In addition, mine tailings, which may contain finely ground and even toxic waste, can become airborne. This air pollution can directly affect human health.
Mining can cause serious human health problems. Statistical studies suggest linkage between mining pollution and human disease and mortality. For example:. Because mining is often a heavy industrial activity that involves road construction and the use of heavy machinery, wildlife can be dislocated and habitat damaged or destroyed. Birds and other wildlife can be poisoned after drinking contaminated water in tailings ponds.
Increases in sedimentation or acidity can kill trout, salmon, and other aquatic organisms. Even at very low concentrations, exposure to heavy metals can stunt fish growth.
The macro-invertebrates that fish eat live in stream sediment and eat algae, both of which often contain higher metal concentrations than surface waters. Metal mining generates hundreds of millions of pounds of hazardous waste each year, but because of a loophole in the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, mining waste is exempt from the special handling and treatment normally required for hazardous waste. The metal mining annually produces more toxic waste by volume than any other industry in the United States.
Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water. Washington, D. L, Fox, F. Metal Mining and the Environment , p. Modern mining operations actively strive to mitigate potential environmental consequences of extracting metals, and such operations are strictly regulated in the United States. The key to effective mitigation lies in implementing scientific and technological advances that prevent or control undesired environmental impacts.
Operations and waste products associated with metal extraction and processing are the principal causes of environmental concerns about metal mining. Concerns include:. The largest physical disturbances at a mine site are the actual mine workings, such as open pits and the associated waste rock disposal areas. Mining facilities such as offices, shops, and mills, which occupy a small part of the disturbed area, are usually salvaged or demolished when the mine is closed.
The open pits and waste rock disposal areas are the principal visual and aesthetic impacts of mining. Underground mining generally results in relatively small waste rock disposal areas ranging from a few acres in size to tens of acres 0.
These areas are typically located near the openings of the underground workings. Open pit mining disturbs larger areas than underground mining, and thus has larger visual and physical impacts. As the amount of waste rock in open pit mines is commonly two to three times the amount of ore produced, tremendous volumes of waste rock are removed from the pits and deposited in areas nearby.
Waste piles from processing, such as tailings impoundments, leach piles, and slag piles vary in size, but can be very large. The impoundments associated with some of the largest mills, such as at open pit copper mines, can cover thousands of acres tens of km2 and be several hundred feet about m thick. Heap leach piles can cover tens to hundreds of acres 0. They resemble waste rock piles in location and size, but are more precisely engineered.
Slag is a glassy by-product of smelting; slag piles can cover tens to hundreds of acres 0. These impacts remain on the landscape until the disturbed areas are stabilized and reclaimed for other uses, such as wildlife habitat or recreation areas, after mining has ceased. Waste rock disposal areas are usually located as close to the mine as possible to minimize haulage costs. If not properly managed, erosion of mineralized waste rock into surface drainages may lead to concentrations of metals in stream sediments.
This situation can be potentially harmful, particularly if the metals are in a chemical form that allows them to be easily released from the sediments into stream waters. In some cases, bioavailable metals are absorbed by plants and animals, causing detrimental effects. Although current U. These conditions still exist at some old or abandoned mines.
Slag is a by-product of the smelting process. Most slags, because they are composed primarily of oxidized, glassy material, are not as significant a potential source of metals released into the environment as mine wastes and mill tailings.
However, some slags may contain remnant minerals that can be a potential source of metal release to the environment. To date, little research appears to have been conducted into mitigation measure effectiveness, and we were unable to find any synthesis or overview of the systems-level effectiveness of metal mining mitigation measures.
Boreal and Arctic regions are sensitive to impacts from mining and mining-related activities [ 29 , 30 ], both on social and environmental systems: these northern latitudes are often considered harsh and thus challenging for human activities and industrial development.
However, the Arctic is home to substantial mineral resources [ 31 , 32 ] and has been in focus for mining activities for several years, with a marked increase in the early 20th century and intensifying interest in exploration and exploitation in recent years to meet a growing global demand for metals Fig.
As of , there were some mineral mines across Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, The Faroes, Norway including Svalbard , Sweden, Finland and Russia see Table 1 , with the top five minerals being gold, iron, copper, nickel and zinc [ 33 ].
Many topics relating to mining and its impacts on environmental and social systems are underrepresented in the literature as illustrated by the following example. The Sami people are a group of traditional people inhabiting a region spanning northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Sami people are affected by a range of external pressures, one of which pertains to resource extraction and land rights, particularly in relation to nomadic reindeer herding. However, there is almost no published research on the topic [ 34 ].
The literature on the environmental and social impacts of mining has grown in recent years, but despite its clear importance, there has been little synthesis of research knowledge pertaining to the social and environmental impacts of metal mining in Arctic and boreal regions. The absence of a consolidated knowledge base on the impacts of mining and the effectiveness of mitigation measures in Arctic and boreal regions is a significant knowledge gap in the face of the continued promotion of extractive industries.
There is thus an urgent need for approaches that can transparently and legitimately gather research evidence on the potential environmental and social impacts of mining and the impacts of associated mitigation measures in a rigorous manner. The stakeholder group for this map includes representatives of organisations affected by the broader 3MK project knowledge mapping project or who have special interests in the project outcome.
We define stakeholders here as all individuals or organisations that might be affected by the systematic map work or its findings [ 35 , 36 ], and thus broadly includes researchers and the Working and Advisory Group for this project. Stakeholders were invited to a specific meeting held at Stockholm Environment Institute in September to help refine the scope, define the key elements of the review question, finalise a search strategy, and suggest sources of evidence, and also to subsequently provide comments on the structure of the protocol.
The broader 3MK project aims to develop a multiple evidence base methodology [ 37 ] combining systematic review approaches with documentation of Indigenous and local knowledge and to apply this approach in a study of the impacts of metal mining and impacts of mitigation measures. This systematic map aims to answer the question:. What research evidence exists on the impacts of metal mining and its mitigation measures on social and environmental systems in Arctic and boreal regions?
The review question has the following key elements: Population: : Social, technological i. Impacts direct and indirect, positive and negative associated with metal mining for gold, iron, copper, nickel, zinc, silver, molybdenum and lead or its mitigation measures.
For quantitative research; the absence of metal mining or metal mining mitigation measures—either prior to an activity or in an independent, controlled location lacking such impacts. Additionally, alternative mining systems is a suitable comparator. For qualitative research; comparators are typically implicit, if present and will thus not be required.
Any and all outcomes observed in social and environmental systems described in the literature will be iteratively identified and catalogued. We will search bibliographic databases using a tested search string adapted to each database according to the necessary input syntax of each resource.
The Boolean version of the search string that will be used in Web of Science Core Collections can be found in Additional file 2. We will search across 17 bibliographic databases as show in Table 2. Bibliographic database searches will be performed in English only, since these databases catalogue research using English titles and abstracts.
Searches for academic i. The search strings used to search for literature in Google Scholar are described in detail in Additional file 3. Search results will be exported from Google Scholar using Publish or Perish [ 42 ], which allows the first results to be exported. These records will be added to the bibliographic database search results prior to duplicate removal.
In order to identify organisational grey literature, we will search for relevant evidence across the suite of organisational websites listed in Table 3. The search terms used will be based on the same terms used in the Google Scholar searches described above but will be adapted iteratively for each website depending on the relevance of the results obtained.
In addition, we will hand search each website to locate and screen any articles found in publications or bibliography sections of the sites. All search activities will be recorded and described in the systematic map report. Relevant reviews that are identified during screening will be reserved for assessment of potentially missed records.
Once screening is complete see below , we will screen the reference lists of these reviews and include relevant full texts in the systematic map database. We will also retain these relevant reviews in an additional systematic map database of review articles. A set of 41 studies known to be relevant have been provided by the Advisory Team and Working Group review team ; the benchmark list see Additional file 4.
During scoping and development of the search string, the bibliographic database search results will be checked to ascertain whether any of these studies were not found. For any cases where articles on the benchmark list are missed by the draft search string, we will examine why these studies may have been missed and adapt the search string accordingly. We will perform a search update immediately prior to completion of the systematic map database i.
The search strategy for bibliographic databases will be repeated using the same search string, restricting searches to the time period after the original searches were performed.
New search results will be processed in the same way as original search results. Following searching, we will combine results in a review management platform e. EPPI-Reviewer and duplicates will be removed using a combination of automated removal and manual screening. We will screen records at three levels: title, abstract and full text. Screening will be performed using a review management platform e.
Refinements of the inclusion criteria will be made in liaison with the entire review team where necessary. Only when a kappa score of greater than 0. Consistency checking will be repeated until a score of greater than 0. The following inclusion criteria will be used to assess relevance of studies identified through searching.
All inclusion criteria will be used at full text screening, but we believe that data type and comparator are unlikely to be useful at title and abstract screening, since this information is often not well-reported in titles or abstracts.
Eligible population: : We will include social, technological and environmental systems in Arctic and boreal regions based on political boundaries as follows this encompasses various definitions of boreal zones, rather than any one specific definition for comprehensiveness and ease of understanding : Canada, USA Alaska , Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway including Svalbard , Sweden, Finland, and Russia.
We will include all impacts positive, negative, direct and indirect associated with any aspect of metal mining and its mitigation measures. We will include research pertaining to all stages of mining, from prospecting onwards as follows: prospecting, exploration, construction, operation, maintenance, expansion, abandonment, decommissioning, reopening and repurposing. Eligible mines will include those of gold, iron, copper, nickel, zinc, silver, molybdenum and lead.
Any and all outcomes i. We will include both primary empirical research and secondary research reviews will be catalogued in a separate database. Modelling studies and commentaries will not be included. For all articles excluded at title and abstract or full text levels, reasons for exclusion will be provided in the form of one or more a priori exclusion criteria as follows:. We will attempt to retrieve full texts of relevant abstracts using Stockholm University and Carleton University library subscriptions.
Where full texts cannot be readily retrieved this way or via associated library inter-loan networks , we will make use of institutional access provided to our Advisory Team members, including: University College London, KTH, University of Lapland, and SLU. This systematic map will not involve an assessment of study validity an optional part of systematic maps , although some extracted meta-data and coding will relate to internal validity.
None of the review team has authored or worked on research within this field prior to starting this project, but members of the Advisory Team and project Working Group will be prevented from providing advice or comments relating specifically to research papers to which they may have contributed.
We will extract and code a range of variables, outlined in Table 4. All meta-data and coding will be included in a detailed systematic map database, with each line representing one study-location i. Meta-data extraction and coding will be performed by multiple reviewers following consistency checking on an initial coding of subset of between 10 and 15 full texts, discussing all disagreements.
The remaining full texts will then be coded. If resources allow we may contact authors by email with requests for missing information. We will narratively synthesise the relevant evidence base in our systematic map using descriptive plots and tables showing the number of studies identified across the variables described above. We will display the contents of our systematic map database in an Evidence Atlas; an interactive, web-based geographical information system showing all meta-data and coding on a cartographic map.
We will use interactive heat maps pivot charts to display the volume of evidence across multiple dimensions of meta-data in order to identify knowledge gaps sub-topics un- or under-represented by evidence and knowledge clusters sub-topics with sufficient evidence to allow full synthesis.
Examples of meta-data variables that will be used together include this is an indicative rather than exhaustive list :. Impacts of mercury contaminated mining waste on soil quality, crops, bivalves, and fish in the Naboc River area, Mindanao, Philippines. Sci Total Environ. Dudka S, Adriano DC. Environmental impacts of metal ore mining and processing: a review. J Environ Qual. Processes of land use change in mining regions.
J Clean Prod. Article Google Scholar. Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon: global prices, deforestation, and mercury imports. Impacts of mining activities on water and soil.
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