Environmental Impacts of Mining and Smelting Background The mining sector is responsible for some of the largest releases

of heavy metals into the environment of any industry. It also releases other air pollutants including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in addition to leaving behind tons of waste tailings, slag, and acid drainage. Occupational and environmental exposure to heavy metals, silica, and asbestos can occur during mining and milling operations. The smelting process (extracting the metal from the ore) is associated with the highest exposures and environmental releases.

The hazards to human health caused by exposure to heavy metals including lead, cadmium and mercury have been thoroughly documented. These metals are associated with a range of neurological deficits in both children and adults in addition to a range of other systemic effects. Exposure to airborne silica and asbestos can cause lung cancer, pneumoconiosis and numerous other health effects. While pollution controls can minimize exposures to workers and surrounding communities, these safeguards are often absent in mining and smelting operations in developing countries. Even relatively efficient mining operations result in enormous waste, emissions to air and water, and a legacy of environmental contamination in nearby communities. Around the world, unsafe mining and smelting practices have been responsible for a continuing series of environmental and human health disasters, which cause great human tragedy and undermine social stability, economic development and sustainability goals.

For example, in 2010, more than 400 children died in Zamfara, Nigeria from acute lead poisoning caused by unsafe mining and processing lead-containing gold ore. People grinding the ore, often in and around their homes, contaminated at least 180 villages over a wide area.

Even large-scale gold mining has significant mercury releases associated with ore processing. It is now known that significant mercury emissions result from cyanide leaching and even from mine tailings where no mercury has been added.6 More commonly, small-scale gold mining utilizes significant quantities of mercury to extract gold from the ore. Exposure to mercury in these operations not only endangers miners and their families, but is also detrimental to the environment when deposited into the water supply. Artisanal gold mining employs an estimated 10-15 million miners in more than 55 countries.7 Estimates are that these small operations produce about 20% of the world's gold supply.

Many studies have documented significant mercury exposures in these gold mining communities. In the Madre de Dios region of Peru, gold shops serving small artisanal miners were found to have mercury levels that were more than 20 times the World Health Organization (WHO) occupational health standard for mercury.8 This region of Peru alone has over 20,000 informal gold mining operations.
The environmental impact of mining includes erosion, formation of sinkholes, loss of biodiversity, and contamination of soil, groundwater and surface water by chemicals from mining processes. In some cases, additional forest logging is done in the vicinity of mines to increase the available room for the storage of the created debris and soil.Besides creating environmental damage, the contamination resulting from leakage of chemicals also affect the health of the local population.Mining companies in some countries are required to follow environmental and rehabilitation codes, ensuring the area mined is returned to close to its original state. Some mining methods may have significant environmental and public health effects.

Children Are Most Susceptible

Children suffer a disproportionate share of the disease burden imposed by mining pollution. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 250 million children are involved in child labor and that over 70 percent of them face hazardous conditions. Children in Asia, South America, and Africa participate in the mining of gold, tin, and precious metals. According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), small-scale gold processing operations in

developing countries employ one million children. Children, who are more susceptible to the impacts of heavy metals, tend to have higher exposures and generally account for the majority of deaths and disease associated with mass poisoning incidents from these operations. Studies have documented that children involved in mining have higher exposures to mercury, lead, and other metals and suffer severe lead and mercury intoxication.

Assessing Hazards from Artisanal Mining in Nigeria

In 2012, OK International conducted an investigation of artisanal small-scale mines (ASM) throughout Nigeria to assess health hazards in an effort to prevent tragedies like the one in Zamfara. We visited gold mines, ore processing sites and lead mines where we collected soil and water samples and completed a hazard evaluation for each site. We also worked with the Nigerian Ministry of Mines and Steel Development (MMSD) in coordination with other government agencies to conduct a three-day training session to increase the capacity within government agencies to evaluate hazards in ASM.

Soil samples collected around gold ore processing at one site had lead concentrations as high as 1% in a location where miners also slept and ate. These concentrations pose a significant health risk to both the miners and surrounding communities. Not surprisingly, lead concentrations were also very high around artisanal lead mines where the ore had as much as 18% lead. We also found soil to be contaminated with mercury at gold processing sites where children were conducting amalgamation processes. In addition to the hazards of toxic metals in the ore, we noted very high silica dust exposures in ore processing.

Although some resources have been devoted to environmental remediation and medical treatment of poisoned children in Zamfara, little attention is being paid to the extent of the problem in other areas of Nigeria. There is no national or state level database of artisanal mines in Nigeria and information about the metal

content in ore is lacking. Raising awareness among miners of the hazards and safer mining practices is desperately needed at ASM sites throughout Nigeria in order to prevent the occurrence of more lead and mercury contamination and silicosis. We are also recommending that the Nigerian authorities conduct a more thorough investigation of gold mines outside Zamfara to characterize locations with significant lead exposure.

Outsourcing Hazardous Processing A Growing Problem

In recent years we have witnessed a growing shift to export the most polluting aspects of the mining industry to developing countries. The U.S. exports millions of tons of mined ore to countries with more lenient environmental and occupational regulations and little enforcement. For example, in 2010, 50% of the lead ore mined in the U.S. was exported to China and South Korea for processing (see below). Only 25% of the lead ore mined in the U.S. is now processed at the nation's one remaining primary smelter. The graph below shows that lead ore exports from the U.S. to China grew by 50 percent between 2005 and 2010. China has reported more than 30 serious lead poisoning incidents around lead smelters and battery recyclers since 2009. Moreover, changes in the global economy threaten to increase the harm caused by unsafe mining and smelting practices. Growing demand for metals and increasing commodity prices are encouraging expansion of both formal and smallscale mining and recycling around the world. In addition, initiatives aimed at reducing global carbon emissions can have the unintended consequence of increasing lead poisoning in developing countries. For example, the adoption of solar, wind power and electric vehicles is increasing demand for lead batteries. The development of new applications for larger lithium ion batteries is significantly increasing the demand for lithium, cobalt, manganese and other metals. This trend may continue if plans to accelerate the production of electric and hybrid vehicles are realized.

U.S. LEAD ORE EXPORTS TO CHINA: Global Campaign to End Hazardous Mining Activities The response to the reported mass poisoning incidents surrounding mining and smelting operations is predictably similar from country to country: shock upon discovery of the problem, medical treatment of survivors (to the extent that resources are available), and a call for huge sums to remediate environmental contamination. In most cases no one is left to cover the costs of environmental cleanup or even to compensate workers harmed on the job. A new approach is needed to prevent these human health impacts and environmental contamination before the damage is done.

OK International is therefore calling for a global campaign to end dangerous mining, smelting and recycling practices that poison children, workers, and families in developing countries and leave adjacent communities devastated by widespread contamination. These efforts will instead encourage the adoption of improved practices in the most hazardous mining and smelting operations. This campaign would engage technical experts, create multistakeholder partnerships, develop and promote consensus standards, and link safety, health and environmental concerns with economic development. The campaign's goal is to change the norms of practice to prevent environmental contamination before medical treatment and costly cleanup operations are needed.

Issues WATER POLLUTION

Mining can have adverse effects on surrounding surface and ground water if protective measures are not taken. The result can be unnaturally high concentrations of some chemicals, such as arsenic, sulfuric acid, and mercury over a significant area of surface or subsurface.Runoff of mere soil or rock debris although non-toxic- also devastates the surrounding vegetation. The dumping of the runoff in surface waters or in forests is the worst option here. Submarine tailings disposal is regarded as a better option (if

the soil is pumped to a great depth).Mere land storage and refilling of the mine after it has been depleted is even better, if no forests need to be cleared for the storage of the debris. There is potential for massive contamination of the area surrounding mines due to the various chemicals used in the mining process as well as the potentially damaging compounds and metals removed from the ground with the ore. Large amounts of water produced from mine drainage, mine cooling, aqueous extraction and other mining processes increases the potential for these chemicals to contaminate ground and surface water. In wellregulated mines, hydrologists and geologists take careful measurements of water and soil to exclude any type of water contamination that could be caused by the mine's operations.

Heavy metals[edit]
Dissolution and transport of metals and heavy metals by run-off and ground water is another example of environmental problems with mining, such as the Britannia Mine, a former copper mine near Vancouver, British Columbia. Tar Creek, an abandoned mining area in Picher, Oklahoma that is now an Environmental Protection Agency superfund site, also suffers from heavy metal contamination. Water in the mine containing dissolved heavy metals such as lead and cadmium leaked into local groundwater, [6] contaminating it. Long-term storage of tailings and dust can lead to additional problems, as they can be easily blown off site by wind, as occurred at Scouriotissa, an abandoned copper mine in Cyprus.

Deforestation[edit]
With open cast mining the overburden, which may be covered in forest, must be removed before the mining can commence. Although the deforestation due to mining may be small compared to the total amount it may lead to species extinction if there is a high level of local endemism.

Mitigation
To ensure completion of reclamation, or restoring mine land for future use, many governments and regulatory authorities around the world require that mining companies post a bond to be held in escrow until productivity of reclaimed land has been convincingly demonstrated, although if cleanup procedures are more expensive than the size of the bond, the bond may simply be abandoned. Since 1978 the mining industry has reclaimed more than 2 million acres (8,000 km) of land in the United States alone. This reclaimed land has renewed vegetation and wildlife in previous mining lands and can even be used for farming and ranching.

Responsible mining
Responsible mining refers to advocacy to reform mining activity, as well a marketing strategy used by mining companies to promote their operations as environmentally or socially sound. Goals may vary by [1] group.Responsible mining first began to appear in an article entitled "Re-inhabitory Mining" and next as [2] "Ecological Mining". The term "Responsible Mining" was formulated by Ranil Senanayake of theInternational Analog Forestry Network and Brian Hill of the Institute for Cultural Ecology

Groups
'Responsible mining' advocacy is carried out by several non-governmental organizations (NGOs): The Alliance for Responsible Mining is an independent, mission-driven initiative that supports artisanal and small-scale (ASM) miners globally. Established in 2004, the organizations mission is to enhance social and economic wellbeing, strengthen environmental protection and establish fair governance in

ASM communities by formalizing the ASM sector. To achieve its mission, ARM has created an exceptional set of social and environmental standards known as the Fairmined certification. ARM offers extensive and continuous support and training to ASM communities to help them reach the standards, achieve the Fairmined certification and invest in community development. Furthermore, ARM serves as an intermediary for ASM communities, which gives them the opportunity to respond to international markets demanding ethical metals and jewelry. Since 2004, ARM has facilitated the positive transformation of multiple ASM communities in Latin America and is currently expanding its efforts to Africa and Asia.

Description/Abstract
As coal is considered as a substitute for other fuels, more serious attention is being given to the environmental impacts of the whole coal fuel cycle: mining, transport, storage, combustion and conversion. This book presents an account of these environmental impacts and the recent developments to control them. In addition to the experience and developments in North America and Western Europe the book presents information on the developments in the socialist countries of Eastern Europe. The book covers elements and chemical compounds; coal in the international energy scene; land disturbance and reclamation after mining; resource demands of coal production; environmental impacts of coal transportation; coal combustion; coal conversion technologies; application of the exposure commitment model to coal utilization emission problems; the environmental significance of trace elements from coal combustion and conversion processes; the environmental significance of coal-derived carbon compounds; occupational and environmental health problems from coal utilization and conversion; and the effect of coal utilization emissions on natural and man-managed terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems.