Mining Industry Case Study

1648 Words4 Pages

The Mining Industry

Johnny Bynum

Keiser University

September 16, 2017

Abstract
The mining industry is a billion dollar industry that has been around for years. Miners and business insiders know exactly how lucrative the business is. In calendar your 2016 a net profit of $US20 billion was the aggregated profit for global miners. Mining comes at a cost and the deaths of miners is one of the costs. One of the most disastrous mining accidents took over 1500 lives. Still over the world needs miners. To prevent accidents the mining industry has stricter safety regulations. At the same time the industry has also had technological improvements. The stricter safety regulations and technological improvements in mining are …show more content…

The mining industry is a billion dollar industry that has been around for years. In calendar your 2016 a net profit of $US20 billion was the aggregated profit for global miners. The year before, 2015, the mining industry had a record high gearing ratios, 49%. The industry took advantage of better operation conditions to pay down debt, reducing the gearing ratios to 41%. Many company front line executives took advantage to reduce debt and fortify their company balance sheets. The results of reducing company debts resulted in minimum funds for capital expenditure …show more content…

Though I will summarize most of the unethical issues with gold mining, many of the same unethical issues apply to most mining. Because it creates an enormous amount of toxic waste and is considered as one of the most environmentally destructive forms of mining, gold mining cause more than a few issues with the ecosystem. Gold mining is the leading cause of manmade global mercury pollution. Many gold mines dump their toxic waste directly in natural water bodies. When one considers that to mine gold for a 0.333 ounce ring equates to 20 tons of toxic waste, the amounts of toxic waste is massive. Companies that mine for gold and other metals dump at least 180 million tons of toxic waste in rivers, lakes, and oceans every year, 1.5 times the amount of waste U.S. cities send to landfills yearly. Another ethical issue in the mining industry is labor concerns. Labor practices in gold mines are far from responsible. Most gold miners work in dangerous conditions and earn so little money that they live in poverty. The most vulnerable gold miners are the youngest; an estimated 600,000 gold miners are children. Poverty is an issue that lies beneath gold mining labor practices. Gold mining can be a path to riches but for most miners it leads to a life of poverty. About 15million people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are artisanal gold miners. Artisanal miners use simple

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