1. INTRODUCTION
The world as we know it, is continuously evolving. With an increase in population, there exists a great deal of economic and social needs. The earth is enriched with a vast of diverse precious minerals which play a significant role in our lives. These minerals are used in many sectors such as medicine, construction, agriculture etc. To extract these precious minerals from the earth’s crust, extensive mining operations are carried out daily. These operations comprise drilling and blasting of ores to attain the minerals. During these operations great harm and damage is being done on the environment.
The mining industry is by far the most influential industry with regards to setting a country’s economy in motion. Different mines extract different minerals from coal to diamond and gold. These resources are embedded within ores which have to be drilled and blasted to be extracted. After retracting the resources the waste rock and waste that is detached from the ore during processing, is dumped away from the pit onto a surface waste dump which is commonly known as mine tailings. Mine tailings are the largest mine wastes on earth and can reach several hundred meters in elevation. This type of waste results to countless environmental effects.
Excluding water, concrete is the mostly used material on earth. It is considered as the most important material in the Building Environment due to its extensive usage in the construction industry. Concrete is primarily used
When asked to think of coal mining, what comes to mind? A mountain with a hole cut into the side of it with a set of railroad tracks disappearing into it? Maybe an old mine car or two full of some rocks or coal, with a pickaxe and shovel leaning against it. A few guys with hard hats covered in a black powder coming walking out of the mine pushing a car or two full of coal. The technology has advanced but the process is basically still the same as well as the outcome. Coal is retrieved from underground and taken to factories to be burnt to create electricity or to fuel the steel mills.
Some important things made from metals include cars, bridges, appliances, power generation, infrastructure, and obviously many more. Everything electrical needs copper, (which is mined), to function. A major concern for the mine is that it will pollute and destroy the nearby natural
To recover diamonds, the industry is using modern mining methods and a more clinical approach to sustainability of mining and therefore the impact on the environment is being minimized while the benefits to the communities and countries where they are found are being maximized. These benefits are
Minerals can affect society in many ways for example; Surface mining destroys vegetation across large areas, increasing erosion. Open-pit mining uses huge quantities of water. Acid mine drainage is pollution caused when dissolved toxic materials wash from mines into nearby lakes and streams. Minerals is approximately 80 percent of mined ore consists of impurities that become wastes after processing. These wastes, called tailings, are usually left in giant piles on the ground or in ponds near the processing plants (Figure 12.9). The tailings contain toxic materials such as cyanide, mercury, and sulfuric acid. Left
ATA mining is a mining company which is socially and environmentally friendly. Here unlike other mining company we respect every one and their land. We act under the Native Act title law. This report investigates the advantages and disadvantages of the mines. The following topics will be discussed in the report. Native Act title, Mining impacts, waste management, Plant design and case study.
The lecturer argues that hydraulic mining caused several environmental issues, which hydraulic mining started due to the gold rush in California. “California Gold and the Environmental Impacts of Mining” states that high levels of deforestation and floods occurred because of hydraulic mining. The method of hydraulic mining increased the rate of finding gold, which is explained in a timeline. In order to use hydraulic mining, people needed timber to make there tools, which created vast amounts of deforestation. Once the tools were created, they used pressurized water to find the gold on mountain sides. From all the water that hydraulic mining used, it created a flood and destroyed many agricultural fields. The Sawyer Decision of 1884 was enacted
A controversial topic commonly debated among society is the construction of coal mines. Although they potentially contain great economic promise and access to more resources, they also harm the surrounding environment and increase carbon dioxide emissions.
The mining process involves many big vehicles and other technology that release huge amounts of pollution into the atmosphere speeding up global warming and causing climate change.
The mining industry can be considered a valuable asset to the American economy over the course of the nation’s history. Though the field is not necessarily as prevalent today as it once was, the technological advancements in the process of mining are vastly different from those originally implemented by miners decades ago. However, one strategy for successful mining has remained relevant not in its practice, but in its use as an analogy, particularly in reference to the education system today. The idea of the canary in the mine pit discusses the example of when miners would bring canaries with them into the pits in order to detect noxious fumes. When the canary would die in its cage, it meant the air quality was toxic and that the miners needed to get out. This notion is connected to the ideas of those in the field of education like Linda Darling-Hammond, who argue that, similar to the canary, a child who fails in a school is not to blame for the toxic environment in which they are attempting to carve out a future for themselves. In other words, the children are not failing the schools. Rather, the schools are failing the children. This idea thus entails that in efforts to fix the education system, the focus must be exerted on the schools and policies themselves, rather than assuming that a child from a “disadvantaged” socioeconomic background is destined for failure.
Mining is one of Canada’s primary industries and involves the extraction, refining, and/or processing of economically valuable rocks and minerals. Mineral products – including gold, silver, iron, copper, zinc, nickel – are critical to modern industrial society. Although mining has been key to Canadian settlement and development, in recent decades the industry has also been criticized for its environmental and social impacts. Canada remains one of the world’s leading mining countries and has become a centre of global mining finance and expertise.
The very first open-pit mines that were built in the world started around when men began to develop tools and constructing massive stone monuments to their gods. They were known as quarries. Quarries are open-pit mines that produce building materials and dimension stone, such as granite, marble, limestone, and other tangible rock building materials. However, these open-pit mines produced little to no pollution at all because the technology to extract every last gram of ore from rack has not been developed. The process basically involves pulverizing every rock that comes out of a mine with any trace of ore within it. This produces what is known as tailings. Tailings are one of the biggest pollutants of the world to date. They are so toxic that they have to be mixed with water to produce sludge and are pumped into ponds (known as tailings ponds) so that they are rendered “obsolete”.
Canada is home to some of the largest mining corporations in the world. In fact, seventy-five percent of the world’s mining companies are based in Canada (Dean, 2013). These companies are involved in the extraction of numerous resources, including silver, petroleum, bitumen and coal. Canadian mining operations also have a particular focus in gold, as twenty-one of the country’s top forty mining companies are involved in gold extraction. With billion dollar annual revenues and interests in almost every continent, these multinational companies are making a large impact around the globe (Canadian Mining Journal, 2014). However, these impacts are not necessarily positive. Canadian mining corporations have failed to implement CSR policies and
In our days, mining for resources is inevitable. The resources we need are valuable in everyday life. Such resources mined up are coal, copper, gold, silver, and sand. However, mining poses environmental risks that can degrade the quality of soil and water, which can end up effecting us humans if not taken care of and many of the damages are irreversible once they have occurred.
The mining industry has seen an explosive growth from the past few decades. It has played an important role in economic growth, infrastructure development and a raise in the living standard of the whole world. According to the Australian National Accounting System, the mining sector has made contributions of 9.8% GDP growth to the Australian economy between 2008 to 2009 (Australia Bureau of Statistics, 2012). However, the mining industry has caused many environmental issues such as adverse effect to air, land and water quality and continues to affect global environment as a whole. According to the World Health Organization, it evaluated that 25% of worldwide death are directly associated with environmental pollution (Blacksmith Institute, n.d). This essay will outline the environmental issue raised by the mining industry with pinpoint focus on the effects to air, water and land. It will also provide strategies for mining companies to improve the environmental conditions.
Since the Industrial Revolution, natural resources have been under increasing pressure. The significant changes in the amount of natural resources we have left have led to many issues, such as global public health and global development. Other areas affected include the loss of forest, water and air pollution, decrease in fresh water supply and degradation of soil. Today we are currently seeing dramatic increases in global population. As the world’s population continues to rise, natural resources will continue to dwindle as long as we remain the same. The one thing that I would say is the most challenging for humans is being able to advance in life, but still not destroy the environment. If you look at most developed countries, it is evident that they consume resources way more rapidly than developing countries. The problem with this is that all of these countries are consuming faster than they can produce. Places like Africa and Asia are experiencing population momentum. These areas have a tendency for population growth that continues to grow because of the high concentration of people having kids. Better living conditions are definitely needed in these countries because of the limited amount of resources being consumed by these regions. The over exploitation of these resources will eventually lead to problems for future uses.