Since the dawn of civilization, pre-historic societies have practiced the technique of mining in order to obtain minerals from the earth that could be used for the production of weapons, ornamentation, and building of structures. As society has progressed in technology and the many uses of Earth’s resources are continually developing, mining still plays a major rule in the industry of many countries. By definition, mining is described as the extraction of minerals, precious metals, and other valuable materials from the Earth; in addition, these supplies are things that lack the ability of being produced by agriculture, or artificial manufacturing in laboratories or factories, thus rendering these resources unrenewable. Therefore, a broad definition of mining is the removal of a non-renewable resource from the earth which includes: base metals, uranium, iron, limestone, coal, rock salt, potash, diamonds, precious metal, petroleum, natural gas, and even water. Although the practice of mining is as archaic as the civilizations that first utilized the practice, modern mining greatly differs from the techniques of the past. Because of the advancement of modern technology and a higher demand for these non-renewable resources, present day mining is tremendously more evasive than its prehistoric form and with the vast increase in the world’s population greater amounts of materials are extracted from the earth in comparison to the amounts used by early civilizations.
As previously mentioned, the modern techniques used for mining are extremely different than those of prehistoric times. In the early history of mining, ancient peoples dug for materials close to the earth surface with make shift shovels and pics; as one could imagine, this...
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...old mining is the leading source of human-caused mercury emissions while the smelting of metals, including gold, is a primary source of arsenic emissions and other toxins”. Smelting, which is a particular method of metal extraction, releases toxins into the air such as: lead, nitrogen, sulfur ,mercury, zinc, cadmium, uranium, and sulfur dioxide, which leads to acid rain. In addition, smelters release very dangerous greenhouse gasses called peflurocarbons (pollution from aluminum smelters) which are almost 9,200 times more capable of heat-trapping than carbon ; moreover, these greenhouse gasses will remain in the atmosphere for tens of thousands of years. All of the above listed environmental tribulations caused by mining have the potential to irreversibly harm the planet, however, mining also impacts the world socially, economically, politically, and culturally.
The creation of societies in the West resulted in the blossoming of three new industries: mining, ranching, and farming. Mining began at large with the discovery of gold in California in 1849 and continued with other discoveries and “rushes” later on; these rus...
...sumption, creates emission of greenhouse gases and other harmful chemical materials. Once released into the air, it can cause environmental problems, which in turn threatens not only the environment, but also the health of the people who live in it. In order to reduce the use of energy to help protect our planet and our health, the diamond mining industry has implemented renewable energy programs to monitor energy and carbon emission. Since its beginning, mining company PHP Billiton program has saved an equivalent of one million liters of diesel fuel per year at their Ekati Diamond Mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories. The health of the environment and the health of humanity are as one. Whatever we do to our planet, we do to ourselves. Reducing energy consumption of diamond mining not only helps protect our planet, but also helps protect the health of our people.
The excitement for mining and excavating for minerals was sparked in prospectors and people looking for an easy way of profit in the 60’s.This second gold rush of speaks, despite most of the minerals they were after was more on the lines of copper, nickel, iron and the like, brought high hopes of those wanting to get rich fast. Though thousands had hope in making money from mining on their own, many excavators found little gold on their own efforts. Most needed to actually find work in mines. But, they almost got something even better. The v...
When prospectors first came, they looked in “stream-bed placers” or better known as “poor man’s mines” because this technique proved easier to find gold without proper equipment or machinery (Wallace 26). By the mid 1850’s, machinery replaced the individual prospector. Machines tore up the landscape with “the force of a combined flood and earthquake”, as entire rivers were moved and diverted for the sole purpose of mining (Johnson 108). These new mining methods had significant applications in the mining towns, as well as in the way gold was mined after the introduction of machines.
Coal mining, in particular, strip mining has become the latest casualty of the growing green movement in the United States. What is strip mining? Encyclopædia Britannica Online defines strip mining as the removal of vegetation, soil, and rock above a layer of coal, followed by the removal of the coal itself (“strip”). Most Americans don’t realize the impact this material of biological origin that can be used as a source of energy (“fossil”), or fossil fuel, has on their everyday lives or the nation’s economy. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the mining industry directly employs some fifty thousand Americans with nearly half that number working in the more specific field of strip mining, or mountain top removal (“Average”). The Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change reports in their “Fourth Assessment Report” that coal derives half the electricity production in the U.S., with the U.S. exporting approximately six percent of the coal produced (Sims). Despite the positives, strip mining poses some serious consequences to the environment, portraying the industry in a negative light, some of which include deforestation and erosion, contamination of water, and wildlife poisoning and loss of habitat.
Throughout this mining process a byproduct is created called chat. The chat is leftover rock and waste from mining that did not contained the desired materials. The chat was left on the site because the Bureau of Indian Affairs thought it could be of value to the Quapaw tribe (1). This chat contained high levels of toxic lead and other harmful chemicals. It is estimated that there are 75 Million tons (150 billion pounds) of chat piles remaining exposed to the environment as well as numerous flotation ponds that haven’t been taken into account (4).
The Yanacocha mine is a gold mine located in Cajamarca, Peru. It is the largest gold mine in Latin America and the second largest in the world covering 535 square miles (1,385.6 square kilometers). The mine is run by the Minera Yanacocha company which is owned by three companies; one of which is the World Bank. (No dirty gold, n.d.).
Gold mining has had a significant economic, social, and environmental impact in Colombian history. Thousands of years ago artisanal mining in Colombia was a practice without any chemicals involved; however, since 1850 artisanal and industrial mines use chemicals to optimize gold extraction. Because of this, mining has become incom...
"Upper Paleolithic Tool Technologies." Upper Paleolithic Tool Technologies. The Regents of The University of California, 22 July 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. .
Coal has a very negative impact on the environment, one of the main impacts on the environment is the actual process of extracting the coal from the ground. The two ways that coal is mined, underground and surface, both have different effects on the environment. The first way that coal is mined is by digging tunnels and creating mineshafts underground and then removing the coal from th...
In her book Coal A Human History, Barbara Freese states "The mundane mineral that built our global economyand even today powers our electrical plantshas also caused death, disease, and environmental destruction" (front flap) Today, coal provides for more than 55% of the electricity generated in the U.S. (Cullen, Robert Vol.272) Coal miners have had one of the most dangerous jobs in history before government regulation. Many miners had to work underground for 10 + hours a day and 6 days a week(Cobb, James "Coal") The number of deaths per year is the equivalent of a Titanic going down in the nation's coal fields each year (Turkington, Carol) According to James Cobb from the World Book Online Reference Center mine safety involves four main types of problems including accidents involving machinery, roof and rib failures, accumulations of gases and concentrations of coal dust.
Burning and mining coal for fuel is harmful to the environment but because how cheap and easy it is to find many people are unwilling to give it up as a fuel source. One of the problems with coal is that they are limited and are non-renewable so once it has been used we won’t be able to use it again.
Mining is the process or industry of obtaining minerals from the earth. Topics in this paper I’ll be specifically discussing are pros and cons of mining, structures of a mine, mining in general, California gold rush, diamonds in Africa, and comparison of diamond and gold mines.
Though it has had many negative impacts on the environment in the past, mining is a vital industry completely necessary to our economy and lives. Nearly every item we use or encounter in our day to day lives is mined or contains mined products. Without the excavation of such materials things like computers, televisions, large building structures, electricity, and cars would not be possible. Virtually every technological and medical advance uses minded materials, without which millions would suffer. Some examples of minerals in the home include the telephone which is made from as many as 42 different minerals, including aluminum, beryllium, coal, copper, gold, iron, silver, and talc. A television requires over 35 different minerals, and more than 30 minerals are needed to make a single personal computer. Without boron, copper, gold and quartz, your digital alarm clock would not work. Every American uses an average 47,000 pounds of newly mined materials each year, which is higher than all other countries with the exception of Japan, which is a staggering figure representative of our dependence and need for mined minerals. Coal makes up more than half of nation’s electricity, and will continue to be the largest electrical supplier into 2020 & accounting for some 95 percent of the nation's fossil energy reserves – nine of every ten short-tons of coal mined in the United States is used for electricity generation. As the population of the world grows more mineral resources must be exploited through mining in order to support the rising demand for such products. Though it may present a hazard to the environment and those physically located nears the mines, the materials extracted from mines...
In our days, mining for resources is inevitable. The resources we need are valuable in everyday life. Such resources mined up are coal, copper, gold, silver, and sand. However, mining poses environmental risks that can degrade the quality of soil and water, which can end up effecting us humans if not taken care of and many of the damages are irreversible once they have occurred.