Surface mining

Introduction To truly understand the mining industry, one must look at its roots; from ancient times, gold, silver, copper, coal, and other valuable items have been mined. Described as pioneers and often a subset of culture, miners developed a distinctive ethos, which defined them and was passed down from generation to generation. This principle of miner brotherhood dictated acceptable practices including: the labor-intensive day-to-day functions, the risks associated with carving into nature,…

Health Administration (MSHA), and the state of West Virginia (Madsen, 2009). The main purpose of the investigations was to determine causation in order to prevent similar tragedies. The results of the investigations spurred changes in responding to mining accidents and changes to legislation. Consequently, the Mine…

Since the beginning of the coal mining industries in the 1800s, thousands of mines have been created, extracting the precious mineral, and then dumped, empty and hollow. Once industries finished with a certain area, it would be dropped and they would move on, drilling in another location. The act of reclaiming these mines did not come to light until 1977 when the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act was passed by Congress after they saw the disruption in the environment. This act put a…

In August of 2010, thirty-three miners were trapped below the surface of the San Jose gold and copper mine in Chile. A main ramp had collapsed due to seismic activity and geologic instability in the area, and the miners were left trapped more than 2,000 feet underground. The mine itself had a long record of safety violations in the past, and had also been convicted of numerous fines and accidents throughout the years. For seventeen days, nobody heard from any of the miners. All they had was…

What the stream team will be doing is going to the stream and seeing how much nitrate, phosphates, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, temperature, and pH is in the water. The stream team will look at the effect on water quality, the effect on plants and animals, the acceptable levels for swimming, sources and sources categorized, the best management practices, whether the sources are point source, or nonpoint source pollutants, and the test results. The stream team will be doing all of those topics…

Agriculture covers thirty-eight percent of Earth’s land surface, but the land has continually been turned into cropland as the world’s population steadily increases (Brennan, Withgott pg. 225). Food is a necessity to human survival, however, agriculture, specifically industrial agriculture has caused multiple environmental impacts. Compared to the other land uses, agriculture causes the most harm to the planet due to the use of inorganic fertilizers, machinery, irrigation, pesticides,…

the Klondike and Yukon Rivers, now known as Dawson City. This area is known as being the centre of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896, and to this day is subjected to vast amounts of mining, gold exploration, and environmental degradation. The Tr'ondek Hwech'in are a Han speaking people and today consist of of about 1100 people. Lifestyles of these peoples before the introduction…

This lab activity uses cereals that are fortified with iron, hot water, a drinking glass, and white magnet stirring bar. The students weighed the dry cereal before placing it in the glass. The students place the magnet stirring bar at the bottom of the glass then they place the cereal and hot water in the glass. The students then stir the items for a set time, after which they remove the magnet stirring bar. There should be dark slivers of iron left on the bar. The students then removed the…

After close inspection of Rio Tinto, there have been widespread allegations against the company with regard to its bad behavior as a corporate citizen. Rio Tinto is a global mining company with extensive operations in Africa. Their “products” are the stocks that they currently allow people to buy to invest in the company. Ways that Rio Tinto’s social impact affects their company is as follows. If Rio Tinto was to in any way harm its image and integrity as a company, everyday people will then…

In the 19th century there has been instances where some shiny, bright yellow substances were found within the water way, no one has ever noticed until 1848 by a man named James Marshall. It is 1848 and the territory of California has been seen on many accounts that there is gold there. At the scene of a sawmill owned by John Sutter, James Marshall was a carpenter who does his work with no problem. While Marshall was working, he went to the nearby stream and noticed that there was some gold dust…