbon Dioxide
Water Vapor
Removed From
Atmosphere:
Released Into
Atmosphere:
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
3
ANSWER KEY:
2 Fe(OH)3  1 Fe2O3 + 3 H2O
2 Fe2O3 + 3 C  4 Fe + 3 CO2
4 NH3 + 5 O2  4 NO + 6 H2O
2 NO + 1 O2  2 NO2
3 NO2 + 1 H2O  2 HNO3 + 1 NO
1 CuCO3 + 2 HNO3  1 Cu(NO3)2 + 1 H2O + 1 CO2
3 Cu(NO3)2 + 2 Fe  3 Cu + 2 Fe(NO3)3
Per 1000 kg of copper mined in this way, the following will be removed from or released
in to the atmosphere:
Gas:
Removed From
Atmosphere:
Oxygen
Carbon Dioxide
Water Vapor
Released Into
Atmosphere:
2014 kg
1039 kg
1134 kg
HINT: Make a flowchart and work from the back (Cu) to the front. Here is one
showing mole ratios, normalized so the smallest number of moles is one. The mole ratios
are as in the seven chemical equations. Total up the moles of what is consumed or
released, and convert to kilograms. Voila!
3 H2O
1.5 CO2


2 Fe(OH)3  1 Fe2O3  2 Fe

3 CuCO3
3 CO2 + 3 H2O

 3 Cu(NO3)2

3 Cu
9 H2O


6 NH3  6 NO  9 NO2  6 HNO3



7.5 O2 4.5 O2
3 H2O

 3 NO (recycled)
4