Self-Assessment Questions

Environmental Management Questions on:

Rocks and minerals and their exploitation

1.3

First the mining department must make sure that the area where the mineral ore is present is not in an
area where there are many life hazards, such as mining near an active volcano. Many scientists as well,
use geophysics to recognize the mineral ore which is present under the selected area. They also need to
make sure that other resident’s lifestyles, that of ones living very close to the area with the ore, are not
affected. They also need to make sure that the quality of ore is fit enough for market sales, so that the
huge investments in the plant, can be outweighed by the price of the mineral.

1.4

1. It will be much easier for the miners to mine for the mineral present underground.
2. The transportation of the mineral for refining as well as for cleansing and decontaminating will
be easier.
3. The miner’s safety is also assured as compared to sub-surface mining with factors such:
a) Suffocation of miners
b) Collapse of adits made.
c) Faults in the transportation system of the mineral.
4. The chances of acquisition of the mineral will be more, for more of the ground will be mined.

1.5

Since mining companies won’t have license to set up a mining plant, there will be numerous
disadvantages such as:

1. The mining company won’t have rights to hire men to work in the mining plant, for they don’t
have authorized rights for employment for a project. This could result to:
a) Poor amount of the mineral mined, so the profit will not outweigh the loss, in fact, it will
only worsen the money made from the company.
2. The cost for restoration as well as the contracts, which might be required with piping industries
to for example detoxicate water bodies if they were contaminated by mining waste, will not go
 unnoticed by governments or heads of states, which would include rescinding of mining license
of the company which would follow bankruptcy.
3. The health assurance of miners which are willing to mine for the company, will not be
guaranteed for transport and equipment required for the transportation and the acquisition of
the mineral will not be within hold, for legal contracts are required with companies under those
departments.

1.6

The purity of air will decrease for, we need plants for oxygen as well as for the fact that they are the
producers of the food chain and without them the whole food chain will collapse. Also there is a method
known as phytoextraction which helps to decontaminate the water of any toxicants or pollutants as
well. This is a process, where like water, a plant’s roots absorb metal in the water bodies or in the soil
instead of water. This doesn’t even affect the plant’s photosynthesis as well.

1.7

In situ: The time which will be taken for the contaminated waste to be transported and purified will be
lesser, and so will be the cost, for it will be done at the mining plant itself.

Ex situ: The mining of the ore will not be compromised for the attention will be split in equal halves, for
various units will be handling another department. And the quality of the mining will remain the same,
and the assurance of the decontamination of the water not be compromised as well.

1.8

1. The number of mining plants to access minerals and metals will reduce drastically, because you
are refining and reusing the same metal which was mined before.
2. The bio accumulation and magnification could reduce due to the amount of mining plants that
can shut down, due to recycling.
3. The land pollution will reduce as well, for the landfills which are mostly filled with metal and
plastic. The heaps of waste will be cut short if recycling takes place, for half of the metal present
in the landfills can be reused yet again for other purposes.
Case study: Antamina Mine in Peru

A1. The mine might have been developed in a remote place so that, citizens staying near the mining site
don’t get affected by the process. Also, the chances of interruption of the mining by subversive people
are very less. The waste and toxicants given off from the mine, will still not affect the ecosystem in a
major way, nor will it affect the people living near the area.

A2. There might be contaminants produced from the mine which can spread underground to reservoirs
or rivers. There is a possibility that purification of water will be second handed, where many impurities
will still be present in the water. The pipes which carry the solid waste dumped in water, when they are
taken to the coast, there might be a leakage which occurs which can even contaminate large water
reserves such as rivers, lakes, and even the oceans.

A3a. They could ensure water treatment plants as a safety measure, incase the water used for
concentration of the mineral ore, is severely contaminated. Before usage of pipes, inspection could take
place where in the chances of larger water reservoirs are very low.

A3b. The priority of the mining company would be to make sure that the mineral mined goes on sale.
They would not be paying that much attention to the restoration of the site where the mining plant was
kept. And after their mineral goes on sale in the market, there is a possibility that only second handed
attention will be given to the restoration, and the Antamina region will not be as it was before, due tom
not enough care of the site itself.