Olympic Dam History

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

The families that live near the mine also face being diagnosed with dangerous side effects. Since the ground becomes polluted with the chemicals, most homes in the surrounding area don’t have running water because the aquifers are polluted by said chemicals that originate from the mine. And the air becomes toxic also, toxic levels of arsenic, fluorine, mercury, and selenium is emitted by coal fires, entering the air and the food chain of those living nearby. These pollutants affect the water also, making it dangerous to any living life form. It causes deformities and creates birth defects if ingested into the body (Breitenender 2). And to an extent, causes death if the water is drunk regularly. It can go unnoticed also if people don’t check their water. And if a person is unfortunate enough to live near these areas, then he likely has no running water due to the pollution of his local aquifer. People are deprived of a vital source to live and they travel far to get water. And these areas are arid which means water is a necessary

The mining has become a controversial topic due to the mass publicity regarding the potential danger of nuclear power and uranium mining, not to mention the objections by some Indigenous groups. The controversy is significant

The Mining Act does a very good job at protecting certain aspects of the environment such as ensuring that over exploitation of minerals does not occur, or making it mandatory to have a plan in place for closing the mine as well as assuring that there is money to do so. Although there are many things that this Act does right, there are also areas in which there are issues and should be improved. One of the first issues pertaining to this Act is the impact that it fails to mitigate regarding water quality. In areas where mining development occurs, the water quality is drastically affected and a study found that “water from waste rock piles has an ionic profile distinct from unimpacted catchments” (Carey, Wellen, & Shatilla, 2015), meaning that in order to mitigate the impact of the runoff measures must be put in place to limit it. Secondly, the Act does not involve

Uranium mining in and near the Grand Canyon will be devastating to the complex ecosystem found in the park and will also have a damaging effect on visitors’ experiences. Uranium mining produces toxic waste that if not managed properly will leak into the groundwater systems. This threatens not only the local animal and plant life but also people who use the watershed for their drinking water. Individuals should consider the detrimental effects of additional noise and air pollution produced by the mining operations, the very serious threat of what a contaminated aquifer would mean to the Park’s health and the health of the 20 million people who live downstream. Additionally mining operations will need to install roads and buildings to support

Denison Mines Corp. has discovered that its 60 % owned Wheeler River property in Northern Saskatchewan, has a higher potential than it was known to have earlier. Within this property, the Phoenix deposit already has a 70.2 million pounds U3O8 of indicated reserve. Now the new found inferred mineral resources of 43.0 million pounds U3O8 at the Gryphon Deposit means a significant increase in the potential of the Wheeler River property for Denison Mines. This finding makes Phoenix and Gryphon the most valuable asset for the company when taken together as it makes the property one of the largest sized resources as well as a high grade resource at the same time.

Galena, the main silver ore mined in Australia, has a large percentage (86%) of lead found in it. Metal sulfides may be contained in waste rock material from mines, which can ultimately lead to sulfuric acid drainage when left out in the open air. Dangerous runoff and water contamination can also be the result of improper storage of tailings, which contain harmful minerals and materials. Some mine waste and tailing dump sites are found to be structurally unsound and therefore overflow oftenly and break. This breakage allows contaminants to spill out over the surrounding environment. In some cases, mines take no consideration of the surrounding environment and will have long pipes or waste canals that carry tailings to the waterways for

Uranium was discovered by Martin Klaproth in 1789. Klaproth was a German Chemist that discovered Uranium in a mineral call pitchblende. It was named after Uranus, the planet, which had been discovered eight years earlier. Uranium occurs in most rocks in concentrations of 2 to 4 parts per million and is common in the Earth’s crust. This highly density element is used in keels of yachts and as counterweights for aircraft control surfaces, as well as for radiation shielding. This element principal uses is in fuel for nuclear reactors and the main raw material for nuclear weapons. Depleted uranium is the waste product of uranium enrichment in nuclear reactors. It is the residue left in massive quantities when bomb-grade uranium is

Australia has a known estimated 1.66Mt (million tonnes) of uranium, and possibly more, which adds up to about 31% of the world’s uranium resources (as of 2011), (mining-technology.com, 2014). There are currently in Australia, three operating mines. These mines are: Ranger mine in Kakadu, Northern Territory, mining 1,113 tonnes of uranium oxide from 2013 – 2014. (World Nuclear Association, updated July 2015). Olympic Dam mine, South Australia, mining about 3,988 tonnes of uranium oxide from 2013 – 2014 (World Nuclear Association, updated July 2015). And lastly, Beverley mine, again in South Australia, and mining 188 tonnes of uranium oxide from 2013 – 2014 (World Nuclear Association, updated July

In the 1920’s, the Berkeley Pit in Butte Montana was the most productive mine in the United States. It produced over a third of the copper that was used in all telephone wires that were put up in the power-line boom in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Hundreds of millions of tons of copper, silver, gold, and other

My family has been a part of the mining industry for most of my life I myself live near many of the uranium mining areas. Through these affiliations I have learned some of the processes by which uranium is mined. There are two different ways to mine uranium, the first way is to mine it is much like how coal is mined. Depending of the depth of the uranium it can either be mined by using surface mining (open pit) or sub surface mining (underground). The ore is removed by blasting and drilling than the ore is moved to the surface. After words it is ground up and mixed with chemicals to separate the uranium from the rock.

Executive summary Rio Tinto is the largest extractor of natural resources and minerals in Australia and Canada. The Rio Tinto Group founded in 1873 by a global group of investors when they purchased a mine multiplex from the Spanish government. They focus on discovering and developing the earth’s natural mineral resources in a socially responsible manner through the method of transferring them into valuable and essential products grouped under products of: aluminium, iron ore, copper, energy products, diamonds, gold, salt and other minerals. Rio Tinto is a world leader in the mining sector where 90% of their assets originate from significant operations in Australia, North America and Europe but are also found to have significant operations

Introduction Rio Tinto is one of the leading metals and mining company with its headquarters in UK. The company was found during 1873 by the multinational investors who bought the mine complex from the Spanish government. With footprint on 40,000 countries, Rio Tinto employs about 66,000 people across six continents. Rio Tinto has strong presence in Australia with its Australian headquarters located at Melbourne. Their main products are gold, silver, copper, aluminium, iron ore, industrial minerals, thermal and metallurgical coal and uranium.

1. Overview 2. Overstated economic potential 3. Environmental Impacts 4. Radiation and Health 5. Uranium and Indigenous

Rio Tinto is the crème de crème in the mining sector amongst the United Kingdom's companies. Its main headquarters are in the United Kingdom, it is a combination of Rio Tinto Limited, based in Australia and Rio Tinto plc, based in London. This company's history dates back to the year 1905 in New South Wales when Consolidated Zinc Corporation was formed. In the year 1962, a lot of changes occurred and two other companies were simultaneously formed: The Rio Tinto-Zinc Corporation (RTZ) and the CRA Limited. RTZ. Consequently, in the year 1995, CRA and RTZ fell under the dual listed company (DLC) hence forming Rio Tinto. Fast forward to two years later, RTZ Corporation adopted the name Rio Tinto plc while CRA Limited adopted the name Rio Tinto Limited (Australia). The company pulled a magnificent move in the year 2007 and became the largest producer of aluminum, this was after it bought out Alcan Inc for a whopping $38million.