Environmental Impacts of Mining

Keywords

Environment, mining, impact, society, jobs, landscape, sustainability, economy, recycling, air pollution, water pollution, soil erosion, habitat damage.

Introduction

There are many impacts that a mine can have on the surrounding areas, both in terms of social, economical and environmental. Let's take a look at the environmental impacts of what a mine does.

Pollution

When a mine opens, it's usually with rejoice. There are new jobs, it brings money to the area, and makes local people happier (generally). However, there are types of pollution that come with it:

Air pollution: through mining, ore dust and gases are released, and these are bad for the health of miners and the surrounding environment. Prolonged exposure to these types of pollution can lead to disease and build up of scar tissue in the lungs. Equipment that uses diesel makes more air pollution produced by mining.

Water pollution: metals that are left over by the process can make their way into the local ecosystem, and especially the water. This can destroy the local wildlife and make the water undrinkable. In another way, the way in the surrounding areas can be depleted by removing natural water reserves.

Soil erosion: when a mine is created, it is usually done by pit mining - a common technique involving blasting the area under the topsoil. This means the topsoil can erode away, and this is not good for plants and the local ecosystem. It renders the area difficult to grow in. Erosion can also spread, due to weather inclements, and so it can worse on a wider scale.

Habitat damage: linked with soil erosion, local habitats can also be damaged as a result of mining. Tied together with the above issues, this can be a serious situation. Although when mining is finished these issues can be reversed, some of the impacts will remain over a longer period of time.

Interesting fact: during the 1600s, brewers in England dried malts using heat generated by coal, but the flavour didn't go down well. So, they created a process that used an airtight oven. This process was then adopted by the mining community who started the coke-making process to make iron and steel.