Green Festival Seattle

Celebrating the Seattle community’s vision of green!

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Created: Feb 13, 2008

Updated: Nov 21, 2009

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Created: Jan 05, 2007
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All Areas of Focus » Mining »

Mining and Refining Ores

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Tags/Keywords

Coal, lead, water, pollution, contamination, mine waste, strip mining, extraction, environmental impacts, erosion, energy use, open mine, quarrying, auguring, alluvial dredging, ore, by-product, tailings, salt mining, sand extraction, acid drainage, stream pollution, abandoned mines, Superfund sites, smelters, scrubbers, electrostatic precipitators, open-pit mines, subsurface mines, shaft mines, strip mines, overburden, toxic pollutant, heavy metal pollutants, hydraulic mining

Definition

There are many kinds of mines, depending on the depth and concentration of the mineral ore. Iron, copper, stone, and gravel are usually extracted by open-pit mining or strip mining. The overburden may be 60 to 99 percent of all the earth and rock moved. Subsurface mines are usually called shaft mines. They disturb the earth less but can be more hazardous to miners. Open-pit mining disturbs huge areas of land and wastes huge amounts of encountered groundwater. Water flowing through waste rock or tailings dissolves or suspends toxic substances that have killed waterfowl and fish. The most damaging mining to rivers is called "hydraulic mining," in which pressure hoses take apart the riverbanks in search of gold. The extracted ores are refined at smelters which, without pollution control devices, emit dangerous gases such as sulfur and mercury. Sustainable mineral industries eliminate these human and ecosystem hazards but at high cost.

FEATURED ORGANIZATIONS

Alliance for a Post-Petroleum Local EconomyAPPLE Nevada County is working to reduce dependency on fossil fuels, and to promote a more self-reliant local economy.

Crude Accountability works with citizen groups in the Caspian Sea basin to protect the region's natural environment and to ensure environmental justice for communities impacted by natural resource development.

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