Impacts of mining activities on environment

Dr. Hemant Khandare, Assitt. Professor in Geology, M.G. College, Armori e-mail- hkhandare@yahoo.co.in

Mining and power generation are among the most important developmental activities after agriculture. The mining of mineral resources whether by open-cast or underground methods have severe environmental implications if, proper planning and management strategies are nor adopted. The magnitude of these impacts depends, to a large extent, on the existing environmental conditions and socio-economic status of the people. To maintain living worthy environmental conditions regular monitoring of such area at periodic intervals is required. In recent years, remote sencing and GIS technologies have emerged very powerful tools for inventorying, mapping and monitoring of the natural resources and is increasingly finding its use in monitoring ecological conditions at a macro-scale In India total number of mines and the production of minerals have increased substantially. A comparison of 1951 and 1985 data shows that the total number of mines in the country has increased by 42 per cent. Likewise, the production of coal has increased 4 times, iron 10.65 times, copper 11 times during the same period. Resultantly, we have been disturbing the ecosystem components and processes more and more and increasing the problems of environment degradation. The environmental aspect of mining depend to a great extent on the type of mining, the ore to be extracted, beneficiation, and the machinery used for obtaining desired concentration level etc. The damage to the environment and ecology are difficult to assess in quantitative terms though all mining activities have their attendant problems of deforestation, air and water pollution, disfiguring of the landscape, increase in soil erosion, removal of fertile topsoil and subsidence of land etc. The following environmental problems of serious nature are normally associated with mining activities.

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Water Pollution: Chemicals like mercury, cyanide, sulfuric acid, arsenic and

methyl mercury are used in various stages of mining. Most of the chemicals are released into nearby water bodies that leads to water pollution. In spite of tailings (pipes) being used to dispose these chemicals into the water bodies, possibilities of leakage are always there. When the leaked chemicals slowly percolate through the layers of the earth, they reach the groundwater and pollute it. Surface run-off of just soil and rock debris, although non-toxic, can be harmful for vegetation of the surrounding areas. 2. 3. Air pollution : Air pollution due to release of noxious gases into the atmosphere Land Pollution: Despite measures being taken to release the chemical waste into and generation of dust during various operations. the nearby rivers through pipes, a large amount of chemicals still leak out onto the land. This changes the chemical composition of the land. Besides this, since the chemicals are poisonous, they make the soil unsuitable for plants to grow. Also, the organisms that live in the soil find the polluted environment hostile for their survival. 4. Loss of Aquatic Life: Release of toxic chemicals into the water is obviously harmful for the flora and fauna of the water bodies. Besides the pollution, mining processes use water from nearby water sources. The result is that the water content of the river or lake from which water is being used gets reduced. Organisms in these water bodies do not have enough water for their survival. River dredging is a method adopted in case of gold mining. In this method, gravel and mud is suctioned from a particular area of the river. After the gold fragments are filtered out, the remaining mud and gravel is released back into the river, although, at a location different from where they had been taken. This disrupts the natural flow of the river that may cause fishes and other organisms to die. 5. Deforestation: Mining requires large areas of land to be cleared so that the earth could be dug into by the miners. For this reason, large scale deforestation is required to be carried out in the areas where mining has to be done. Besides clearing the mining area, vegetation in the adjoining areas also needs to be cut in order to construct roads and residential facilities for the mine workers. The human population brings along with it other activities that harm the environment.

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Loss of Biodiversity: The forests that are cleared for mining purposes are home

to a large number of organisms. Indiscriminate clearing of the forests lead to loss of habitat of a large number of animals. This puts the survival of a large number of animal species at stake. The cutting down of trees in itself is a big threat to a number of plants and trees growing in the forests. 7. Effect of Mining Activities on Wildlife: Environmental contaminants associated with mining activities may affect wildlife species in many ways and at many levels within the ecosystem. Some contaminants associated with mines (e.g., lead, arsenic, cyanide, etc.) may cause acute or chronic effects on resident wildlife. 8. Spread of diseases : Sometimes the liquid waste that is generated after the metals or minerals have been extracted is disposed in a mining pit. As the pit gets filled up by the mine tailings, they become a stagnant pool of water. This becomes the breeding ground for water-borne diseases causing insects and organisms like mosquitoes to flourish. Although the developed countries have tight norms regarding mining, such rules can be easily flouted in countries which lack strict monitoring of the procedures being followed for mining. The effects in such cases can be devastating for the environment. Be it due to ignorance of the regulations or just a freak accident, incidents like the Guyana spill of 1995 highlights the fact that issues like how does mining affect the environment are worth some serious deliberation. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Land degradation due to large scale excavation, disposal of mine wastes and Landslides in the hilly terrain due to steepening of slopes during open-cast mining Disruption of water regime. Problems of noise and vibration due to blasting and operation of heavy Human-environment problems : settlement, health and associated problems. Problems caused by mine fires, like land degradation, air and thermal pollution, tailing and subsidence. operations.

machinery.

disruption of transportation etc.