Ontario produces the largest amount of metal such as nickel, gold, platinum, and cobalt in Canada. Also, Ontario is a significant producer of copper, zinc, and silver. The amount of metal proves that Ontario produces very large amount of metal. For example, in 2005, over four billion dollars of metal was produced in Ontario.
Mining is the industry that makes people to earn profit by extracting solid minerals (e.g. copper, zinc, silver, gold, and coal). The mining started from the prehistoric age. Mining back then had many limitations since advanced technology for efficient mining did not exist and human labour was only power to extract minerals. Mining was very dangerous job, too. By the time back then, deep mining was not easy job. Also, mining in wet places were not possible because they could not remove water easily and quickly. In late middle age to early modern age, the invention of explosives and steam engine improved the mining technology. Also, technological advance in safety measures made safer mining environment. Nowadays, mining takes important role in economy and our everyday life.
Metal mining is not just the extraction of the minerals. It is connected with our everyday life. First of all, mining is important industry for our life. For example, most of utensils, vehicles, technologies, tools, and many more things cannot be produced without metal. Therefore, metal is very important substance for our lifestyle. Second, it is important for the economy, too. In Canada, mining provides job to over 115 communities. Many companies working on processing, smelting, refining, altering, and exporting mineral provides variety of job, too. Mining in today is not just extracting natural resources. It is connected with our lifestyl...
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...t will become bigger than environmental problems that caused by mining itself. Many people will lose their job, lifestyle and healthcare will become poor, and many communities that relied on mining will face bankruptcy. In conclusion, since there are alternatives to mitigate environmental damage of the mining and mining is connected to our lifestyle and economy, the benefit of mining will justify the cost of the mining.
Works Cited
“Reducing Mercury Pollution from Gold Mining” http://www.epa.gov/international/toxics/mercury/asgm.html “Metals” http://www.greatmining.com/metals.html “Mining Impacts” http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/coal/Mining-impacts/ “Economic Impact Analysis” http://www.mining.bc.ca/sites/default/files/resources/pwcmining-economicimpactanalysis_1.pdf “Health Effects – Mercury”
http://www.epa.gov/hg/effects.htm
Copper mining has had a huge impact on Michigan throughout history. Copper mining has had such an impact that the Upper Peninsula of Michigan has a region referred to as “The Copper Country” because of its involvement in the copper-mining industry. The copper-mining industry has also led to technological developments necessary for hoisting and drilling as well as the development of towns and cities in the Keweenaw. In addition, it led to the creation of many potential jobs for residents of the towns that were developed to support these mines.
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...
Miners Miners sought out large veins, called bonanzas, of gold and silver in the west. An assortment of ores could be found including gold, silver, zinc, copper and lead. Towns were established on the site of a large vein of ore. Males dominated the towns, but when it came to race, any kind of person could be found. Rich white men managed the business aspects of the mining while poor white men, Hispanics and Chinese Americans did the grueling, difficult work in the mines. African Americans usually worked as cooks. Miner towns included a saloon and other important buildings full of services and government, but everyone was always hard at work in the mines or doing paper work. The miner town either prospered until the bonanza was depleted or no real wealth was discovered. Women of the West Women in the west usually came with their families. If their husband died, they would continue to work the farm or marry another man. Women from the east or brought over from Asia could marry men who found wealth in the west. A lot of women came over to the west to teach or spread the word of God. Teachers usually found a husband and abandoned their teaching
In a typical year, the mining industry is responsible for almost 20 per cent of Canada's total export earnings3 (See Appendix A). As for the employment rate, over 70 per cent of the mines are owned by Canadians and approximately 108,000 Canadians are directly employed in the mining industry4. Mining is very important in Canadian life. Not only do the products power the family car and heat the family home, the manufacturing sector, the high tech industries and even the better known resource industries are all dependent, in some way, on the mining industry. The mining industry will continue to be an important support to the economy. Mining is taking full advantage of the quick expansion of computers and microelectronics.
Coal also can be very damaging to the environment. People in the coal industry don’t always follow the precautions needed for helping the recovering environment that coal mining hurt. Most of the time water is polluted from the byproduct the is produced while mining coal. Like acid mine drainage, air pollution from coal-fired power plants, coal dust, coal sludge, and mountaintop
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.
One group affected by the development of the West was the uprising of the “General Mining Act of 1872, which allowed those who discovered minerals on federally owned land to work the claim and keep all the proceeds” (Henretta 475). This was brought on in hopes to develop more of western resources. This rise of mining and resources was sought to be great as it made a ravenous market for timer and produce.
The loss of a life is the ultimate tragedy, and over the thousands of years of mining history, the industry has had its share of casualties. Mining deals with the extraction of raw materials like coal, diamond, iron-ore etc. Mining industries can be both open cast mining and underground mining. Although we have improved in the technology and study of the earth, mining industry is a very dangerous job. One of the most dangerous work of mining has been mentioned to be coal mining in which they extract coal from underground. Coal mining hazardous mixture of gas and coal dust can form a fatal explosion. As a matter of fact, I reviewed an article that mention the worst coal mining known as the Benxi Hu colliery disaster in China in 1942. “Cost 1,549 lives and is believed to be the worst coal mining disaster ever.” (Limited, 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...
What comes to mind when you think of coal mining? If you're like me, coal mining means living in darkness and a cold hearted industry. Other words that come to mind are poverty and oppression. Coal mining is not a job that you dream about or get a degree for. People who are coal miners do not chose a life full of danger and repression, they get stuck with it. There are many dangers that come along with coal mining, not only for the workers, but for the environment. Coal mining and the coal industry have caused irreversible damage to our environment and has killed innocent miners.
Santarossa, B. (2004, January 13). Diamonds: Adding lustre to the Canadian economy. Retrieved November 06, 2017, from https://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-621-m/11-621-m2004008-eng.htm
Coal mining can benefit humans as well as it supports the economy in many ways. Coal mining provides a lot of jobs for local communities. It provides over 7 million jobs worldwide.
What is good about mining? Some of the pros of mining are it provides coal, which is one of the best sources of energy here in the United States. It creates well-paying jobs, provides stable energy, is the cheapest form of energy available, and does minimal damage to the environment when compared with some other forms of energy. Half of the energy that is used by the United States every day comes from coal and that coal is only accessible because of miners. Mining allowed industrial growth and development. Without mining we would have remained undeveloped. Almost everything you use in your daily life has some component that come from mining or petroleum in one way or another. The Industrial Revolution could simply not have occurred without mining, firstly coal and iron mining, and later many more commodities. Mining powers the power stations, and provides the chemicals we use to purify water, make paint, build computers and make glass. There are some cons that come to mind when talking about mining also which includes environmental degradation, soil erosion and destru...
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...
The indirect impact of the mining industry has been huge in terms of funding for things like skill development through education and training, there is also provision made for social services in the mines (e.g. health care for the employees of the mines and their families, housing, school etc.) and the contribution the national economy.