Flashcards
Environmental impacts of mining
Cards in this deck (11)
- 1Open cast mining - habitat damageLoss of habitat where the mine is excavated is unavoidable. Habitats will also be destroyed where overburden is dumped on borrowed land. Spoil heaps are more serious for open-cast mining than deep mining.
- 2Open cast mining - machinery-Noise caused by crushing and blasting.
-Dust released by machinery.
-baffle mounds can absorb and deflect noise and trees.
-Water supplies can cause dust particles to stick together (coagulate) - 3Open cast mining - Processing pollutionGas emissions, smoke and solid waste such as CO2 and NOx.
- 4Open cast mining - Energy useFossil fuels used to run machinery for extracting, processing and transportation.
Main impact is exhaust gases released, including CO2, NOx, smoke and CO. - 5Open cast mining - Spoil heapsSolid material left behind. Two main types: overburden and waste material.
Spoil heaps can be restored in 3 ways:
-back filling, spoil dumped back into mine void
-landscaping which improves the shape of the soil heap
-control of erosion through landscaping and adding vegetation so soil particles are held together. - 6Open cast mining - Turbid waterMining disturbs soil particles and these can be carried into water making it turbid. These reduce light penetration and inhibit photosynthesis.
When the sediments settle they can cover and kill organisms. - 7Open cast mining - acid mine drainageMetal ores and metal sulfides. Spoil heaps may contain low sulfide levels. This can react with oxygen then dissolve in drainage water to produce dilute sulfuric acid. This is toxic. Lime is sued to neutralise acid.
- 8Open cast mining - mine voidSize of void depends on overburden and amount of mineral extracted.
Long-term impact can be reduced by landscaping, re-vegetating and developing a suitable land use such as wildlife conservation. - 9Deep mining - spoil heapsSame restoration methods as open cast mining.
- 10Deep mining - subsidenceWhen the roof of the mine collapses, the ground surface above may also sink.
- 11Dredging-20 million tonnes of sand and gravel are dredged from the seabed around the UK each year. Dredged from small areas where fast currents naturally mix the seabed sediments so the habitat is hard to colonise, and so few organisms are affected.
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- A level Environmental Studies Flashcards on Environmental impacts of mining, created by Mollie Munday on 21/01/2019.
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- Mollie Munday
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