“digging up trouble” mining issues. the stakes mining = $$$$
TRANSCRIPT
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“Digging up Trouble”
MINING ISSUES
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THE STAKES
MINING = $$$$
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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
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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???
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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?
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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”
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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…..
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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)
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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!!!
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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”
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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.
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TYPES OF MINING
• Open Pit – minerals close to the surface essentially scraped away/dug up
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TYPES OF MINING
• Strip – shallow deposits are mined by removing overburden and cutting away the mineral seam. Common method for coal mining
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TYPES OF MINING
• Placer – The mining of alluvial deposits, usually uses water to separate minerals/gems/precious metals from the sediment
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TYPES OF MINING
• Underground – used when minerals are not close enough to the surface to utilize other extraction methods.
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