Mining of natural resources from the earth

1
Mining of natural resources from the earth..
See Chapter 16, Living in the Environment, G.T.
Miller
Gold Mine http//www.rainforestweb.org/Rainforest_
Destruction/Mining/
2
What else do we mine out of the ground?

• Minerals, rocks (ex. limestone, granite)
• Salt, clay, phosphates, sand, soil, bauxite (Al
  ore), copper
• Coal, oil, natural gas, U
• Renewable or nonrenewable?

3
How do we know where to mine?

• Exploratory Wells Aerial photos
• Satellite images
• Radiation monitoring
• Magnetometer
• Seismic surveys (use explosives, detect shock
  waves)
• Chemical analysis of rock and water

4
Depending on where the resource is

• http//www.uky.edu/KGS/coal/coal_mining.htm

5
Surface mining
Indiana
Illinois

• Most mining in U.S.
• Overburden is stripped away
• Wastes are spoils

http//www.in.gov/dnr/reclamation/protect_resource
s/bats/surface_mining.html http//www.isgs.uiuc.ed
u/servs/pubs/geobits-pub/geobit12/gb12b.htm
6
Strip Mining
Since the mid-1970s, strip-miners in Montana, as
well as in other states, are required by law to
remove overburden in an orderly manner, to refill
the pits after mining the coal, restoring the
overburden as nearly as possible to its original
condition, and to replant it with the original
types of vegetation. "The art and science of mine
reclamation are now so highly developed," say
geologists David Alt and Donald Hyndman, "that
the recently worked sites are visible only to a
knowing and practiced eye."1 Some of the lignite
mined here at Colstrip is used to generate
electricity at the plant in the upper center. The
rest is shipped to coal-fired generators in other
parts of the country, via 100-car "unit" trains.
http//www.lewis-clark.org/content/content-article
.asp?ArticleID1567
7
Mountain top removal
8
Subsurface mining
Whats good about subsurface mining? Whats bad
about it?

• Kentucky coal mine longwall mining

More pixs http//66.113.204.26/mining/coal/room_p
ill.htm
9
Heap leaching

• At Wind Mountain

http//www.nbmg.unr.edu/slides/mmo/24.htm
GOHEREgtgtgtgt http//serc.carleton.edu/research_educa
tion/nativelands/ftbelknap/environmental.html
10
Why do these problems persist?

• Public Land in US is cheap! U.S. General Mining
  Law of 1872
• Demand by American consumers is high
• Government subsidies

11
What can we do?

• Reduce consumption
• Reuse stuff
• Recycle
• Enforce environmental protection
• Look for substitutes
• Biomining (use bacteria to grab the metal)
• Mining seawater (high cost, who owns resource?)
• Nanotechnologies (research to build at atomic
  molecular level)

12
Homework
Research the Surface Mining Control and
Reclamation Act of 1977. Write a short essay
reconciling the Mining Act with the practice of
mountain top removal. What loopholes
or provisions are in the act that make mountain
top mining legal?