Discuss the effects of mineral extraction on environment
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
Pollution: Mining operations often pollute the atmosphere, surface waters and ground water. ...
Destruction of Land: ...
Subsidence: ...
Noise: ...
Energy: ...
Impact on the Biological Environment: ...
Long-term Supplies of Mineral Resources:
Answer:
major environmental effects of mining and processing of mineral resources
Explanation:
Some of the major environmental effects of mining and processing of mineral resources are as follows: 1. Pollution 2. Destruction of Land 3. Subsidence 4. Noise 5. Energy 6. Impact on the Biological Environment 7. Long-term Supplies of Mineral Resources.
Mining and processing of mineral resources normally have a considerable im-pact on land, water, air, and biologic resources.Social impacts result from the increased demand for housing and other services in mining areas.
1. Pollution:
Mining operations often pollute the atmosphere, surface waters and ground water. Rainwater seeping through spoil heaps may become heavily contami-nated, acidic or turbid, with potentially devastating effects on nearby streams and rivers.
Trace elements (cadmium, cobalt, copper and others) when leached from mining wastes and concentrated in water, soil or plants, may be toxic or may cause diseases in people and other animals who consume contaminated water or plants, or who use the soil. Specially constructed ponds to collect run¬off can help but cannot eliminate all problems.
Huge volumes of dust generated by explosions, transportation and processing may lead to the death of surrounding vegetation. Chemicals used in the extrac-tion processes, such as drilling muds, are often highly polluting substances.
2. Destruction of Land:
Mining activity can cause a considerable loss of land because of chemical con-tamination, destruction of productive layers of soil, and often permanent scar-ring of the land surface. Large mining operations disturb the land by directly removing material in some areas and by dumping waste in others. There can be a considerable loss of wildlife habitat.
3. Subsidence:
The presence of old, deep mines may cause the ground surface to subside in a vertical or horizontal direction. This may severely damage buildings, roads and farmland, as well as alter the surface drainage patterns.
4. Noise:
Blasting and transport cause noise disturbance to local residents and to wild-life.
5. Energy:
Extraction and transportation requires huge amounts of energy which adds to impacts such as acid rain and global warming.
6. Impact on the Biological Environment:
Physical changes in the land, soil, water and air associated with mining directly and indirectly affect the biological environment. Direct impacts include death of plants or animals caused by mining activity or contact with toxic soil or water from mines. Indirect impacts include changes in nutrient cycling, total biomass, species diversity, and ecosystem stability due to alterations in groundwater or surface water availability or quality.
7. Long-term Supplies of Mineral Resources:
The economies of industrialized countries require the extraction and process-ing of large amounts of minerals to make products. As other economies indus-trialize, their mineral demands increase rapidly. The mineral demands of coun¬tries in Asia, such as Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea have grown phenom¬enally in the last twenty years.
Since mineral resources are a non-renewable resource, it is important for all countries to take a low-waste sustainable earth approach to dealing with them. Developed countries need to change from a high-waste throw away approach and developing countries need to insure that they do not adopt such an ap-proach. Low-waste approach requires emphasis on recycling, reusing and waste reduction and less emphasis on dumping, burying and burning.