surface mining environmental impacts

The Mining Safety and Health Administration, also known as MSHA, requires that miners who work at surface mines receive specific safety training to reduce the risk of injury, illness, or fatality on the job.. At some surface mines, the safety training requirements are known as MSHA Part 46.. Environmental co-benefits and adverse side-effects of alternative power sector decarbonization strategies. The environmental effects of surface mining include

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• Habitat destruction

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• Soil erosion

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• Air pollution from dust particulates

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• Pollution (especially from sediments)

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All surface mining techniques negatively affect the environment, though some methods are more damaging than others.

Strip mining

Strip mining, as the name describes, is a process of removing rock and soil in strips to get to the valuable mineral ores below. et al. Like other surface mining operations that remove materials, pit mining operations scar the landscape, destroy habitat, and pollute the air with dust and particulates.

Placer mining

Placer mining is a way of obtaining mineral and metal resources from loose river sediments. The figure illustrates how mountaintop removal mining dramatically changes a mountainous landscape.

Credit: Photograph by Getty Images/Pete Mcbride

Pit mining

Sometimes valuable geologic resources appear at the surface of the Earth but extend deeper into the Earth sort of a tip-of-the-iceberg kind of thing. These projections focused on two technologies (wind turbine manufacturing and solar photovoltaic installations; both expected to experience huge growth in future) and one energy-using technology (storage batteries for electric vehicles, which will address transportation emissions). Lett. 160, 272278 (2013). Background Mining can directly and indirectly affect social and environmental systems in a range of positive and negative ways, and may result in societal benefits, but may also cause conflicts, not least in relation to land use. Note: Graphed proportions were calculated from full extent of mining and non-mining areas, whereas reported statistics were calculated using the 1km2 cells sampled at 100-cell intervals. This assertion is supported by production data per mine31, showing that the average material transported from a coal mine is more than 10 times the amount of concentrate shipped from a copper mine. Sovacool, B. K. et al. a commodity required for renewable energies; Table1). These threats are concerning, given that wilderness lacks formal protection36 and any new infrastructure will erode its ecological integrity27. Global spatial coincidence between protected areas and metal mining activities. Biol. Lett. In the absence of water, these solid wastes would cause mainly aesthetic environmental damage. CAS PAs cover various governance types (public, private, and indigenous/community areas) and management categories (from strict nature reserves to those permitting managed extraction) and are central to the Convention on Biological Diversitys Strategic Plan and meeting 2020 Aichi Targets45. Science 337, 690695 (2012). steel). The mining properties database31 is not freely available, but global mining areas maps produced in this study (1km2 resolution, using 50-cell radius, per commodity type (critical, other and both; Fig. 4, 920 (2011). However, despite their larger spatial extent, critical mining areas are less dense than other mining areas (2.0 vs. 3.5 for operational mining properties; Supplementary Table2), due to differences in resource distributions and relative production costs. Conserv. collated datasets and performed analysis; L.J.S., M.C.D., J.E.M.W., and R.K.V. Nat. Critical mining areas contain five times more mines and target three times more commodities than other mining areas do (Supplementary Table1). When required commodities exist in biodiverse countries that lack strong resource governance, such as the worlds second largest untouched lithium reserve in Bolivias Salar de Uyuni salt pan5a biodiverse area currently untouched by mining14mining poses serious threats to species and ecosystems15. Sonter, L.J., Dade, M.C., Watson, J.E.M. It could require the removal of massive amounts of top soil, leading to erosion, loss of habitat and pollution . Bars depict the areal proportion of critical, other, and both mining areas that overlap with currently Protected Areas (panel a) and conservation priorities (Key Biodiversity Areas [panel b] and Remaining Wilderness [panel c]). acknowledges an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE170100684) and M.C.D. Global Energy Statistical Yearbook 2018: Coal and lignite Production (Enerdata, 2018). Manag. Werner, T. T. et al. Wanger, T. C. The Lithium futureresources, recycling, and the environment. While diverting some of the materials used in non-renewable energy infrastructure may minimize threats of renewable energy production to biodiversity, fossil fuels will still likely play an important role in meeting the future energy demands of a growing global population. Air Pollution Ore dust and gases released by the mining process are bad for the health of miners as well as the environment. Surface coal mining involves: 501. 1; Supplementary Table1) and their proportional overlap with conservation priorities changes slightly (Supplementary Figs. R. Soc. Most mining areas (82%) target materials critical for renewable energy production (Supplementary Table2). The environmental effects of surface mining include. Remaining Wilderness may indirectly capture some mining threats, as sites with road networks and infrastructure are not considered wild thus resulting in low levels of overlap25; however, KBA designation completely ignores mines and mineral resources, focusing instead on where biodiversity occurs21. Biol. However, the ultimate impacts to biodiversity will depend on the mix of technologies used35, their mineral needs and methods used to mine them10,11, and the effectiveness ofefforts to manage their environmental impacts. For mining areas created using a 50-cell radius, correlation by 100km was 0.002 for areas targeting other minerals, 0.07 for areas targeting critical minerals, and 0.1 for both. World Database on Protected Areas User Manual 1.4. Initial regulatory procedures. Renew. Cross Sector Biodiversity Initiative. Credit: Photograph by Getty Images/Pete Mcbride, {"appState":{"pageLoadApiCallsStatus":true},"articleState":{"article":{"headers":{"creationTime":"2016-03-26T16:14:17+00:00","modifiedTime":"2016-03-26T16:14:17+00:00","timestamp":"2022-09-14T18:06:41+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Academics & The Arts","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/33662"},"slug":"academics-the-arts","categoryId":33662},{"name":"Science","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/33756"},"slug":"science","categoryId":33756},{"name":"Environmental Science","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/33763"},"slug":"environmental-science","categoryId":33763}],"title":"The Environmental Science of Surface Mining","strippedTitle":"the environmental science of surface mining","slug":"the-environmental-science-of-surface-mining","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"The environmental damage caused by surface mining is related to the large amount of surface material that humans remove during mining operations. Importantly, all new projects must adhere strictly to the principals of the Mitigation Hierarchy38, where biodiversity impacts are first avoided where possible before allowing compensation activities elsewhere. Global-scale remote sensing of mine areas and analysis of factors explaining their extent. 3). Nat. Proc. (Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal, 2011). Sec. When tailings arent restored properly, theyre often left in valleys where they cause flooding and disrupt watershed ecosystems with water pollution and increased sediments.

Mountaintop removal mining

Mountaintop removal mining is similar to the strip mining approach in the preceding section but on a much larger scale. Energy sector innovation is where most progress is achievable4, but since renewable energies currently account for only 17% of global energy consumption5, significant production increases must occur to phase out fossil fuel use6. Biol. Integrated life-cycle assessment of electricity-supply scenarios confirms global environmental benefit of low-carbon technologies. The type of mining and operations results in different environmental and human health impacts but they can generally be grouped into major categories. The water helps sift the valuable resources (such as gemstones or gold) from the sand, mud, and gravel in the riverbed. We found less overlap between pre-operational mining areas (where minerals are not yet confirmed economically viable) and PAs than non-mining areas and PAs (12.2%; chi-squared=55.54, p<0.001; Supplementary Data1), although pre-operational mining density did not differ significantly between areas overlapping PAs and areas not overlapping PAs (4.0 vs. 4.4 mining properties; Supplementary Data2). We distinguish areas targeting the materials that, among many other uses in society today, will be critical for renewable energy production (here referred to as critical mining areas) from those targeting other materials (e.g. Here, we map the global extent of areas potentially influenced by mining, according to 62,381 pre-operational, operational, and closed mining properties that target 40 commodities (Supplementary Table1). Nat. Google Scholar. Surface coal mining in the steep terrain of the central Appalachian coalfields includes: mountaintop removal, contour, area, highwall, and auger mining. While some protected areas (PAs) prevent mineral extraction and prospecting activities, more than 14% of PAs contain metal mines within or nearby their boundaries19 and consequences for biodiversity may extend many kilometers from mining sites20. Surface mining impacts streams both chemically and physically by increasing dissolved solids (e.g., sulfate, calcium carbonate) and sediment loading, and by removing riparian forest vegetation. 3; Supplementary Data1). Energy Rev. 26, 29292934 (2016). We did not examine the changes in mineral demand specifically driven by renewable energy production. Environment impacts of surface mining stabilize m uch faster than the underground and. Allan, J. R., Venter, O. Sonter, L. J. et al. Pit mining involves digging a large hole to gather rocks and minerals from the Earths crust. Global extent and composition of mining areas. Mining always affects the environment, whilst remediation and mitigation efforts may effectively ameliorate some negative environmental impacts. We identified the materials required for renewable energy production (Supplementary Table1), using projected material demand under 2050 low-carbon energy scenarios6. Mascia, M. B. Sci. However, the production of renewable energies is also material-intensivemuch more so than fossil fuels7meaning that future production will also escalate demand for many metals8,9,10,11. Ali for helpful discussions and feedback on a previous version of this manuscript. Nature 536, 143145 (2016). World Bank Group. Mining adversely affects the environment by inducing loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, and contamination of surface water, groundwater, and soil. The mountaintop material is left in surrounding areas of lower elevation, such as nearby river and stream valleys, where it reshapes the landscape, pollutes water, and disrupts ecosystems. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

One way to replace tailings is to simply dump them; luckily, U.S. regulations require mining companies to replace tailings in a way that restores the landscape (and ecosystem) more closely to its pre-mined state, even though doing so is often expensive and difficult. Counts represent mining density, and we converted density maps to binary values to indicate mining influenced areas when mining density was >0. It is unlikely that these new demands will be met by diverting use from other sectors or from recycling materials alone12,13. Due to the smaller scale of placer mining, it does less damage to the surrounding environment compared to other methods of surface mining, though it can still disrupt river ecosystems with pollution and sediments.

In some places, such as the Yukon Territory in Canada where placer mining is common, miners make an effort to maintain the water quality by periodically testing for pollution and sediment overload. We used Mollweide equal area projection to analyze all data in ArcGIS 10.6. Operations are concentrated in: eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, western Virginia, eastern Ohio, and scattered areas of eastern Tennessee. Results hold when comparing areas by mine status (i.e. Global metal flows in the renewable energy transition: exploring the effects of substitutes, technological mix and development.

The mountaintop material is left in surrounding areas of lower elevation, such as nearby river and stream valleys, where it reshapes the landscape, pollutes water, and disrupts ecosystems. Sometimes valuable geologic resources appear at the surface of the Earth but extend deeper into the Earth sort of a tip-of-the-iceberg kind of thing. Local conditions and policy design interact to determine whether ecological compensation can achieve No Net Loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Renewable energy production will exacerbate mining threats to biodiversity. Nature Communications Google Scholar. International Energy Agency. S&P.

Pit mines extend both into the ground and across the surface and are some of the largest mine operations in the world. Mining potentially influences 50 million km2 of Earths land surface, with 8% coinciding with Protected Areas, 7% with Key Biodiversity Areas, and 16% with Remaining Wilderness. Google Scholar. Summary for PolicymakersContribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge University Press, 2014). Natl Acad. Sampling at 100-cell intervals also removed most other sources of spatial autocorrelation (Supplementary Table4). Water Pollution Water Consumption Waste and Habitat Destruction Noise and Light Pollution Long-Term Effects (Remediation and Reclamation) Is Open-Pit Mining Safe? volume11, Articlenumber:4174 (2020) understand the environmental impact of mining and processing of minerals; understand how we can work toward solving the crisis involving mineral supply; . 1), but has not been studied as a whole on the scope and speed of coal mining and its environmental and socioeconomic impacts.The plateau covers an area of approximately 2.6 million square kilometers (i.e., 260 million ha), constituting the eastern part of the world's largest grassland . Lett. Strip mining Strip mining Internet Explorer). Skip to main content. A Cross-sector Guide for Implementing the Mitigation Hierarchy. 502. We obtained spatial data on current PAs24 and other conservation priorities (Key Biodiversity Areas21 and Remaining Wilderness25) across terrestrial systems. 21,24,25. Thank you for visiting nature.com. Nat Commun 11, 4174 (2020). Energy Technology Perspectives 2015: Mobilising Innovation to Accelerate Climate Action. Hertwich, E. G. et al. 4, 202206 (2011). An ecoregion-based approach to protecting half the terrestrial realm. (International Energy Agency (IEA), Paris, 2019). Peer reviewer reports are available. Surface mines (sometimes called strip mines) were the source of about 62% of the coal mined in the United States in 2021. There is urgent need to understand the size of mining risks to biodiversity (climate change, and efforts to avert it) and strategically account for them in conservation plans and policies. Parish, E. et al. Surface mining can also cause landslides and subsidence (when the ground begins to sink or cave in). The environmental effects of surface mining include

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• Habitat destruction

  \n
\n

• Soil erosion

  \n
\n

• Air pollution from dust particulates

  \n
\n

• Pollution (especially from sediments)

  \n
\n

All surface mining techniques negatively affect the environment, though some methods are more damaging than others.

Strip mining

Strip mining, as the name describes, is a process of removing rock and soil in strips to get to the valuable mineral ores below. We quantify the spatial overlap of mining areas with nationally designated PAs24 and sites considered important priorities for halting biodiversity loss (Key Biodiversity Areas21 and Remaining Wilderness25). One way to replace tailings is to simply dump them; luckily, U.S. regulations require mining companies to replace tailings in a way that restores the landscape (and ecosystem) more closely to its pre-mined state, even though doing so is often expensive and difficult. Extinction risk from climate change. However, given that the magnitude of direct and indirect effects likely varies tremendously among mines42 (e.g. the nature healing process also being early. Most mining areas (82%) target materials needed for renewable energy production, and areas that overlap with Protected Areas and Remaining Wilderness contain a greater density of mines (our indicator of threat severity) compared to the overlapping mining areas that target other materials. . Climate change poses serious threats to biodiversity1,2. ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/9804"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":33763,"title":"Environmental Science","slug":"environmental-science","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/33763"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[{"label":"Strip mining","target":"#tab1"},{"label":"Mountaintop removal mining","target":"#tab2"},{"label":"Pit mining","target":"#tab3"},{"label":"Placer mining","target":"#tab4"}],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[{"articleId":208293,"title":"Environmental Science For Dummies Cheat Sheet","slug":"environmental-science-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","categoryList":["academics-the-arts","science","environmental-science"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/208293"}},{"articleId":175597,"title":"Long-Term Impact of Key Environmental Legislation in the U.S.","slug":"long-term-impact-of-key-environmental-legislation-in-the-u-s","categoryList":["academics-the-arts","science","environmental-science"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/175597"}},{"articleId":175590,"title":"How to Characterize a Population of Living Things","slug":"how-to-characterize-a-population-of-living-things","categoryList":["academics-the-arts","science","environmental-science"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/175590"}},{"articleId":175589,"title":"What Defines an Ecosystem? Alternatively, it is possible that PAs are sited away from mineral resources or that, discovering minerals within PAs, has led to their abolishment. Vidal, O., Goffe, B. (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016). In this situation, pit mining (also called open-pit mining) is an option. Duran, A. P., Rauch, J. Commun. Mining areas were mapped using a 50-cell radius around 62,381 pre-operational, operational, and closed mining properties. IEA. Watson, J. E. M., Dudley, N., Segan, D. B. State programs. The Growing Role of Minerals and Metals for a Low Carbon Future. MSHA Safety Training Requirements at a Surface Mine. Energy Policy 119, 226241 (2018). The water helps sift the valuable resources (such as gemstones or gold) from the sand, mud, and gravel in the riverbed. We also analyzed Earths Remaining Wildernessareas free from the industrial-scale activities and human pressures that cause significant biophysical disturbance. 2010); however, the above-ground impact (other than infrastructure and tailings or waste . Nature 515, 6773 (2014). Whereas other methods go straight to the source of the valuable material, the sought-after materials in placer mining have already been removed from their source by natural processes of erosion and weathering and have been carried downstream. "This is also consistent with research by other investigators that has documented the environmental impacts of mining. Di Marco, M., Venter, O., Possingham, H. P. & Watson, J. E. M. Changes in human footprint drive changes in species extinction risk. Mining can also trigger the formation of sinkholes. Much is already known about the environmental impacts of mining, both on-site and off-site, and that body of information provides a basis for this chapter. Mining areas also overlapped with conservation priority sites: 16% with Remaining Wilderness and 7% with Key Biodiversity Areas (Fig. Placer mining is a way of obtaining mineral and metal resources from loose river sediments. Instead, out method examines whether the minerals critical to produce these technologies and infrastructure were present or absent. interpreted results and wrote the manuscript. 7, 302311 (2014). 2 and 3), most relative differences between mining and non-mining areas and between critical and other mining areas did not (Supplementary Data1). Lovejoy, T. E. Conservation biology: the importance of wilderness. . Types There are five main types of surface mining as detailed below. Dudley, N. Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories. ADS Environmental Impact of Mining: Negative Positive Impact Activities Natural Gold StudySmarter Original Curr.

The mountaintop material is left in surrounding areas of lower elevation, such as nearby river and stream valleys, where it reshapes the landscape, pollutes water, and disrupts ecosystems. We chose a 50-cell radius (~50km), as mining threats are found to extend this distance from mining properties20. The broad footprint of climate change from genes to biomes to people. This chapter presents a discussion of impacts of uranium mining and processing operations on air quality, soil, surface water and groundwater, and biota. Placer mining occurs on a much smaller scale than other methods of surface mining. While mineral prospecting does not (yet) cause the same threats to biodiversity as operational mining sites do, they are not without risk15. PubMed 2). We repeated this process for subsets of mining areas by development status (pre-operational, operational, closed; Supplementary Table3) and commodity type (critical areas only, other areas only, and areas targeting both commodity types; Supplementary Table1). This technique removes large amounts of rock and soil whole mountaintops to access the resources buried deep inside the mountain. Future studies are needed to further elucidate the population exposure dynamics of coal mining, and should be explored using individual-level exposures and cancer outcomes.

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