“Digging up Trouble”

MINING ISSUES

THE STAKES

MINING = $$$$

FINANCING WAR• In many locations around the world

mining is used to produce raw materials

that are sold in order to finance War

Examples include:

• Congo – Coltan and Cassiterite for use in electronics (tantalum)

• Sierra Leone – Diamonds

• Angola – Diamonds

• Zimbabwe – Diamonds

• Nigeria – Oil

CREATING CONFLICT• Mineral Resources are often the source of conflict in many regions of the world. It is not

uncommon for internal conflict to arise over the control of a particular mining resource.

• In the Colonial Period of human history much of the world was settled and “conquered” in order to attain control over mining resources…. Most notably GOLD

• In more recent times these conflicts have more commonly been centered around oil and gas deposits (Gulf War) and conflict minerals (parts of Africa)

• Afghanistan – Saudi Arabia of Lithium???

GROUP MINI ACTIVITY…

• Using the class Ipads of your own technology identify a location somewhere in the world where mineral resources are currently, have recently or may soon instigate conflict.

Answer the following and create a quick graphic using pic coallage:

• Where?

• Who?

• Resource?

• Solution/Resolution?

DISPLACING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

• Around the world indigenous people continue to occupy many remote locations of our planet

• Some of these areas are becoming sought after because of their mineral wealth

• Many examples around the world can be found where traditional cultures, language and social structures are threatened by mining resource development

• In extreme circumstances entire

populations are displaced due to

mining in an area

**Lets look at “The Real Avatar”

ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION• Mining can have a tremendous impact on natural systems.

• As and extractive industry it by definition means a removal of material from the ground

• In its most extreme iterations large tracts of natural vegetation are removed in order to allow for the large scale economic extraction of desired resources.

• Open Pit mining and Mountain Top Removal are two of the most damaging mining techniques.

• These practices have the potential to devastate ecosystems to the point where they are no longer able to sustain productive ecosystems leading to a loss of biodiversity and loss of wildlife habitat. These landscapes will NEVER be the same…..

PHYSICAL IMPACTS• Depending on the type of mine the actual extraction of the metals will impact an area in

the following ways:

• removal of vegetation and topsoil

• the displacement of fauna,

• sedimentation of streams, rivers, wetlands, lakes, estuaries

• Dust emissions (may be toxic)

WATER POLLUTION – MINE TAILINGS

• The toxic mixture of debris left over after mining and mineral processing

• Can have serious impact of local ecosystems and specifically ground water quality

WATER POLLUTION – TAILING PONDS

• In many mines pools of water contaminated with mine tailings create toxic reservoirs that threaten water security and if near major waterways can threaten the ecological integrity of large areas

• These ponds are so toxic that flocks of migrating birds have been knows to die due to simply landing on their surface

• Sometimes all that separates these toxic artificial lakes from natural waterways is a man made damn

• If this damn leaks contaminants enter natural ecosystems

• If this damn breaks large scale environmental destruction is iminent and may spread hundreds of kilometers from the source.

WATER POLLUTION – ACID MINE DRAINAGE • Acid Mine Drainage occurs where

minerals disturbed by mining begin to oxidize once exposed to air and water

• Pyrite (fools gold) is a common mineral that will oxidize into Sulfuric Acid

• Acidic water can then free up other heavy metals in the mine and create a toxic soup of pollution

• The polluted acidic water in a flooded mine will leach or run off into a local stream

• AMD is often rusty brown in colour because of its high concentration of oxidizing iron.

THE SUDBURY STORY….

• During construction of the CPR blasting and excavation reveal high concentrations of Nickel-copper ore

• Once the railway was complete extraction of the resource from this remote area became economically feasible

• Since the late 1800s the Sudbury area has been one of the most significant mining areas in North America

SUDBURY GEOLOGY

• Ore deposits are part of a large geological structure called the Sudbury Basin believed to be the remnants of a 1.85 million year old meteorite impact crater

• Nickel and Copper are the main metals extracted from the ore of the Sudbury Basin

• Smaller amounts of cobalt, platinum, gold, silver, selenium and tellurium can also be found

THE SUDBURY TRAGEDY

• The mining that occurs in Sudbury has significant ecological impacts

• The most severe has stemmed from the fact that the ore bearing minerals are typically high in Sulphur

• During the separation of metal from the ore (Smelting) large amounts of Sulphur dioxide are pumped into the atmosphere

• Sulphur Dioxide then creates highly concentrated ACID RAIN!!!

ACID PRECIPITATION• Acid precipitation devastated the local ecology early on and much of the area

surrounding Sudbury effectively became a wasteland.

• In 1972 INCO on of the largest mining companies in the area thought they had a solution to the problem

• Build a super high smoke stack and send the pollution away from Sudbury

• “The Solution to Pollution is Dilution”

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT…• It worked!

• Once the INCO Super Stack was in place and ecological recovery in the are immediately surrounding Sudbury began

• Unprecedented “regreening” began, including liming of the soil, planting of 8.7 million trees and other natural vegetation

• The pollution just went farther away and impacted a larger area

• In 2010 only 3300 hectares of over 30000 hectares have been effectively regreened.

TYPES OF MINING

• Open Pit – minerals close to the surface essentially scraped away/dug up

TYPES OF MINING

• Strip – shallow deposits are mined by removing overburden and cutting away the mineral seam. Common method for coal mining

TYPES OF MINING

• Placer – The mining of alluvial deposits, usually uses water to separate minerals/gems/precious metals from the sediment

TYPES OF MINING

• Underground – used when minerals are not close enough to the surface to utilize other extraction methods.