Open Pit Mining
In Cajamarca, Peru there are families that have lived off of the land for centuries, farming, fishing, and growing crops. Recently, however, an open pit mine owned by the American corporation Newmont has changed their way of living. Now the population that was once happy and sustainable is now struggling to find clean water for themselves and their animals and is facing the danger of new diseases (“Open Pit”). But these people are not the only ones that are struggling to adapt to a changing environment. Open pit mines all around the world are creating detrimental effects to water, air, soil quality, and overall landscape value, resulting in additional threats to human populations and native plant and animals species.
Open pit mining, also know as strip mining or opencast mining, is a way of obtaining valuable minerals, known as ore, by creating an open excavation in the land’s surface. This form of mining is valuable as it provides many people will the minerals that they need in order for their society to run efficiently, such as coal, gold, copper, uranium, and many others. It is generally a more popular form of mining because it is safer, produces a larger amount of profit and is more efficient than underground mining. However, that does not make it more environmentally sound. During the process of open pit mining, the vegetation and materials that are lying above the mining site, called the overburden, must be removed, roads must be developed to give access to heavy machinery, ore is extracted, and the left over materials that produce no value, called the tailings, are set aside or disposed as waste. In most cases, open pit mines generate a significantly larger amount of tailings than they do of the mineral that they are mining for.
Before mining even begins, the landscape’s value is depleted as the overburden is removed and dirt roads are formed. Whether the mining site is located in a thick forest or in a sparse dry desert area, all of the vegetation must be removed, destroying wildlife habitats and altering the landscape permanently. The creation of the roads also brings a considerable amount of environmental insecurity, especially if the roads are built into ecologically sensitive areas (“Open-pit mining – General Overview”). After their development has been completed, mining commences and a new set of consequences arrives. In order to reduce the threat of open pit mining, environmentally sound plans should be implemented from the start. This could involve controlling the size, location, and quantity of these new mining sites. Each mining site being developed causes a mass amount of deforestation, harm to valuable wildlife and their habitats, as well as an interruption to already existing communities that could be avoided or reduced.
During the process of obtaining ore, natural resources are removed from the earth leaving it barren and depleted of value; the massive amount of waste produced can also introduce chemicals to the bedrock reducing the value of the land even further (“The Future of Strategic Natural Resources”). The rocks that had once lain in the earth undisturbed can now release toxins after finally being exposed to water and air (“A cheap but dirty fuel source…” par. 6). On top of that, it is damaged even further as toxic chemicals are being released during the undertaking of beneficiation, which is when the metallic materials are separated from the non-metallic materials (“Open Pit Mining – General Overview”). All of these chemicals cause rapid erosion and lead the soil to become infertile killing agricultural land surrounding the mining regions. A major contribution to low food productivity on agricultural land can be traced back to soil degradation caused from mining practices. Radioactive isotopes known as radionuclides can collect in plants which can cause them to die or will result in extreme contamination (“The Future of Strategic Natural Resources”). Due to these things, soil contamination limits the potential progression of the land in the mining area as well as for the land in the surrounding regions.
The disturbance of the land also makes it easy for rainwater or wind to carry the soil into waterway systems where it can then cause contamination for hundreds of miles (Sweet Old Bob, par. 7). In the documentary “Open Pit”, the locals of Cajamarca found that the biggest threat imposed by the Newmont mine was its effect on the water supplies. The chemicals and heavy metals in the water systems were causing the fish populations to plummet, introducing their cattle and sheep to diseases, and transferring diseases to the people as well. The locals claimed that they were once flourishing off of what they got from growing their crops, raising cattle, and fishing, but are now almost incapable of getting by, living in impoverished conditions. The people of Cajamarca are being forced to give up their traditional lifestyles and obtain wearisome jobs that reward them with less than three dollars a day (“Open Pit”). A mine that had promised to spread prosperity and good fortunes throughout the land is now the source of the decline in the Peruvians standard of living.
However, not only is the surface water changed by the presence of the mine, but also the state of groundwater. Often time’s ore is buried in rocks containing sulfide, and when finally surfaced and combined with natural elements such as rain, produces what is called acid mine drainage (“Hardrock Mining: Acid Mine Drainage” 1). Acid mine drainage is able to seep into the groundwater with ease and kill vegetation. It is also one of the more complex issues created by open pit mining because it can continue indefinitely.
The largest environmental threat that open pit mining presents is air contamination. Mining projects including milling, blasting, drilling, unloading and loading materials, along with many other things are a large contribution to the air pollution causing a large amount of dust and spreading toxins (J. Huertas, M. Huertas, and Solis 39). The tailings are an immense issue as well because the loose toxic soil can easily be carried by the wind and reduce air quality. The director of the UA’s Superfund research program, Raina Maier stated, “if you have big wind events and the mine tailings are blown and people breathe them in, they can exacerbate existing health issues, such as asthma or chronic pulmonary disease” (Qtd. in Davis). And on top of those pollutants, there is the issue of emissions from the smelter, heavy machinery, and more. Open pit coal mining alone produces roughly 39 percent of the global carbon dioxide emissions (“A cheap but dirty fuel source…” par. 1). Limiting the total amount of emissions could reduce the levels of carbon dioxide, arsenic, lead, and an immense amount of other harmful chemicals and could be done by using efficient machinery, requiring emissions from smelters to go through a more advanced filtration system before they are released into the atmosphere, and shutting down mines that refuse to follow the set guidelines. Air pollution is not an issue that has to be tolerated.
Soil, water, and air pollution could all be brought down further by implementing stronger waste management regulations and requiring mines to recycle materials. As of now, tailings are not being properly disposed of in every mine. When the weather presents a large amount of wind, small toxic particles can be introduced into the air. Raina Maier stated, “mining companies are developing more sophisticated technologies to manage their tailings and reduce windblown dust” (Qtd. in Davis). Requiring practices such as this in all mining sites could greatly reduce the threat of airborne particles. Also requiring mines to dispose of their tailings in an area where, when exposed to rain and water, chemicals will not have the capability to leak into surrounding land. Ensuring that toxic chemicals will not be able to travel and cause further contamination should be a top priority for mining companies.
If general contamination were to be reduced and landscape depletion lessened, it could decrease the domino effect caused by open pit mining of harm being imposed on native plant and animal species. As was briefly mentioned before, the contamination of the water supply can transfer diseases and infections to the animals, which can even result in their deaths. After the introduction of the Yanacocha mine in Peru, locals went from catching excess amounts of fish that they could bring home to their families, to struggling just to feed one family member (“Open Pit”). Other animals are being harmed as well, such as migratory birds, as their ecosystem deteriorate, habitats are destroyed, and they are pushed into new locations. With mines clearing the land and preforming activities that alter the land’s characteristics, plants are no longer able to receive the nutrients that they need and are unable to survive.
All of these things: landscape alteration and contamination, lead to the biggest issues of all, health decline and economic instability. Heavy metals in the water supply can lead to diseases when ingested. When the adulterated water and soil are given to crops, fish, and cattle the toxic chemicals can also go through a process of biomagnification if they do not die first, where the concentration of the toxins in the system increase as it travels up the food chain. Which is why once food sources have become contaminated, the producers are not longer able to sell them for profit. Consumers are not willing to pay for contaminated food, thus bringing down the economy and leaving producers unable to support themselves and their families. This contamination puts the population at risk of obtaining diseases such as black lung disease, cardiopulmonary disease, tuberculosis, silicosis, and many others, as well as its ability to aggravate already existing health issues such as asthma. Surrounding mining sites, health issues such as these are found in quantities much higher than that of the average amount (“A cheap but dirty fuel source…” par. 10).
In 2011, the copper mine in Hayden, Arizona owned by Asarco was accused of releasing emissions containing high levels of lead, arsenic, and other toxins (Davis). Exposure to arsenic and lead can lead to declining health in the form of abdominal pain, vomiting, lead poisoning, diarrhea, lower production of blood cells, changes in the appearance of your skin, along with many other possible symptoms. The appearance of these chemicals in the air supply pose an enormous threat to families living around the mine and more severely to the employees that are working there, receiving even more exposure. At a mine in Malaysia, improper waste management concluded with the death of 11 workers since the year 1994 due to various forms of cancer and blood poisoning, as well as hundreds of other workers being forced to struggle with sicknesses and birth defects (“The Future of Strategic Natural Resources”).
Mining workers are introduced to a plethora of threatening situations, as they are required to work in extreme conditions exposed to extraordinarily high temperature, dangerous chemicals, large equipment, landslides, explosions, and other deadly occurrences. In an accident that occurred this year, a wall collapsed in an open pit Congolese mine killing seven workers who were assigned the task of preforming upgrades, and these types of accidents are not an uncommon phenomenon; the same company experienced a similar incident just the year before that resulted in the death of 10 employees (Davies par. 1-3). Many people consider exposing these individuals to these types of dangerous environments in an unethical happening.
These health and safety threats and economic impacts can sometimes result with the populations need to relocate. Some families that have lived in their area for generations have to leave their homes and move to a place were the land is still agricultural and where they can find opportunities to produce goods and earn money. As the pollution continues to increase and the mines take over more control of their land, more and more communities are being dispersed. The mines around the world may be making a large amount of profit and contributing valuable materials to their homeland, but at what cost?
There are numerous amounts of solutions that would be valuable when implemented to reduce the threat of open pit mining, however, the most effective solution to this problem would be to establish strong international mining regulations due to that worldwide protection that it would provide for the environment and it’s human populations. These regulations could incorporate the ideas that were mentioned previously and make a large difference in the characteristics of open pit mines. These policies could then be enforced by having an employee or team of employees at each mine that were responsible for assessing the mines compliance to the set regulations. Consequences of not being in compliance could include heavy fees, stopping or reducing the mines expansion abilities, or closure and would be determined depending on the magnitude of the infringement.
The implementation of international regulations would provide protection not only to our region, but also to populations worldwide. The United States may have strong regulations in place but they are not yet perfected; and other areas around the world have no protection from the mines whatsoever. In Peru, for example, the law gives priority to private investors and obliges the government to approve the companies land request; giving the people who are affected by the mine no say in the matter (“Open Pit”). Places all around the world are in desperate need of security from contamination produced by mines and for assurance that all of their family will return home at the end of the day unharmed.
International regulations would also supply our environment with the protection that it needs in order to prosper. These regulations will reduce carbon dioxide emissions, preserve the land’s value, reduce the threat of toxic chemicals, reestablish air, water, and soil quality, and protect plant, wildlife, and human communities. Because of the rising threat of global warming caused by high level of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, this solution is needed now more than ever and will hopefully motivate other countries to support the execution of this idea.
Nevertheless, despite the necessity of this solution not everyone will want to put it into action. A common misconception about open pit mining is that the ore they are obtaining is imperative for our existence, which is not entirely false but not entirely true either. The ore being removed from the earth is important to keeping our culture stable, but the mines are taking more than their consumers’ need. The international regulations will not stop the mines from providing their consumers with the resources they require; rather they will stop the mines from producing excess materials and will make sure that they obtain the ore in a way that is not harmful to the environment or the community. The resources being extracted from these open pit mines are not renewable; if we continue to obtain them as such a high rate without the proper precautions, soon we will be out of the minerals that our society relies on and endangered by the contamination that we have exposed ourselves to.
Another viewpoint is that open pit mining does not need to be managed or supervised because the damage that is being done to the landscapes is reversible. Rehabilitation plans are enacted after the mine is shutdown, however, because of the immense amount of damage done to the soil, rehabilitation attempts don’t have a high rate of success. Toxins in the soil make it infertile and changes in the underground water supply and terrain lead to land subsidence (Sweet Old Bob, par. 16). In China, they found that out of the 7.9 million acres of impaired land created by coal mines only 10-12 percent of it was reclaimed (“Mining Impacts” par. 6). It has also been uncovered that open pit mines can continue to produce harmful effects long after they have reached their time of closure. According to an article written about acid mine drainage by Earthworks Action, because acid mine drainage can cause such extreme damage to water supplies, some mines demand water treatment indefinitely (2).
Here in the United States there is also the growing belief that we don’t need to agonize over open pit mining because it is not a threat here. Although the mines in the states are held to a higher set of standards and under constant observant, they aren’t yet at their best. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that toxic emissions from Arizona mines increased 22 percent during the year of 2011 after a 31 percent increase in 2010, causing apprehension for health experts and the surrounding community (Davis). The Bingham Canyon Mine located in Salt Lake City, Utah has experienced problems with escaping wastewater debasing groundwater and making water for thousands of residents unfit for drinking, along with harm done to fish and wildlife and safety risks to the nearby neighborhoods (“Problems with the Bingham Canyon Mine” 2). There is also the factor that American corporates are purchasing mining land in other countries because some of their laws make the land easier to obtain, it can be purchased at a lower price, and they are held to lower regulation standards. The state of living in other countries is being reduced for our gain; that should be a large concern for our country.
In total, open pit mining is an important mining technique that allows us to have the valuable minerals that our society relies on to run smoothly, but lacks the ideal regulations that must be enacted to protect the environment, along with human and animal populations. By constructing and enforcing international regulations that positively change the processes open pit mines use to extract minerals, the environment and communities will be ensured safety worldwide. It’s time to reduce the threat of open pit mining so that it can be viewed from a favorable perspective.
Work Cited
Huertas, Jose. Huertas, Maria. Solis, Dora. “Characterization of airborne particles in an open pit mining region.” Science of the Total Environment 423 (2012): 39-46. Elsevier. PDF file.
Davis, Tony. “Toxic releases by Arizona mines increasing.” Arizona Daily Star 10 February 2013. Web.
“Problems with Bingham Canyon Mine”. Earthworks Action (2010): 1-3. PDF File.
“A cheap but dirty fuel source…” The World Counts. The World Counts, 05 August 2014. Web. 09 April 2016.
“Mining impacts.” Greenpeace. Background, 15 April 2010. Web. 09 April 2016.
“Hardrock Mining: Acid Mine Drainage.” Earthworks (2012): 1-2. n.p. PDF file.
The Future of Strategic Natural Resources. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Web. 22 March 2016.
Sweet Old Bob. “Environmental Consequences of Open Pit Mining”. Footprint in the Dust. BlogSpot, 14 March 2012. Web. 23 March 2016.
“Open-pit mining – General Overview.” Protect Ecuador. n.p. n.d. Web. 24 March 2016.
Open Pit. Dir. Gianni Converso. River of Life Productions, 2012. DVD.
Davies, Rob. “Glencore reports seven dead in mining accident”. The Guardian. n.p., 17 March 2016. Web. 15 April 2016.
