The history and beginning of increased acid mine drainage:
Mining has been a cornerstone of South Africa’s economy. It was the basis for which one of its main cities, Johannesburg, was built around. Today, gold mining in the Witwatersrand basin has been one of the main contributing factors to mining in South Africa. An estimated 98% of all gold mined in South Africa has been mined from the Witwatersrand basin.
South Africa’s total mining reserves have an estimated worth of R20. 3-trillion, giving South Africa the fifth largest mining sector pertaining to GDP worldwide. From this we can understand that mining makes up a big part of our economy; on the other hand, during the period in which the gold was mined, the negative effect the mining would have had on the environment was not taken into consideration. This took about a careless attitude towards the environment as well the effects of water pollution were not visible right away, thus the serious implications were not accepted into consideration by these mining companies at the time.
Since 1987 the American Environmental Protection Agency has acknowledged that there are problems associated with mining refuse, which can be classified alongside global warming and the depletion of the ozone. The impact of mining refuse on the environment and to specific ecosystems has caused irreparable damage.
The effects of careless discarding or dumping of mine waste used in mining from previous years has surfaced. The visible effects can be seen in the, increasing amounts of acid; as well as, concentration of acid mine water levels which are threatening the area of Witwatersrand.
Acid mine drainage is metal-rich water, which is formed from chemical reactions between rocks that comprise of mine...
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...s opinion on the matter.
• Money will be budgeted to upgrade water pump stations.
• A company by which the name Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority, was appointed by the Department of Water Affairs to find a long term as well as a short term solution for the problem.
Short term solutions:
• The solution to the problem on the West Rand includes increasing the litres of water being pumped out. Then the water will be neutralised by adding Lime and Gypsum this will get rid of any heavy metals and Sulphites in the water. The salt levels will still be very high and to get rid of the salt in the water the water will undergo tri-osmosis treatment.
• The Department of Water Affairs agreed to upgrade and build more water pump stations.
Long term solutions:
• The department of Water Affairs appointed the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority in April 2011 to find long term solutions.
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).
purpose we use this for is to drill wells into so that we may obtain the water that
In the beginng of try to answer the ethical question of was mountaintop removal mining right or wrong for West Virginia, I decided to look at the environmental hazards first, exploring all the possible...
Over the next couple of years, a number of designs were proposed for the tunnel. The first proposal was presented by a firm called Jacobs and Davies. This plan called for a bi-level tunnel. The upper level would carry slower vehicles and the lower level would be used for express vehicles. An engineer named George Goethals who would later become the chief engineer of the Port Authority made the second proposal. His plan was a bi-level design in which each level would carry opposing lanes of traffic, two lanes in each direction.2 Both of these designs were not taken to the next step. The proposal of Clifford Milburn Holland (see Figure 1) was adopted as the design of the tunnel. Figure 1. Picture of Clifford Milburn Holland. http://www.panynj.gov/tbt/hthist.HTM
Objectives • To evaluate the difficulty of mining and reclamation To calculate costs, expenses, income, and profit from a hands-on mining exercise. • To evaluate the effectiveness of reclamation and its added costs to mining. To describe the increasing rarity of some non-renewable mineral resources. Introduction Minerals play an important role in our day-to-day life, but we often do not contemplate how the minerals are obtained. Minerals are scattered all over the world, just like any other resource.
The Central Artery Tunnel Project, more commonly known as the Big Dig, is said to be the largest, most complex and technologically challenging highway project in American history. It is the culmination of decades of planning and forethought and is hoped to alleviate the traffic congestion that has plagued the Boston area since the invention of the automobile. The project incorporates a major underground highway system, a revolutionary cable-stayed bridge, and a series of impressive tunnel crossings, each a considerable feat on their own, all constructed in the midst of a bustling city.
Lins, C., & Horwitz, E. (2007). Sustainability in the Mining Sector. Retrieved November 6, 2017, from http://www.fbds.org.br/IMG/pdf/doc-295.pdf
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...
...mba, K., 2012. Public facilities management and action research for sustainbility. 1st ed. Kgs. Lyngby: DTU Management Engineering.
Excellent service – with application engineers who design and assist in planning your complete water treatment solution. Also, their services for the delivery of salt, filter changes and maintenance are completely reliable.
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.
The coal mining has several disadvantages which not only limited to carbon di oxide emission but also affect the land, water, human health and other species life. Underground and opencast mining both have their tremendous disadvantages for environment and the society. Underground mining requires fire blast which has lined up severe situations like human safety and environmental pollution. These activities are also responsible for the displacement of the human beings, animals and other species hence it will disturb the ecosystem. In 2006, 30 million people displace which was 50% higher than the year of 1991. The coal mining also requires large amount of water from the nearby source and this waste and contaminated water generally disposed to some river and land. These activities affect the normal drinking water, underground/surface water and the minerals of lands. The large scale excavations, removal of surface soil, dumping chemical wastes, creation of road, cutting of mountains etc. all these actions causing severe impact on the land. The land deforestation is one of the most severe problems because it’s also related to the local people and animals. Number of species and animals rapidly got endangered from the past few years because of such activities.
Gold mining in South Africa has a large impact on the environment, the economy and social structure in South Africa. The environmental impact of gold mining on the environment includes water, air and noise pollution. The mining industry in South Africa is one of the largest in the world. It provides jobs for hundreds of thousands of people in the mining industry alone. The mining industry also indirectly provides jobs for about 400 000 with the goods and services that the mines require to run successfully.
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.
A very important aspect of tourism is the transport, transport consists of traveling by air, road, railway and sea. The levels of transportation have been rising at an alarming rate due to the increase in population around the world and due to the increase in traveling tourists. With the increase in the number of tourist, this comes with a consequence, as tourism is responsible for the large amount of air transmissions. These emissions, as well as those that provide the tourists with their important needs such as electricity have great and extremely harmful effects on South Africa's environment for example the wildlife, our fertile soils, the purity of the water supplies, it can even harm human lives and effect our crops. With all these important things being harmed we are risking food shortages due to chemicals effecting the crops, which over a long time can be extremely life threa...