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Imperilled Riches MINING Many of the planet's rainforests over lie rich mineral deposits. Extracting these minerals is frequently a destructive activity that causes many problems for both the rainforest, its inhabitants, and people living downstream. The area around the mine, especially with open-pit mining, is cleared of trees and roads are constructed for access to the site, also granting access to new forest areas by peasants. Besides opening roads that are followed by transient settlers, the mining process releases harmful toxins, like mercury and cyanide which are often used in the gold extraction process, into local streams and river, polluting both the waters and the surrounding lands. Mining exposes previously buried metal sulfides to atmospheric oxygen causing their conversion to strong sulfuric acid and metal oxides, which run off into local waterways. Oxides tend to more soluble in water and contaminate local rivers with heavy metals. The effects of poisoning can be widespread, especially when the toxic waste pool overflows or breaks, like it did in Guyana in August 1995. The Guyana spill made international headlines for its magnitude -- over one billion gallons (four billion liters) of cyanide-laced waste water was released into a tributary of the Essequibo; and its effect -- causing widespread die-offs of aquatic and terrestrial plant and animal life, the poisoning of floodplain soils used for agriculture, the pollution of the main source of drinking water for thousands of people, and the destruction of the developing eco-tourism industry on the river. The mine, run by Golden Star Resources of Denver and Cambior of Montreal, at first tried to cover up the spill by burying fish carcasses. Six days after the spill, after reports that people began to find dead wildlife, the mine reported the accident to the Guyana government. However, despite the damage inflicted by the spill, the Guyanese government, strapped for cash to service its debt, granted new mining concessions on the New River. Mining by transient miners is actually a greater threat to tropical rainforests and their inhabitants than commercial operations. Miners enter regions believed to have gold deposits and cut down the forest to provide building material and fuelwood. They clear trees and detonate explosives on hillsides, which causes erosion. Small-scale miners are less efficient with their use of mercury than commercial miners. It is estimated that 2.91 pounds (1.32 kg) of mercury are lost into rivers for every 2.2 pounds (1 kg) of gold produced. Studies have found high levels of mercury in Amazonian fish and native peoples. Miners bring diseases against which the indigenous peoples have no resistance and introduce livestock which damages the surrounding forest ecosystem. In addition, clashes with the local indigenous peoples over land ownership, result in killings. One of the better known conflicts that continues on today is between illegal Brazilian miners -- known as garimpeiros -- and the Yanomani tribe in Northern Brazil and Venezuela. The Yanomani have suffered from both disease brought by miners and by attacks. Another Amazonian gold rush notorious for its environmental damage was the Serra Pelada find in January 1980. Documented by National Geographic, 20,000 garimpeiros flocked to the forested mountain and by 1986 the site had been reduced to a deforested pit 360 feet (110 meters) deep. [Photo of mining operation near Andasibe, Madagascar] |
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A World Imperilled |
Natural Forces Subsistence Activities Oil Extraction Mining War Cattle Pasture Fuelwood, Roads, Climate Population & Poverty |
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