How Does Mining Affect the Environment?

Mining is the process of extracting metals and minerals from the earth. Mining is often used to extract such objects as gold, silver, diamond, iron, or coal. However, what are the consequences of this process?

Unfortunately, mining can often have devastating effects for the environment. It can have seriously dangerous affects on water. Mining requires the use of a number of serious and frequently harmful chemicals.

Some of these chemicals include, but are not limited to, the following:

• mercury
• cyanide
• sulfuric acid
• arsenic
• methyl mercury

Since these chemicals are used throughout the process of mining, the chemicals frequently seep into the ground.

When these chemicals seep into the ground, they frequently pollute the groundwater. Even when pipes are used to dispose of the chemicals, the chemicals often leak from the pipes.

More problematic, is the fact that the chemicals are disposed in nearby bodies of water. This causes water pollution. Additionally, when the chemicals are released into the bodies of water, it frequently results in the loss of aquatic plants and animals. When run-off of the chemicals occurs above ground, it is harmful for nearby vegetation and plants.

Mining for Gold

When you consider the process that is required to mine gold, the negative effects for water are just as serious. One of the ways in which gold is mined is the process of river dredging. However, river dredging means that gravel and mud is suctioned from a specific part of the river.

The gold is then sifted out of this gravel and mud. The gravel and mud are returned to the river. Often, the gravel and mud is returned to an area of the river that they did not originally come from. This causes problems for the natural flow of the river. This process frequently results in the death of multiple fish and plants in the river.

Mining and the Land

Mining also has serious consequences for the land. The process of mining requires that a large area of land is cleared. This is because the miners must dig through the earth to locate the minerals or substances that they are searching for. Thus, mining frequently requires large scale deforestation.

Deforestation results in the loss of environment for numerous types of animals, and wild life. Besides deforestation, large areas of nearby vegetation must be cut and trimmed to clear a road for the mining workers to even reach the area that they are mining.

Frequent deforestation of areas close to each other can put entire species at risk for becoming endangered, or worse, extinct. When vegetation isn’t removed through the process of mining, it dies due to land pollution from the chemicals discussed in the paragraph above. Furthermore, when the chemicals seep into the soil, it makes the soil unsuitable for new plants to grow in it. Any organisms that live in the polluted soil die due to the pollution.

Liquid Waste

Occasionally, the process of mining results in a type of liquid waste. This liquid waste is sometimes disposed in the mining pits, instead of being properly disposed of.

This often occurs in countries in which the mining regulations are not as strict as other countries. When the pit becomes filled with this liquid waste, it turns into a stagnant and dangerous pool of liquid. It is dangerous because diseases frequently develop in it.

When diseases develop in this pool, insects such as mosquitoes flourish and transport the disease to human hosts or animal hosts. This can frequently result in severe sickness or death for the human or the animal host.

Thus, the process of mining can have dangerous and devastating effects on the environment and the organisms within it.