Mountain Gorilla by Sax in Paris, France | STREET ART UTOPIA

Photo by Nathalie

Street Artist Sax

By Sax (Henry B) in Paris, France at COLORS FESTIVAL PARIS.

Source: Mountain Gorilla by Sax in Paris, France | STREET ART UTOPIA

Ending the toxic trail of small-scale gold mining

…A young man nearby cranks a lever, kickstarting some generators. The steady hum of the machinery blends with the creaking of a pulley system, drowning out the sounds of the gentle breeze blowing through the mining site located in Paracale, north Philippines.

A young man tied to a harness begins his descent down the pit and deep beneath the planet’s surface, his headlamp the only visible source of light. Upon reaching the bottom of the cramped mineshaft, he pulls out a small chisel and hammer and begins chipping away at the rock.

(Globally, up to 20 million miners work in artisanal and small-scale gold mining operations, which experts say are often unregulated and unsafe. Photo credit: UNEP/Veejay Villafranca)

When he returns to the surface, he deposits a sack of ores into a barrel. Another miner mixes the ores with water before adding drops of mercury, which binds to any gold particles to create amalgams. These are then heated to evaporate the mercury, leaving behind gold.

While it is fast, this process comes at a cost for these miners, their families and their future generations.

Mercury is a toxic chemical that can cause irreversible brain damage and disrupt ecosystem health. There is no known safe exposure level for elemental mercury in humans, and effects can occur at even very low levels…

Source: Ending the toxic trail of small-scale gold mining

China Wrestles with the Toxic Aftermath of Rare Earth Mining – Yale E360

A former rare earth mining site in Longnan county, Jiangxi province. MICHAEL STANDAERT/YALE E360

…Black rubber hoses curl in the sun. PVC pipes, their ragged edges protruding from the red clay, mark where small crews of miners injected tons of ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, and other chemicals into the earth to separate valuable rare earth metals from the surrounding soil.

Beginning in the 1990s, rare earth mining took off in this region, located in Southeast China about 300 miles north of Hong Kong. As China began to produce more smartphones, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and other high-tech products requiring rare earth elements, the mining intensified. But the removal of these elements from the earth’s crust, using a mix of water and chemicals, caused extensive water and soil pollution.

Today, concrete leaching ponds and plastic-lined wastewater pools dot the hills. At one abandoned site, large wastewater ponds sit uncovered and open to the elements. Satellite images show dozens of similar pools dotting the mountains, all just one landslide or barrier failure away from a spill of their contaminated contents into waterways or groundwater…

Source: China Wrestles with the Toxic Aftermath of Rare Earth Mining – Yale E360

From Gold Rush to Rot—The Lasting Environmental Costs and Financial Liabilities of Hardrock Mining | U.S. GAO

There are at least 22,500 abandoned hardrock mine features—such as pits or tunnels— on federal lands. They pose risks to human health and the environment because they can leak toxic chemicals (like arsenic) into waterwaysOne example is the Gold King mine in southwestern Colorado. Between 1887 and 1922, this mine produced about 700,000 tons of gold and silver. But once abandoned, metal-laden water and sediments seeped into nearby creeks and streams.

Nearly 100 years later, a 2015 EPA investigation of the site accidentally triggered a rapid release of about 3 million gallons of contaminated water from the mine into nearby Cement Creek. The spill affected rivers in three states and the Navajo Nation, leading to contaminated farm irrigation water and more. The federal government spent millions of dollars to clean up the Gold King mine and reached $63 million in financial settlements with New Mexico and the Navajo Nation to address harms to their communities.

Treatment Ponds at the Gold King Mine in Colorado

Source: From Gold Rush to Rot—The Lasting Environmental Costs and Financial Liabilities of Hardrock Mining | U.S. GAO

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