The Impact of Mining on the Landscape PDF Download

Author: Renata Dulias
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319295411
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
This book investigates the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (USCB), one of the oldest and largest mining areas not only in Poland but also in Europe. Using uniform research methods for the whole study area, it also provides a summary of the landscape transformations. Intensive extraction of hard coal, zinc and lead ores, stowing sands and rock resources have caused such extensive transformations of landscape that it can be considered a model anthropogenic relief. The book has three main focuses: 1) Identifying anthropogenic forms of relief related to mining activity and presenting them from a spatial, genetic and age perspective; 2) Determining the changes in the morphometric characteristics of relief and the conditions for matter circulation in open systems (drainage basins) and closed systems (land-locked basins) caused by the extraction of mineral resources; and 3) Estimating the extent of anthropogenic denudation using two different methods based on raw-material output and morphometric analysis. In Poland, no other mining area has undergone such intensive mining activity as the Upper Silesian Coal Basin during the last half century. Its share in the total extraction of mineral resources was as high as 32%. The total extraction of hard coal in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin from the mid-18th century until 2009 was the sixth largest in the world, and the permanent, regional effects of mining anthropopressure on the relief are among the most severe in the world. The anthropogenic denudation rate in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, as well as the Ruhr Coal Basin (Ruhr District) and the Ostrava-Karvina Coal Basin, ranges from several dozen up to several hundred times higher than the rate of natural denudation, irrespective of the calculation method used. It would take the natural denudation processes tens of thousands of years to remove the same amount of material from the substratum as that removed through human mining activity.

Author: Fred G. Bell
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 0203969510
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 561

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Book Description
Winner of the 2007 E.B. Burwell, Jr. Award of the Geological Society of America Mining activity has left a legacy of hazards to the environment, such as waste, unstable ground and contamination, which can be problematic when redeveloping land. This book highlights the effects of past mining and provides information on the types of problems it may cause in both urban and rural areas. By way of example, the book also demonstrates how such problems may be anticipated, investigated, predicted, prevented and controlled. Furthermore, it shows how sites already affected by mining problems and hazards can be remediated and rehabilitated. Covering subsidence, surface mining, disposal of waste, problems resulting from mine closure and mineral processing, Mining and its Impact on the Environment is an excellent reference for practising mining and geotechnical engineers, as well as students in this field.

Author: Jose M. Azcue
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642598919
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
Since the mining industry is still expanding, comprehensive information on the effects of mining activities on the environment is needed. This book provides information on biological and physico-chemical treatments of mining effluents, on factors affecting human health and on environmental effects that have to be taken into account by the mining industry when aiming for sustainable development of their industry. Further regulatory guidelines and legislation relevant to the decommissioning of mining sites are reviewed. Mining industry, consulting companies, and governmental agencies alike will find a wealth of valuable information in this book.

Author: Ravi Jain
Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
ISBN: 0128040920
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
Environmental Impact of Mining and Mineral Processing: Management, Monitoring, and Auditing Strategies covers all the aspects related to mining and the environment, including environmental assessment at the early planning stages, environmental management during mine operation, and the identification of major impacts. Technologies for the treatment of mining, mineral processing, and metallurgical wastes are also covered, along with environmental management of mining wastes, including disposal options and the treatment of mining effluents. - Presents a systematic approach for environmental assessment of mining and mineral processing projects - Provides expert advice for the implementation of environmental management systems that are unique to the mining industry - Effectively addresses a number of environmental challenges, including air quality, water quality, acid mine drainage, and land and economic impacts - Explains the latest in environmental monitoring and control systems to limit the environmental impact of mining and processing operations

Author: John R. McNeill
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520279174
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
"Over the past five hundred years, North Americans have increasingly turned to mining to produce many of their basic social and cultural objects. From cell phones to cars and roadways, metal pots to wall tile and even talcum powder, minerals products have become central to modern North American life. As this process has unfolded, mining has also indelibly shaped the natural world and North Americans' relationship with it. Mountains have been honeycombed, rivers poisoned, and forests leveled. The effects of these environmental transformations have fallen unevenly across North American societies. Mining North America examines these developments. Drawing on the work of scholars from Mexico, the United States, and Canada, this book explores how mining has shaped North America over the last half millennium. It covers an array of minerals and geographies while seeking to draw mining into the core debates that animate North American environmental history generally. Taken together, the authors' contributions make a powerful case for the centrality of mining in forging North American environments and societies"--Provided by publisher.

Author: Karlheinz Spitz
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351183648
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 1145

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Book Description
The history of mining is replete with controversy of which much is related to environmental damage and consequent community outrage. Over recent decades, this has led to increased pressure to improve the environmental and social performance of mining operations, particularly in developing countries. The industry has responded by embracing the ideals of sustainability and corporate social responsibility. Mining and the Environment identifies and discusses the wide range of social and environmental issues pertaining to mining, with particular reference to mining in developing countries, from where many of the project examples and case studies have been selected. Following an introductory overview of pressing issues, the book illustrates how environmental and social impact assessment, such as defined in "The Equator Principles", integrates with the mining lifecycle and how environmental and social management aims to eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive mining impacts. Practical approaches are provided for managing issues ranging from land acquisition and resettlement of Indigenous peoples, to the technical aspects of acid rock drainage and mine waste management. Moreover, thorough analyses of ways and means of sharing non-transitory mining benefits with host communities are presented to allow mining to provide sustainable benefits for the affected communities. This second edition of Mining and the Environment includes new chapters on Health Impact Assessment, Biodiversity and Gender Issues, all of which have become more important since the first edition appeared a decade ago. The wide coverage of issues and the many real-life case studies make this practice-oriented book a reference and key reading. It is intended for environmental consultants, engineers, regulators and operators in the field and for students to use as a course textbook. As much of the matter applies to the extractive industries as a whole, it will also serve environmental professionals in the oil and gas industries. Karlheinz Spitz and John Trudinger both have multiple years of experience in the assessment of mining projects around the world. The combination of their expertise and knowledge about social, economic, and environmental performance of mining and mine waste management has resulted in this in-depth coverage of the requirements for responsible and sustainable mining.

Author: Mritunjoy Sengupta
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351450530
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
Environmental Impacts of Mining is a comprehensive reference addressing some of the most significant environmental problems associated with mining. These issues include destruction of landscapes, destruction of agricultural and forest lands, sedimentation and erosion, soil contamination, surface and groundwater pollution, air pollution, and waste management. The book presents an agenda for minimizing environmental damage and offers solutions for the restoration and remediation of degraded areas. This book is a ""must have"" for environmental consultants, regulators, planners, workers in the mining industry, geologists, hydrologists, hazardous waste professionals, and instructors in the environmental sciences.

Author: M.J. Chadwick
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 1483286304
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
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 volume presents an up-to-date account of these environmental impacts and the recent developments to combat and control them. A feature of the book is the way in which it discusses not only the experience and developments in North America and Western Europe but also presents much information made available for this study on the developments in the socialist countries of Eastern Europe.

Author: Jaume Bech
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0128097299
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 522

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Book Description
Assessment, Restoration and Reclamation of Mining Influenced Soils covers processes operating in the environment as a result of mining activity, including the whole spectra of negative effects of anthropopressure and the environment, from changes in soil chemistry, changes in soil physical properties, geomechanical disturbances, and mine water discharges. Mining activity and its waste are an environmental concern. Knowledge of the fate of potentially harmful elements and their effect on plants and the food chain, and ultimately on human health, is still being understood. Therefore, there is a need for better knowledge on the origin, distribution, and management of mine waste on a global level. This book provides information on hazard assessment and remediation of the disturbed environment, including stabilization of contaminated soils and phytoremediation, and will help scientists and public authorities formulate answers to the daily challenges related to the restoration of contaminated land. - Provides a thorough overview of the processes operating on mining-devastated areas, as well as origin, distribution, and deactivation of harmful elements - Includes outcomes and recommendations of the Global Mining Initiative that are widely regarded as the code of conduct in the minerals industry - Contains global case studies that elucidate various aspects of assessment and restoration of mine-contaminated land

Author: Saleem H. Ali
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816546886
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
From sun-baked Black Mesa to the icy coast of Labrador, native lands for decades have endured mining ventures that have only lately been subject to environmental laws and a recognition of treaty rights. Yet conflicts surrounding mining development and indigenous peoples continue to challenge policy-makers. This book gets to the heart of resource conflicts and environmental impact assessment by asking why indigenous communities support environmental causes in some cases of mining development but not in others. Saleem Ali examines environmental conflicts between mining companies and indigenous communities and with rare objectivity offers a comparative study of the factors leading to those conflicts. Mining, the Environment, and Indigenous Development Conflicts presents four cases from the United States and Canada: the Navajos and Hopis with Peabody Coal in Arizona; the Chippewas with the Crandon Mine proposal in Wisconsin; the Chipewyan Inuits, Déné and Cree with Cameco in Saskatchewan; and the Innu and Inuits with Inco in Labrador. These cases exemplify different historical relationships with government and industry and provide an instance of high and low levels of Native resistance in each country. Through these cases, Ali analyzes why and under what circumstances tribes agree to negotiated mining agreements on their lands, and why some negotiations are successful and others not. Ali challenges conventional theories of conflict based on economic or environmental cost-benefit analysis, which do not fully capture the dynamics of resistance. He proposes that the underlying issue has less to do with environmental concerns than with sovereignty, which often complicates relationships between tribes and environmental organizations. Activist groups, he observes, fail to understand such tribal concerns and often have problems working with tribes on issues where they may presume a common environmental interest. This book goes beyond popular perceptions of environmentalism to provide a detailed picture of how and when the concerns of industry, society, and tribal governments may converge and when they conflict. As demands for domestic energy exploration increase, it offers clear guidance for such endeavors when native lands are involved.