The Yanacocha mine is a gold mine located in Cajamarca, Peru. It is the largest gold mine in Latin America and the second largest in the world covering 535 square miles (1,385.6 square kilometers). The mine is run by the Minera Yanacocha company which is owned by three companies; one of which is the World Bank. (No dirty gold, n.d.).
While the the mine itself has generated a lot of tax revenue for Peru’s underfunded central government. The problems this mine generates are on an environmental level. The surrounding villages are left to deal with the environmental damages while the companies that own the mine, such as the world bank, are profiting. In the province of Cajamarca, where the mine is located, more than half of the people live under the national poverty line of approximately $100USD a month (Hallman & Olivera, 2015).
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It is these chemicals that are causing damage to the nearby villages. The mine is located up on a hill. As the water makes its way down the hill it comes down full of sediments turning it a brown colour. It’s these extra impurities in the water that are killing the fish and medicine plants that villages rely on. Pollution in the water is also having an effect on the livestock that are farmed in the area by drinking poisoned water. In 2000, a truck carrying mercury from the mine spilled a container of the toxic metal over a 40km section of road. The accident was not reported until the next day where hundreds of people had to be hospitalised after collecting the mercury (BBC, 2002). An investigation also concluded that the container used to transport the mercury should not have been used and failed to follow international standards for the safe transport of hazardous materials (Hallman & Olivera,
Throughout this mining process a byproduct is created called chat. The chat is leftover rock and waste from mining that did not contained the desired materials. The chat was left on the site because the Bureau of Indian Affairs thought it could be of value to the Quapaw tribe (1). This chat contained high levels of toxic lead and other harmful chemicals. It is estimated that there are 75 Million tons (150 billion pounds) of chat piles remaining exposed to the environment as well as numerous flotation ponds that haven’t been taken into account (4).
Objectives • To evaluate the difficulty of mining and reclamation To calculate costs, expenses, income, and profit from a hands-on mining exercise. • To evaluate the effectiveness of reclamation and its added costs to mining. To describe the increasing rarity of some non-renewable mineral resources. Introduction Minerals play an important role in our day-to-day life, but we often do not contemplate how the minerals are obtained. Minerals are scattered all over the world, just like any other resource.
Summary of Source Information: This article talks about the health conditions of many miners and diamond diggers that are affected due to substandard working conditions in sub-Saharan Africa. In these areas, where there are many unregulated mining locations, workers are prone to being exploited to hazardous working conditions. Children are especially vulnerable in these environments because they already suffer from poor health conditions due to lack of care and nutrition. Children have often been exploited in the diamond industry due to their ability to get into small spaces and dig out packs of dirt. Another health effect associated with diamond mining, in which this article talks about, is how diamond deposits have often mixed with vegetated areas, leaving it unsuitable for farming activities. Mining equipment leaves heavy minerals and chemical products that run into the rivers and contaminate vital sources of water for the mining community and people who live in these rural areas. Currently, diamond companies, as well as labor and health activists, are trying to do something to help improve health conditions of workers.
On December 22, 2008 in Roane County, Tennessee, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston Fossil Plant had a dike rupture releasing more the 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash into the Emory River. There were no recorded deaths or serious injuries , but the surrounding ecosystem was affected severely. The ash slurry contained heavy metals such as arsenic, barium, chromium, mercury, nickel and many more, all of which were released directly into water the ways. Preliminary tests of drinking water showed that the toxins did not affect it, however later individual organizations tests show high amounts of arsenic and other toxins in the water. Officials say that the discrepancy is due to original water test being done before the polluted water had a chance to reach Tennessee Valley Authority, water treatment plant. Authorities claim that the reason for the dam failure was due to the high rain fall and subzero temperatures. However, local residents are saying that they’d observed leakages ever since the plant was opened, as well as...
The subsoil is likewise a source of riches. An example of this is the world’s largest open cast coalmine, located on the peninsula of La Guajira, which pro...
Being rich in natural resources, the region contains some of the richest mineral deposits in America (Daugneaux 1981). The coal, timber, oil, gas, and water contained within the Appalachian Mountains are resources that have historically influenced the economic characteristics of the region. The Region's economy has been highly dependent on mining, forestry, agriculture, chemical industries, and heavy industry, among which coal mining appears to be the largest financial contributor to the economy. Although half of the U.S. electricity comes from coal energy, many Americans now precious little about the earth-ravaging mining practice called mountaintop-removal mining used to extract coal in Southern Appalachia. The radical strip-mining process literally blow the tops off mountains with thousands of pounds of explosives to reach thin seams of coal. They then dump millions of tons of rubble and toxic waste into the streams and valleys below the mining sites. The mining poisons drinking water, destroys beautiful forests and wildlife habitat, increases the risk of flooding, and wipes out entire communities. There are four distinctive people groups that are involved in the mountaintop removing process, the coal companies, the Appalachians, environmental groups and the federal court. To fully understand the way natural resources have been understood, used, and allocated, it is important to recognize this diversity. In this paper I will identify the approach to resource management of these four groups in this mountaintop-removal mining case respe...
The Huaorani is an Indian tribe in Ecuador whose livelihood and culture was threatened by corporate companies exploring for oil. These oil companies invaded Oriente with the support of the national government, leading to destruction of the environment that served the way of livelihood for the Huaorani. Different human right and environmental organizations tried to find a solution for the situation but were not conversant with the natives needs. In contrast, their actions only misrepresented the Indians’ interests and placed them in more difficult situations. The Huaorani have to get involved in the fight for their land, but there are still those among them who betray their course. The most unusual
Asking oneself the question why can create deep thinking on the reason people do certain things and the reason they do it in a specific way or manner. The short story “All Gold Canyon” has many specific concrete details put in the work to identify what the story is about and the real meaning behind the composition. Critical thinking is a large aspect that should be used more often when reading a book, watching a movie, or just simply analyzing the routine of some people. Critical thinking is applied when studying different literary works and creating a personal hypothesis based on what the written words in the story might express. “All Gold Canyon” has many specific details that bring out a viewpoint that the author is trying to get across.
An estimated 1 million diamond miners in Africa earn less than $1 a dollar a day (Brilliant Earth n.d.) Children as young as 8 forgo school for daily wages ranging between $0.15- $0.60 (The International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School 2009). According to Adele Farquhar, a man fighting for legal ownership of a diamond mine, the problem isn’t people mining for precious diamonds, it’s those buying the diamonds originating in conflict areas; "People think it's a Zimbabwe problem but they forget that there is huge international complicity. You can't stop the Zimbabweans until you stop the money men. The people in Zimbabwe are getting next to nothing for these diamonds. The guy with the pick and shovel is literally earning $5. The guy to go and find is the one making $1,000. Go and look at the money and see who else is benefiting. That's why there's no momentum to stop this thing” (Cahill 2009). According to Time, the owner of the mines usually takes around 70% of the value when diamonds are sold to
...nd while Brazil’s controversial hydro-electric dams programme will provide cheap energy to the mining companies it will destroy the lands and livelihoods of thousands of Indians.
Lins, C., & Horwitz, E. (2007). Sustainability in the Mining Sector. Retrieved November 6, 2017, from http://www.fbds.org.br/IMG/pdf/doc-295.pdf
Around 2013, mining in the Gobi Desert had begun. The mine is named Oyu Tolgoi and is located in the southern part of the Gobi Desert (“Conserving the Gobi’s Most Precious Resource”). The Gobi Desert needed to be mined for farmers to receive water for crops and cattle. Droughts for farmers and herders are major issues because it resulted in their cattle dying. Farmers that live in the desert have turned small parts of the desert into farms and have collected groundwater as well (Sternberg 64). Thankfully for the Oyu Tolgoi, farmers and herders could receive the water they needed for their animals and cattle. Only problem is, cattle is an issue for the other cities that need water. The cattle slosh in the water and make it dirty (Ray). Many people that live near the Gobi Desert receive bad water from the mine. Some mining has resulted in pollution, which makes it difficult for the herder to fetch water for their cattle (Ray). “And in 2013, out of all the water used for production at Oyu Tolgoi, 84 per cent was reused” (“Conserving the Gobi’s Most Precious Resource”). Which is another reason why the water can sometimes become polluted (“Conserving the Gobi’s Most Precious
Peru is a country in the coast of South America, it is a developing country with a non- modernized economy. It struggles to keep up with a constantly growing population. There is a poor transportation network, limited agriculture, histories with going into debt but, improvement over the past couple of years.
Though it has had many negative impacts on the environment in the past, mining is a vital industry completely necessary to our economy and lives. Nearly every item we use or encounter in our day to day lives is mined or contains mined products. Without the excavation of such materials things like computers, televisions, large building structures, electricity, and cars would not be possible. Virtually every technological and medical advance uses minded materials, without which millions would suffer. Some examples of minerals in the home include the telephone which is made from as many as 42 different minerals, including aluminum, beryllium, coal, copper, gold, iron, silver, and talc. A television requires over 35 different minerals, and more than 30 minerals are needed to make a single personal computer. Without boron, copper, gold and quartz, your digital alarm clock would not work. Every American uses an average 47,000 pounds of newly mined materials each year, which is higher than all other countries with the exception of Japan, which is a staggering figure representative of our dependence and need for mined minerals. Coal makes up more than half of nation’s electricity, and will continue to be the largest electrical supplier into 2020 & accounting for some 95 percent of the nation's fossil energy reserves – nine of every ten short-tons of coal mined in the United States is used for electricity generation. As the population of the world grows more mineral resources must be exploited through mining in order to support the rising demand for such products. Though it may present a hazard to the environment and those physically located nears the mines, the materials extracted from mines...
In our days, mining for resources is inevitable. The resources we need are valuable in everyday life. Such resources mined up are coal, copper, gold, silver, and sand. However, mining poses environmental risks that can degrade the quality of soil and water, which can end up effecting us humans if not taken care of and many of the damages are irreversible once they have occurred.