Minerals, Wealth and Progress - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 19

The Environmental Dimension of Mining

The most obvious environmental effect of mining is the alteration, sometimes approaching
total destruction, of the natural landscape of the mine site. The removal of topsoil can lay vast
areas bare for many years. The placement of barren rock (mostly overburden and tailings)
creates massive structures with associated risks of failure. Alteration of natural landscape
and deposits of rock place a heavy burden on the hydrosphere, especially in areas without
ample water supply, as is common in many developing countries. Secondary environmental
affects can also arise from induced development. Improved access to previously isolated areas,
for example, may impact the region more than the mine itself. Mining roads open areas for
illegal logging or hunting, and frequently for illegal mining. Uncontrolled settlements place
additional strain on natural resources such as water, wild life, and forest products.

Improved access to previously
isolated areas may impact
the region more than the
mine itself.

Global Benefits at Local Costs
On a global scale, it can be said that the mining industry simply responds to the demands
of global society, producing the minerals needed to satisfy that demand. At the local level,
broad theory becomes burdened with disruptive practicalities. It is possible for a well-
planned and implemented mining project to bring sustainable social benefits to communi-
ties in the form of higher levels of education and health care, and other forms of physical
and social capital. However, as previously noted, inevitably there are social costs associated
with mining projects. They are frequently located in more remote, less developed regions,
with little physical or social infrastructure to support industrial operations, and no prior
experience with the kinds of environmental and social impacts which follow from a major
mining development. Such projects impose a new economic infrastructure with social con-
sequences that may extend well beyond the physical boundaries of the project.
Central to these social concerns is the establishment of settlement areas to support min-
ing operations. Mining towns planned by the mine investors are immigrant settlements.
As a result they may suffer from a host of social problems due to the absence of estab-
lished and familiar social structures. A large number of people may be exposed to ethnic
and economic class distinctions not previously encountered. Mining will attract many who
expect to benefit from the project: communities or areas in the vicinity of the mining site
can become gathering places for migrant workers, extended families of mine personnel,
or for unemployed workers who stay after construction is completed. These people often
place a strain on supporting infrastructure, which is designed only to cope with personnel
directly related to the mine.
Mining may also initiate modernization of the region, which may include, among
others, farming methods, transportation, and housing; such rapid change can have social
consequences as a result of the destruction of older social and cultural norms. Finally, cen-
tral to the assessment of social and economic issues is the fact that the mining project will
eventually shut down. When this happens, the mine ceases to be a source of employment
and a buyer of goods, stranding suppliers of goods and services in the vicinity of the min-
ing operation without their main source of income.

Central to the assessment of
social and economic issues is the
fact that the mining project will
eventually shut down.

The Less Visible but Highly Vulnerable Segments of Population
Given that the distribution of benefits and costs is often inequitable, mining companies
have sometimes been caught off-guard by protests from, or on behalf of, less visible but
highly vulnerable segments of the population. These may include the poor, the elderly,
women, adolescents, the unemployed; also members of groups that are racially, ethni-
cally, or culturally distinctive; and further, occupational, political, or value-based groups
for whom a given community, region, or use of a biophysical environment is particularly