Environmental Impacts of Mineral Exploitation

• Land take is an environmental problem with mining. It can cause conflicts with other local land users, as there is no choice of location with mining, so there is a limited choice of locations that can be exploited. The land area that is required to access the mineral is larger than the mine void itself: associated buildings, access routes, overburden and spoil dumping and buffer zones are all examples. Open-cast mines require a lot more land, so cause a lot more habitat loss than deep mining.
• Habitat loss is an inevitable environmental problem with mining as the surface habitat must be removed. Whilst capturing animals and transplanting plants to unthreatened areas is carried out, it's rarely successful, especially for species' whose conditions are hard to replicate. To decrease the environmental impact, mine restoration occurs after mining has ended, which often leads to a greater wildlife value than previously. Also, to reduce the damage to benthic organisms when dredging for sand and gravel, dredging is carried out where strong currents are, as less organisms are found here.
• Loss of amenity is an environmental problem with mining. This is because mining changes the landscape, so creates aesthetic issues for the local community. This can be reduced by landscaping and tree planting around the mine to increase aesthetics. After closing the mine, it can be turned into a community resource so it's long term amenity value is greater.
• Dust is an environmental problem with mining, as blasting and vehicle movements lifts dust into the atmosphere. To reduce this, water sprays can be used to limit the dust by making dust particles heavier so they settle and by wetting them so they clump together.
• Noise is an environmental problem with mining through vehicles and rock blasting. This can be reduced with embankments surrounding the mine to help absorb and deflect the noise. Blasting disturbance can be mitigated by blasting at set times of day, so it is predictable and by restricting these times to daylight hours.
• Turbid drainage water is an environmental problem with mining, as suspended solids can reduce light penetration into rivers, as well as covering and killing plants and animals. This can be reduced by using a sedimentation lagoon in which the water stands still, which allows the solids to sink, so the outflow water has low turbidity.
• Spoil disposal is an environmental problem with mining:

  1. aesthetics -damage the scenery of an area. This can be reduced by landscaping to make the heap look more natural.
  2. stability - lack of surface compaction can reduce surface stability and lead to erosion and a risk of landslides. This can be reduced by landscaping to reduce gradients, adding soil, nutrients, trees and drainage.
  3. leachate - water percolating through soil can dissolve toxic metals to produce acidic leachate solutions from insoluble metals. To reduce this, mine drainage is passed through a filter bed to immobilise the water.
• Mine site restoration is an environmental benefit of mining, as once a mine is no longer active, it can be used for urban development, industry, agriculture or habitat restoration. However, this depends on the location, access, topography and any residual problems such as spoil heaps which contain toxic wastes. For example, agriculture is only possible if the land is flat, no toxic materials are present and the soil is fertile.