What are the disadvantages of Surface Mining?
What are the disadvantages of Surface Mining?
Disadvantages include its high visibility, the large-scale surface disturbance and the limited economic depth to which mining can take place. Environmentally responsible miners are always looking at new ways to minimise the impacts of their operations on the environment.
What happens when surface mining occurs?
As stated by GreatMining.com, it’s: Surface mining is a form of mining in which the soil and the rock covering the mineral deposits are removed. It is the other way of underground mining, in which the overlying rock is left behind, and the required mineral deposits are removed through shafts or tunnels.
What are 2/3 environmental problems caused by open pit mining?
However, mining processes can cause various environmental problems, including deforestation, soil erosion, destruction of the natural landscape, landslides, water-level reduction and surface water depletion through dewatering, as well as water and soil pollution from mining waste and tailing dust [3–7].
Does surface mining cause air pollution?
Hundreds of tons of rock are unearthed, moved, and crushed in mining operations significantly increasing the amount of dust and particulates in the air. This air pollution can directly affect human health.
What type of surface mining is most harmful to the environment?
Pit mines extend both into the ground and across the surface and are some of the largest mine operations in the world. Like other surface mining operations that remove materials, pit mining operations scar the landscape, destroy habitat, and pollute the air with dust and particulates.
How is surface mining bad for the environment?
All surface mining techniques negatively affect the environment, though some methods are more damaging than others. Strip mining, as the name describes, is a process of removing rock and soil in strips to get to the valuable mineral ores below.
What’s the difference between surface and underground mining?
Surface mining. Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which the overlying rock is left in place, and the mineral is removed through shafts…
What kind of health problems are caused by mining?
When companies break up materials during mining, the dust can release a variety of heavy metals commonly associated with health problems. As dust, these minerals (such as the asbestos-like mineral riebeckite) can be absorbed into lung tissue, causing problems like pneumoconiosis and silicosis, commonly known as “Black Lung” (Paul & Campbell, 2011).
How is Highwall mining different from surface mining?
Highwall Mining. Highwall mining is another form of mining sometimes conducted to recover additional coal adjacent to a surface mined area. The method evolved from auger mining but does not meet the definition of surface mining since it does not involve the removal of overburden to expose the coal seam.