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Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines

They thought they’d found an affordable place to live. They were never told about the radioactive mining waste – by Marco Chowan Oved and Declan Keogh (Toronto Star – June 15, 2023)

https://www.thestar.com/

Recent testing at four houses in Elliot Lake reveal elevated levels of gamma radiation and concentrations of radon gas far exceeding safety guidelines. There could be up to 60 homes in the community currently on top of mine waste, documents allege.

A cluster of homes in Elliot Lake sits atop a deadly secret. Radioactive tailings from long-closed mines in northern Ontario –– which produced uranium for atomic bombs –– were allegedly used as infill when the subdivision was established decades ago, emitting gamma rays and poisonous gasses into and around people’s homes.

The dangers have long since been forgotten and the mine has been shut down. Recent testing at four houses in the area, however, reveals that there are still elevated levels of gamma radiation and concentrations of radon gas far exceeding safety guidelines, according to thousands of documents shared exclusively with the Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB) and the Toronto Star.

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Red floods near giant Indonesia nickel mine blight farms and fishing grounds – by Riza Salman Mongabay.com – June 14, 2023)

https://news.mongabay.com/

KOLAKA, Indonesia — Ansal grabbed a makeshift raincoat, an empty rice sack, and ran home as the rain began to pound the fields of Pomalaa. A few hours later, after the rain stopped, the 49-year-old returned to his fields. “Everything is red,” Ansal told Mongabay Indonesia, here in Kolaka district in the province of Southeast Sulawesi.

In previous years, the occasional floods were more manageable, but this downpour caused the river to burst its banks. The ensuing overflow caked Ansal’s field in a layer of knee-deep sludge, drowning the newly planted rice under water the color of clay.

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These are 11 of B.C.’s most ‘polluting and risky’ mines – by Francesca Fionda (The Narwhal – May 25, 2023)

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Mining is big business in B.C. and it’s an industry that produces a lot of waste. A new report highlights 11 mines of concern and what’s stopping the province from getting them to clean up their acts

Chief Francis Laceese of Tl’esqox describes the Gibraltar mine as a “disaster waiting to happen.” Located about 60 kilometres north of Williams Lake, B.C., it’s the fourth-largest open-pit mine in North America. Laceese’s Tsilqot’in community, Tl’esqox, is directly downstream.

The Gibraltar copper mine is among B.C.’s most polluting and high risk mines, according to a report released today by SkeenaWild Conservation Trust and BC Mining Law Reform Network. Eleven mines are listed based on their proven or probable impacts to the environment, unsafe management of tailings waste, non-compliance with environmental permits and violations of Indigenous Rights.

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The View from England: Win their hearts, and minds will follow – by Chris Hinde (Northern Miner – May 19, 2023)

https://www.northernminer.com/

I shed tears within 30 pages. I expect you would too and, if you’re a miner, so you should. In a recently-published novel we are taken back to a small mining town in October 1966 when our industry killed children, young children, half a school of them.

Published by Faber & Faber, ‘A Terrible Kindness’ reminds us (as Jo Browning Wroe writes in her opening sentence) of when “something dreadful happened in Wales.” In Aberfan on that dark morning, 116 children (mostly between the ages of seven and 10) went to school and didn’t come back.

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Scientists purify uranium-laden water using magnetic bacteria – by Staff (Mining.com – May 18, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

A research team at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has managed to purify water containing uranium using a special kind of bacteria known as magnetotactic bacteria.

In a paper published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, the scientists explain that the name of the bacteria derives from their ability to react to magnetic fields. They can accumulate dissolved heavy metals in their cell walls. These research findings also shed new light on the interaction between uranium and bioligands.

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Tracing the toxic impact of B.C. coal mining – by Corey Bullock (CBC British Columbia – May 17, 2023)

https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/

Concern is mounting over the effects of B.C. mines on aquatic life, with Indigenous groups, scientists and environmentalists in Canada and the U.S. saying action cannot be delayed.

South of the border, in Bonners Ferry, the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho is working to restore the population of Kootenai River white sturgeon. The landlocked species, found in B.C., Idaho and Montana, are in decline due to human activity, as are resident burbot populations.

“That’s why I’m here,” said David R. Weaselhead Jr., a technician at the tribe’s hatchery. “To restore the population of sturgeon and get it off of the endangered list.” However, while the tribe has had some success, there is growing concern about the effect that mining in B.C. is having on aquatic life.

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New sponge can remove toxic metals, recover critical minerals from contaminated water – by Staff (Mining.com – May 14, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

Northwestern University engineers have developed a new sponge that can remove metals—including toxic heavy metals like lead and critical metals like cobalt—from contaminated water, leaving safe, drinkable water behind.

In a paper published in the journal ACS ES&T Water, the researchers explain that they tested their new sponge on a highly polluted sample of tap water, containing more than 1 part per million of lead. With one use, the sponge filtered lead to below detectable levels. After using the sponge, they were also able to successfully recover metals and reuse the sponge for multiple cycles.

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After decades of controversy, can the mining industry come clean? – by Catherine Early (Reuters -May 9, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

May 9 – Efficient energy storage is key to the fight against climate change. Batteries for vehicles and to store energy from renewable power installations, are estimated to have the potential to slash carbon emissions in the transport and power sectors by 30%, according to the World Economic Forum.

But the estimated surge in demand for minerals needed to feed battery manufacturing for the clean energy transition is staggering. The World Bank has estimated that the production of graphite, lithium and cobalt needs to increase by 450-500% by 2050.

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To Meet EV Demand, Industry Turns to Technology Long Deemed Hazardous (Japan News/Washington Post – May 12, 2023)

https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/

OBIRA ISLAND, Indonesia – On a remote island close to where the Pacific meets the Indian Ocean sits one of the first refineries built specifically to support the world’s transition away from fossil fuels. Rocks unearthed here contain traces of nickel, a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries. Extracting it, refining it and readying it for export is a gargantuan task.

More than $1 billion has been sunk into the processing facility, the first in Indonesia to use an acid-leaching technology to convert low-grade laterite nickel ore – which the country has in abundance – into a higher-grade material suitable for batteries. Foreign investors and lenders cite the project as evidence of their commitment to fighting climate change.

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Chile’s national lithium strategy raises questions about the environmental and social costs of EVs – by Tushar Khurana (Grist.org – May 3, 2023)

https://grist.org/

There are few minerals that play as pivotal a role in the global energy transition as lithium. The silvery white, soft, reactive metal is particularly good at storing energy, which is why it is used in all commercial electric vehicle batteries today and is unlikely to be replaced by another material anytime soon. The demand for lithium batteries is expected to grow more than five times by 2030.

Recognizing its strategic importance, economic potential, and its environmental consequences, President Gabriel Boric of Chile, the world’s second largest producer of the metal, announced plans in late April to increase state participation in the country’s lithium industry.

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These are the most polluting industries in Canada and the U.S. – by Daniel Otis (CTV News – May 2, 2023)

https://www.ctvnews.ca/

Mining creates more pollutants than any other industry in North America, according to a new report. By analyzing data from approximately 24,000 industrial facilities in Canada, Mexico and the United States, the report, published Tuesday by the Montreal-based Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), tracked over five billion kilograms of industrial pollutants created on the continent each year.

Together, the three countries reportedly released or transferred more than 5.2 billion kilograms of industrial pollutants in 2020 alone, with 46 per cent, or 2.4 billion kg, coming from Canada. Only 18 million kg (0.35 per cent) were reported from Mexico, while 2.7 billion kg (53 per cent) came from the U.S.

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Exclusive: Indonesian president pledges nickel mining clean up amid EV-led boom – by Gayatri Suroyo (Reuters – March 30, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

SOROWAKO, Indonesia, March 30 (Reuters) – Indonesia will improve monitoring of environmental standards for nickel mining, amid concerns over production of the metal which is increasingly used in electric vehicle batteries, the country’s President Joko Widodo told Reuters on Thursday.

The Southeast Asian country, which has the largest nickel reserves in the world, will step up scrutiny of mining and order companies to manage nurseries to reforest depleted mines, said the president, who is widely known as Jokowi.

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UM graduate student learns deeper history of Anaconda Smelter Stack – by Staff (NBC Montana – March 25, 2023)

https://nbcmontana.com/

MISSOULA, Mont. — A University of Montana Ph.D. student set out to study superfund cleanup in Anaconda, and her conversations with residents often turned to the smelter stack in town. Megan Moore interviewed residents and looked into how memories can offer more insight into mining legacies and cleanup. She found that in Anaconda, people often talked about the 585-foot smelter stack, which closed in 1980.

“I think there’s a tension between some community members about the stack, and that’s something that came through in our interviews and surveys. But what really was important was that people are very connected to it, often in different ways, but it’s something that should be paid attention to here in Anaconda and in other communities,” Moore told NBC Montana.

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Reflections on the Inco Superstack – by Jonathan Migneault (CBC News Sudbury – March 14, 2023)

Stan Sudol PhotoStan Sudol Photo

https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/

Built in 1972 to clean up Sudbury’s environment and decommissioned in 2020, Canada’s onetime tallest freestanding structure is still standing

For Matteo Campagnaro, working on the Inco Superstack — Canada’s tallest structure for a brief time — was a pleasure. Campagnaro, who immigrated to Canada from Italy in 1965, said his time on the Superstack, from 1969 to 1972, made him fall in love with northern Ontario.

“The hunting, the lakes, the fish, the atmosphere, the outdoors, the friendly people — this is the best place in the world,” he said. Thanks to his job as a welder, he met his wife in Sudbury. They have two children and a grandson, and still live in Sudbury’s south end.

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Worry, mistrust meet plans to secure waste from Niger uranium mine (France24.com – March 15, 2023)

https://www.france24.com/en/

Arlit (Niger) (AFP) – Towering mounds dot the desert landscape in northern Niger’s Arlit region, but there is little natural about them — they are heaps of partially radioactive waste left from four decades of operations at one of the world’s biggest uranium mines.

An ambitious 10-year scheme costing $160 million is underway to secure the waste and avoid risks to health and the environment, but many local people are worried or sceptical. From 1978, France’s nuclear giant Areva, now called Orano, worked the area under a subsidiary, the Akouta Mining Company (Cominak).

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