BHP Billiton: Negative Impacts On The Environment

Although mines like these can be very successful, some did lead to negative impacts on the environment. Some of these impacts where fracking, sinkholes,

Minerals can affect society in many ways for example; Surface mining destroys vegetation across large areas, increasing erosion. Open-pit mining uses huge quantities of water. Acid mine drainage is pollution caused when dissolved toxic materials wash from mines into nearby lakes and streams. Minerals is approximately 80 percent of mined ore consists of impurities that become wastes after processing. These wastes, called tailings, are usually left in giant piles on the ground or in ponds near the processing plants (Figure 12.9). The tailings contain toxic materials such as cyanide, mercury, and sulfuric acid. Left

The Kalgoorlie Mine, also known as the Super Pit due to its distinctive depth of 600m ( Figure 1.), is a mine situated in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia that primarily extracts gold. Often considered to be the largest open-cut mine in the nation, Kalgoorlie produces a tremendous 22 000 kilograms of gold each year. The gold rush that struck Australia during 1851-1914 was primarily a result of the discovery of many mining sites like the Kalgoorlie gold mine. The finding of the Kalgoorlie mine by Paddy Hannan, Thoman Flanagan and Daniel Sheal attracted several thousands of other prospectors (mineral explorers) and created a “ rush” to whoever would quickly become prosperous from mining gold at Kalgoorlie. As such,

Prepare a 10- to 15-slide Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation summarizing the costs and benefits of the proposed mine. Include the following elements:

Background and Jurisdiction: AAA Mine Service Inc. is a contractor for Carter Roag Coal Company performing welding, and mechanical work on the underground mining equipment in the Pleasant Hill Mine. Carter Roag Coal is a Corporation registered in the Commonwealth of West Virginia. Mining services are conducted at the Pleasant Hill Mine with the object of Mineral production and falls under the jurisdiction of Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) (Exhibit

Open pit mining creates a hole where groundwater will collect instead of flowing naturally into the watersheds. What water will flow into those watersheds will be contaminated by mercury--from the processing of the ore into taconite pellets and sulfuric acid, causing incredible damage to the ecosystem of the rivers and Lake

The Olympic Dam Mine is notorious for being one of the biggest mines in South Australia, and the wide range of minerals obtained from the mine. From miners, to engineers, the Olympic Dam Mine has created many jobs for South Australians. As well as this increase, South Australia and Australia have benefited significantly from the mine economically, and created many bonds with other countries through trading. The mine has recently created plans to expand and, although the plans may have been controversial throughout South Australia, this initiative could not only help South Australia, but the world.

While researching the effects of mining I thought of 3 main reasons why mining should stop. Mining can affect water quality which may loose farmers, fishermen, and boat shops to go out of business. Plus, once all the ore is mined the miners will have nowhere to go and also lose their jobs. And finally, no one would move here because no one wants to live near polluted water

A controversial topic commonly debated among society is the construction of coal mines. Although they potentially contain great economic promise and access to more resources, they also harm the surrounding environment and increase carbon dioxide emissions.

The mining process involves many big vehicles and other technology that release huge amounts of pollution into the atmosphere speeding up global warming and causing climate change.

With that being said here are some environmental impacts of coal you may not know about. The air pollutants cause acid rain, smog ,respiratory illnesses, cancers and toxins in the environment. Coal miners can get respiratory illnesses from the coal dust while mining. If an abandoned coal mine catches fire it puts tons of mercury into the atmosphere, this happens every year and is responsible for three percent of carbon dioxide emissions globally. The second largest contributor to

BHP Billion, a merging cooperation of BHP and Billion in 2010 (BHP Billiton, 2011), is a world leading company in mining and resource exploiting. According to ASX data, BHP Billion has the largest business scales in the Australian market, AU$166 billion of market capital and AU$71 billion of annual operating revenue in FY13 (Australian Securities Exchange, 2014). Over 128,800 employees and contractors work in 26 countries worldwide to create value for their shareholders (BHPB Annual Report, 2013). The core business has been classified into five units: petroleum, copper, iron ore, coal and aluminum, making 20%, 18%, 17%, 31% and 14% respectively in the revenue of FY13. It can be seen from Graph 1 that although iron ore was not the segment with the largest assets, it still returned with the largest revenue and highest ROA rate in 2013. The following paragraphs will focus on the strategy analysis on the segment of iron ore and how it can conquer possible threats

In our days, mining for resources is inevitable. The resources we need are valuable in everyday life. Such resources mined up are coal, copper, gold, silver, and sand. However, mining poses environmental risks that can degrade the quality of soil and water, which can end up effecting us humans if not taken care of and many of the damages are irreversible once they have occurred.

Another perspective to look at it is that social impact mining has. Though it can be difficult to separate the economic impact from the social, because many social issues are the result of poverty. Meaning that if the mining

The mining industry has seen an explosive growth from the past few decades. It has played an important role in economic growth, infrastructure development and a raise in the living standard of the whole world. According to the Australian National Accounting System, the mining sector has made contributions of 9.8% GDP growth to the Australian economy between 2008 to 2009 (Australia Bureau of Statistics, 2012). However, the mining industry has caused many environmental issues such as adverse effect to air, land and water quality and continues to affect global environment as a whole. According to the World Health Organization, it evaluated that 25% of worldwide death are directly associated with environmental pollution (Blacksmith Institute, n.d). This essay will outline the environmental issue raised by the mining industry with pinpoint focus on the effects to air, water and land. It will also provide strategies for mining companies to improve the environmental conditions.