Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Source: US Geological Survey, 2011
and Stratocaster guitars, the demand for metallic
resources is likely to continue to increase.
What unites metallic and non-metallic
resources is that they tend to be extracted from the
Earth's crust using various mining techniques.
These mining techniques are associated with
a range of different environmental problems.
At one level, surface level 'open cast' or 'strip
mining' can totally destroy landscapes and the
ecological systems that have developed upon
them. At another level, however, the removal of
minerals from the ground is often associated
with the release of harmful pollutants into the
environments that surround mines. The spoils
(or leftovers) from mining activities often con-
tain substances such as mercury and arsenic
(Plate 2.3).
When rainwater passes over these
mining spoils it can transport these pollutants
into surrounding watercourses, which can have
serious consequences for both human health
and the sustainability of local ecological systems.
As the demand for metallic and non-metallic
resources continues to increase, the scale of
associated mining activities is also expanding.
It is in this context that we are now seeing the
emergence of so-called super mines (or pits),
which are able to extract resources from ground
at greatly expended scales. The Anthropocene
appears to be characterized by both increasing
rates of mining and expansions in the size of
individual mines. These two processes raise
important issues concerning the long-term
