Repercussions of Mining

Gold is pretty and soft (malleable).

It makes nice, shiny things that people desire!

Our mental image of mining is usually kind of sentimental.

Like this miner.

He could

be your

great

grandpa!

The reality is not so charming...

Some mining is done by desperately poor people, with little consideration for the future of their water and land.

These people are washing away vast amounts of dirt into a watershed to find a few nuggets.

IS it important to know the source of the materials we buy?

Often, it isn’t poor and desperate people extracting metals and minerals...

Usually it is NOT about nuggets, it’s about gold ore.

Ore is earth that has enough gold mixed in to make it worth extracting...

Requiring chemicals, processing and settling ponds...

a factory.

Most gold is mined on an industrial scale and creates vast chemical pollution.

Arsenic is often left behind in ponds and piles of rock called tailings.

11

Arsenic...

Mining companies generally pack up and leave as soon as the gold is depleted.

13

THE TAILINGS GET LEFT BEHIND...

WHO is responsible?

Can it be cleaned up enough that the land and water are restored?

Sometimes companies go out of business...

Then, WHO takes care of it?

A common mitigation strategy is to figure out ways to keep the tailings where they are, and not let them get downstream.

What are these people building?

Can you see a potential problem here?