What are the 4 main products of mining?
- Fossil fuels (2.5 trillion in global trade)
- Metals and ores (1.5 trillion in global trade)
- Agricultural products
- Forestry products
What are the ecological impacts of mining on tropical forests, particularly in the Madre de Dios region of the Amazon?
- (largely illegal) Gold mining in the Madre de Dios region increased 400% from 1999 to 2012.
- Rising gold prices = Increased artisanal gold mining
Impacts:
- Deforestation (tripled loss of forest by 2008) often occuring near PAs
- Miners also illegal game hunting
- Permanent biodiversity loss
- High Suspended Sediment Conc. in rivers: Impairs aquatic hunters, reduces sunlight penetration, smothers riverbeds
Describe low-volume, high-value mining
- Examples: Gold, diamonds, and other precious minerals.
Characteristics:
- Small-scale
- Fly-in, fly-out operations due to the high value and difficulty in secure transport.
- Often involves illegal artisanal miners:
- Poor regulation → Environmental damage (e.g., mercury poisoning in rivers).
- May fuel civil unrest or wars
Describe High Volume, Low Value mining
Examples: Iron ore, copper, and other bulk minerals.
Characteristics:
- Large-scale operations by major corporations.
- Requires significant infrastructure investments:
- E.g., Carajás iron ore mine (Brazil): Built a 101 km railway through the Amazon to transport ore.
- Environmental concerns: Major deforestation and habitat destruction.
__ of mines for key metals (e.g., gold, copper) are within protected areas.
__ are located within 10 km of protected areas.
7%
27%
Give some secondary effects of mining
- Infastructure: expands access to sparsely populated areas, promotes bushmeat hunting and land clearing, influx of migrant workers
- Governance: linked to weak, corrupt governance, leading to civil unreast e.g Guinea lost billions to corrupt mining license deal
- Need legal frameworks to protect environ
What are the potential positive outcomes of mining?
Conservation:
- Mining companies can also invest in biodiversity protection
- E.g Communities around the iron mine in Cameroon benefit from biodiversity initiatives.
Community:
- Employment opportunitues
- Improved transport networks enables better access to fertilisers, water etc. = incr farm productivity
Environ management:
- Investments can help reduce local pollution e.g mercury poisoning
How might future mining in Central Africa, particularly the Congo Basin, impact conservation efforts?
- Study found 4,151 mineral occurrences across 21 mineral groups in the Congo Basin, overlaid with conservation areas
- 10% were in PAS
- 23% are within or near a PA.
- 27% are within endemic bird areas, posing severe risks (e.g African grey parrot and okapi)
- Between 1892 and 2018, 73 countries reduced their PAs by 520,000 km².
= Legal restrictions were weakened to allow extractive activities.
How do large-scale mining investments affect conservation efforts in Africa?
- Global investments (e.g China, Australia, Brazil invested billions)
- Money also goes to: railways, roads and related infastructure (240 km planned road planned through Congo Rainforest)
- Conservation budgets insufficient
What strategies can promote sustainable mining while minimizing environmental and conservation impacts?
- Land use planning: avoid PAs, responsible investments
- Oversight and management: establish indie global funding body; promote environ friendly artisanal mining tech
- Disaster prevention: E.g Samarco disaster (Brazil) (toxic sludge from dam failure)
- post-mining restoration: Trombetas bauxite mine (Brazil) → Restored with 14 cm topsoil and 70 native tree species.
- Conservation Funding: carbon payments, market choke points (consumer boycotts)
- Recycling metals: recycling electrical waste, EU has $57 bil of raw materials in e-waste annually
