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Mining kills the rivers and the land

 

Mining poisons the air, the water, and the land.
The damage that mining causes to the environment continues for a long time, long after the mines are no longer in use. However, the mining companies rarely have to pay for the damage they have done. When the mines are no longer profitable, the mining companies close them and go somewhere else. They leave their pollution behind for governments and local people to deal with.

River Pollution:

Many rivers have been pronounced 'biologically dead' due to release of waste materials from the mines into lakes and waterways. This waste is called "mine tailings" and it contains rocks, metals and poisons.

The plant and animal life in the water become choked with toxic sediment.

TOXIC: poisonous.

SEDIMENT:tiny pieces of rock, like powder, that is carried in the water

Some examples of what mining companies have done to rivers:

The river

The company

What the company did

The Yana Machi and Pilcomayo Rivers
in PERU

Compania Minera del Sur.

 Dumped: 235,000 tons of pollutants including arsenic and cyanide from tailings dam.
Endangered: fish and food supplies for the Mataco and Chiriguano indigenous peoples.

Iron Mountain Mine
in the US

Rhone Poulenc Inc.

Dumped: up to a ton of heavy metals daily in nearby rivers and streams.
Polluted: Water is now 10,000 times more acidic than battery acid
Expected to continue to give off acid for another 3,000 years.

Ok Tedi River
in Papua New Guinea

Broken Hill Pty Ltd.

 Dumped: 80,000 tons of rock and toxic tailings.
Killed: Turtles, crocodiles and fish.

Porgera River
in Papua New Guinea

Porgera Joint Venture.

 Polluted: Zinc, lead and mercury found at levels 3,000 times higher than Papua New Guinea standards.
Killed: 133 unusual deaths among the people. The people in the area suspect pollution.

Rio Tinto
in Spain

Rio Tinto plc.

 Polluted: Copper found at 200 times normal concentration.
Mercury: 500 times greater than normal

 

World Rivers Review Vol 12 No 5.

Dead Zones and Acid Rain

The processing of metal is called "smelting". Smelting is commonly done near mining areas.

Smelting has caused great destruction to large areas of land. It has created 'dead zones,' where almost all vegetation has been destroyed.

The smelting of copper and some other metals produces sulphur dioxide, the gas that causes acid rain. Smelting releases six million tons of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere each year. This is eight percent of the total emissions of sulphur dioxide.

Acid rain kills plant and animal life over large areas. For example, around one mining town in Canada (Sudbury), there is huge dead zone of 10,400 hectares, and dead fish have been found in lakes 65 kilometres away because of the fallout from acid rain.

 

 

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NI: Global Issues for Learners of English > The Issues > Mining > Mining and the Environment

 

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Last Modified: 17 Nov 1999

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