Mining

Victory: Canada supports public participation and environmental assessment

Hardrock Mining: Acid Mine Drainage

Factsheet on acid mine drainage, mining's most serious threat to water resources. A mine with acid drainage has the potential for long-term devastating impacts on rivers, streams and aquatic life. Acid mine drainage is a concern at many metal mines, because metals such as gold, copper, silver and molybdenum, are often found in rock with sulfide minerals. When the sulfides in the rock are excavated and exposed to water and air during mining, they form sulfuric acid. This acidic water can dissolve other harmful metals in the surrounding rock. If uncontrolled, the acid mine drainage may runoff into streams or rivers or leach into groundwater. Acid mine drainage may be released from any part of the mine where sulfides are exposed to air and water, including waste rock piles, tailings, open pits, underground tunnels, and leach pads. Read and download  

Tarnished Gold: mining and the unmet promise of development

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) continues to dress up money-making gold mining investments as development, yet it fails to demonstrate how these projects actually reduce poverty. The Bank Information Center, Oxfam Internacional, Earthworks, Campagna Per La Riforma Della Banca Mondiale and the Bretton Woods Project challenge the IFC to “prove it” by reporting its development impacts on a project-by-project basis. Read and download

Predicting Water Quality at Hardrock Mines

This study reviews the methods and models used to predict water quality at hardrock mine sites, with an emphasis on the state of the art and on advantages and limitations of these techniques. Because water quantity and quality are interrelated, methods and models used to predict water quantity will also be discussed, but the emphasis will be on how these methods relate to water quality.   This study brings together technical information on water-quality predictions at mine sites in a single report, and attempts to present a straight forward approach to using and evaluating the results of the methods and models used to predict water quality at mine sites. Approaches developed primarily in the United States, Canada, and Australia and applied in these countries and in other parts of the world, especially in the last 10 years, are discussed, and the format of the study is geared toward use by regulators of hardrock mines.   The approach and results of this study could also be used by environmental managers at mine sites and community groups, and allows for the creation of a checklist for prediction methodology used at mine sites. Recommendations are made for improvements in water quality prediction methods and models.   Read and download                          

Dirty Metals: Mining, Communities and the Environment

The purpose of this report is to show how much metal there is in your life—from the gold in your jewelrytothe aluminum in your automobile—and to explain how it was produced. If you live in the United States, your annual consumption of “newly-mined” minerals (as opposed to those produced from recycling) comes to21 metric tons—just over 57 kilos a day. This report will show what lies behind that stupendous lode of copper and tantalum, gold and platinum. It will explain how the mining of these and other metals damages landscapes, pollutes water, and poisons people. It will show why modern, industrial mining is one of the world’s most destructive industries. And finally, it will show you what we as consumers and concerned citizens can do to clean it up. Read and download the report

Canadian Mining Companies in Latin America: Community Rights and Corporate Responsibility

The  1990s  witnessed  an  enormous  expansion  in  the  activities  of  Canadian  mining  companies  throughout  Central  and  South  America,  bringing  profound  socio-economic  change  and  conflict  to  numerous rural communities.  This conference addressed the tension between community rights and corporate  social  responsibility  in  the  context  of  Canadian  mining  investment  in  Latin  America,  providing  an  alternative  forum  to  the  mining  industry  conference  organized  for  the  same  week  in  Toronto. Three main themes characterized the discussion: the role of the state in organizing mineral extraction; the tension between the developmental priorities of workers and communities on the one hand and mining investors on the other; and the means by which civil society actors throughout the Americas might assert greater influence over decisions relating to regional mining investment.  Read and download

Breaking New Ground: An Agenda for Change (Chapter 16)

This final chapter contains the broad conclusions that emerged from the MMSD (Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development project) process and an Agenda for Change. The agenda sets out various actions for improving the mineral sector’scontribution to sustainable development. In all the discussion the project has provoked, few quarrelled with the basic definition of sustainable development contained in the 1987 report of the World Commission on Environment and Development. The Agenda for Change assumes a broad set of goalsthat flow from that definition: material and other needs for a better quality of lifehave to be fulfilled for people of this generation as equitably as possible while respecting ecosystem limits and building the basis on which future generations canmeet their own needs. Read and download the chapter

Extractive Sectors and the Poor

This paper examines how states that rely on oil and mineral exports address the concerns of the poor. Its central finding is that oil and mineral dependence are strongly associated with unusually bad conditions for the poor. To explain this link, it draws on both original econometric analyses, and recent academic studies. Some of its key findings are: Overall living standards in oil and mineral dependent states are exceptionally low — lower than they should be given their per capita incomes; Higher levels of mineral dependence are strongly correlated with higher poverty rates; Oil and mineral dependent states tend to suffer from exceptionally high rates of child mortality. Oil dependence (though not mineral dependence) is also associated with high rates of child malnutrition; low spending levels on healthcare; low enrollment rates in primary and secondary schools; and low rates of adult literacy; Mineral dependence is strongly correlated with income inequality; Both oil and mineral dependent states are exceptionally vulnerable to economic shocks.   Read and download