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Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines

Radiation Victims Seek Expansion of 32-Year-Old Compensation Act – by Carolyn Campbell (Daily Yonder – October 11, 2022)

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Larry King crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair on the stone porch of his ancestral home in Church Rock, New Mexico. The Puerco River, which irrigates ranch land, is just beyond the fence. He breathes heavily, pushing his voice raspy. “I’m 65. I’m one of the younger, aging uranium miners who worked in the uranium mines. My lungs aren’t so good,” he says.

In addition to being a miner, his home borders the site of the largest radioactive spills in U.S history. In July 1979, a dam at the uranium mine broke, releasing over 94 million gallons of toxic waste into the river behind his house and into the fields and water table.

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‘Beginning of a great clash’: Controversy over Canada’s last copper smelter highlights bumpy green transition – by Marisa Coulton (Financial Post – October 7, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

Residents harbour a love-hate relationship with the plant that simultaneously nourishes and poisons their community

For years, the residents of Rouyn-Noranda, Que., a picturesque city of 42,000, some 630 kilometres northwest of Montreal, have contemplated the twin smokestacks that simultaneously nourish and poison their community.

The Horne smelter is owned by Baar, Switzerland-based energy giant Glencore PLC, and is believed responsible for higher rates of lung cancer in the region. It also contributes to lower birth weights, as well as higher rates of diabetes and heart disease, a recent provincial health study showed.

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Rethinking water: To keep the surrounding environment safe, miners are turning to the newest innovations in water management – by Matthew Parizot (CIM Magazine – October 05, 2022)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

Managing and protecting local water sources during operations are simultaneously some of the most important and most difficult aspects of mining sustainably.

Mines use large amounts of water for numerous processes in normal operations, such as in mineral processing, that lead to the creation of wastewater, which can contain contaminants such as selenium, sulfates or other dissolved metals. Once those contaminants start tainting natural watersheds and water bodies, it can be extremely difficult to undo the damage.

All the more important, then, that new technologies are being developed to remove these contaminants from the water before they make their way into the local ecosystem.

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Renewed effort promised to remediate [Sudbury] Long Lake Gold tailings – by Len Gillis (Sudbury.com – October 7, 2022)

https://www.sudbury.com/

Mines minister outlines how more action on the remediation process will take place this fall and into next spring and summer

There is a renewed effort in the works to get the old Long Lake Gold property in Sudbury cleaned up and rehabilitated. That’s based on a recent letter from Ontario Mines Minister George Pirie to Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas.

Pirie was responding to an inquiry from Gélinas with respect to whatever progress there might be on the former gold property located in Eden Township, just outside of the City of Greater Sudbury at the at the south end of Long Lake. Gélinas has been pursuing a government solution to the issue for several years.

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Sulawesi islanders grieve land lost to nickel mine – by Eko Rusdianto Mongabay.com – October 6, 2022)

https://news.mongabay.com/

WAWONII ISLAND, Indonesia — The coconut palm has been a source of food and identity for centuries among the people of Wawonii Island. In the local language wawo means above and ni’i is the word for coconut — Wawonii is an island crowned by coconuts. “Now it has become a mine,” said Abdul Latif, a farmer born here in Roko-Roko village. “Wawonii should just be renamed.”

Like many areas of Indonesia’s nickel-rich Sulawesi region, Wawonii is caught in the tension between international demand for green energy and the need to preserve landscapes. Indonesia accounts for both some of the world’s largest reserves of nickel and its third-largest tropical forests.

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‘Good Samaritan’ bill aims to allow cleanup of abandoned, leaking mines – by Emilee Miranda (Cronkite News – September 30, 2022)

https://news.azpm.org/

A bill in Congress could help Arizona clean up old mines.

Arizona could have as many as 100,000 abandoned mines, many leaching toxic minerals into the state’s waterways, but state environmental officials said cleanup has been hampered by the fear of litigation.

That’s why Arizona Department of Environmental Quality Director Misael Cabrera was testifying Thursday in support of a proposed federal “good Samaritan” law aimed at addressing the issue. The bill would let organizations step in and clean up long-abandoned mines without fear of the legal liability that could have attached to their now-absent owners.

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Pollution From Florida Mining a Concern With Hurricane Ian – by Curt Anderson (Associated Press – September 28, 2022)

https://www.usnews.com/

Environmental groups say the polluted leftovers of Florida’s phosphate fertilizer mining industry are at risk for leaks or other contamination triggered by Hurricane Ian.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The polluted leftovers of Florida’s phosphate fertilizer mining industry, more than 1 billion tons in “stacks” that resemble enormous ponds, are at risk for leaks or other contamination when Hurricane Ian comes ashore in the state, environmental groups say.

Florida has 24 such phosphogypsum stacks, most of them concentrated in mining areas in the central part of the state. About 30 million tons of this slightly radioactive waste is generated every year, according to the Florida Industrial and Phosphate Research Institute.

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Southern cattail highly effective for rehabilitation of areas affected by iron mine tailings – by Staff (Mining.com – September 26, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

A recent study conducted by Brazilian researchers and reported on by the São Paulo Research Foundation demonstrated the potential of Southern cattail for use in the sustainable rehabilitation of areas affected by iron ore mine tailings.

In a paper published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, the researchers explain that their experiments showed that the plant can scavenge up to 34 times more manganese from contaminated soil than other plants found in similar environments.

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The World Got Diamonds. A Mining Town Got Buried in Sludge. – by John Eligon and Lynsey Chutel (New York Times – September 23, 2022)

https://www.nytimes.com/

Waste from a diamond mine in South Africa grew ever higher as the ownership changed from De Beers to a billionaire to a Dubai-based retailer. The mining town paid the price.

JAGERSFONTEIN, South Africa — The dirt wall holding in mucky waste from diamond mining grew over the years to resemble a wide, towering plateau. Suspended like a frozen tsunami over neat tracts of Monopoly-like homes in the rural South African mining town of Jagersfontein, the dam alarmed residents who feared it may collapse.

“We saw it long time, that one day this thing will burst,” said Memane Paulus, a machine operator at the dam for the past decade. The worst fears of residents came true this month when a section of the dam crumbled, sending a thunderous rush of gray sludge through the community that killed at least one person, destroyed 164 houses, and turned a six-mile stretch of neighborhoods and grassy fields into an ashen wasteland.

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Residents blame billionaire for Jagersfontein disaster – by Manyane Manyane (Sunday Independent – September 18, 2022)

https://www.iol.co.za/

Johannesburg – Billionaire Johann Rupert has been accused of intimidating and bribing residents and employees after they raised concerns regarding the dam wall which collapsed at Jagersfontein Development. At least four people were killed and more than 70 others injured following the collapse of the dam last Sunday, leaving scores of people homeless.

Jagersfontein Development employees and residents said Rupert could have stabilised the dam long before it collapsed, but opted to do nothing. Instead, he allegedly bribed community leaders who raised concerns regarding the potential danger to the community. They said the dam had been leaking for years.

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Burst mining dam in South Africa: what must be done to prevent another disaster – by Charles MacRobert (The Conversation – September 14, 2022)

https://theconversation.com/

Jagersfontien, a small town in the middle of South Africa with over a century of mining history, awoke to a tragic failure of responsibility on 11 September 2022 when torrents of muddy water cascaded over the embankments that were meant to hold it back. The flood killed one person and devastated many homes.

The muddy water was the residue left over from the extraction of diamonds. The Jagersfontein mine traces its origins to a 50-carat diamond discovery in 1870. Mining began in earnest shortly after that and continued until 1971. Notable diamonds uncovered included the Excelsior and Reitz diamonds.

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What Do Electric Cars Really Cost? – by Bob Davis (Foreign Policy – September 4, 2022)

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Clean cars drive some very dirty businesses and grubby regimes. That’s the main takeaway from Henry Sanderson’s fine new book Volt Rush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green.

Among the winners he describes are copper miners exploiting child labor, nickel miners dumping tons of waste into the sea, corrupt businesspeople paying off venomous African politicians, and a host of Chinese billionaires. It’s a far cry from the sanitized vision sold to Tesla owners.

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Who will clean it up?: ​Alberta put a pause on coal. But its footprint remains – by Rob Easton and Joel Dryden (CBC News Calgary – August 25, 2022)

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

It’s quiet in Coleman, Alta., a historic coal town located within the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass, a cluster of five communities along Highway 3 in southwestern Alberta. The downtown brims with symbols of this town’s past. Many historic buildings are boarded up, their futures plainly uncertain. The ruins of the town’s coal plant and coke ovens are still visible a short walk away.

The residents here are used to seeing reporters, given how much coal has been in the news over the past two years, but many are done talking about it. Business owners hesitate to take a public side lest they alienate potential customers.

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Glencore to invest $383 million to fix Horne smelter emissions – by Staff (Mining.com – August 22, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

Glencore plans to invest more than C$500 million ($383m) in its Horne smelter located in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, with the aim of improving air quality to reduce its arsenic emissions to 15 ng/m3 within the next five years.

“This transformative project shows that our number one priority is to ensure our teams’ safety et security, as well as that of our neighbouring communities,” said Claude Bélanger, COO of Glencore’s North American copper assets.

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‘Right material’ to efficiently remove mercury from water shows promising results – by Staff (Mining.com – August 17, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

Researchers at Drexel University have found the right material to efficiently catch mercury —even at low levels— and clean up contaminated bodies of water. According to lead researcher Masoud Soroush, adsorption —the process of chemically attracting and removing contaminants— seems to be the most promising technology for removing mercury from water, due to its relative simplicity.

“Modern adsorbents, such as resins, mesoporous silica, chalcogenides, and mesoporous carbons, have higher efficiencies than traditional adsorbents, such as activated carbon, clays, and zeolites that have a low affinity toward mercury and low capacities,” Soroush said in a media statement.

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