Mining and Soil
Mining has many impacts on the environment. It could be at that region or location or even global depending on the activity. The impacts can result in soil erosion, contaminating the ground water of the soil or the surface water, loss of biodiversity among others. Also some emissions from the mining sites affect the environment in one way or another and as a result even causes global warming due to the gases emitted. In some countries mining companies are required to follow some rehabilitations and environmental rules to ensure that the environment goes back to its original form. This summary discusses some of the effects of mining on the soil.
Landscapes are some of the features affected by mining activities. Some are formed after mining has been done and a landscape is left behind whereas others are modified after messing with it during the activity. Mining landscapes exist which some are now of special relevance geologically and represent some historical events and processes and how they were formed. Geoparks are rare and beautiful and are figures which are protected for that matter. To avoid landscape modification as a result of mining, restoration of the place after mining and stripping is really necessary but cannot be avoided during the process of mining.
Soil contamination has adverse effects to many living things. Use of fertilizers in farming and pesticides affects the soil in the way that they have chemicals which might not be friendly to the soil. Uncontrolled watering is also another form of soil pollution. The surface and ground water which are consumed by humans and animals even the plants are polluted through soil contamination and might lead to diseases. The plants that live on the ground are also subjects affected by soil pollution. They die or become affected by the pollutants leading to things like stunted growth and such likes. The living organisms that live in the soil may die as a result of the pollution of which some are even responsible for soil fertility or decomposition of decaying matter. The herbivores also consume good amount of the intake; up to 10%.
Some soil contaminants are as a result of mining activities. They could fall as dust on the ground, a form called dust deposition or are dragged from the atmosphere to the ground by water which is the wet deposition. Contaminated water could also be discharged directly to the ground or disposing things which are not environmental friendly directly to the ground. Dust in itself is a contamination that could cause flu and irritation. When dust settles on plant leaves they accumulate and leads to them losing their biological productivity. Gasses released during mining mix with water from the atmosphere leading to acid rain. The carbonates in the soil react with the acidity and are not so good to the soil composition. Other contaminants in the atmosphere can also fall along with the acid rain which also causes further pollution to the soil as a result.
Water from the mine, the water used in the mining process and those circulating inside the dump even used in hydrometallurgy, falls on the ground through runoff and under the dump and of course have adverse effects too on the soil. It depends on how vulnerable the soil is and its nature. Solid effluents also have effects, they are the ones that could cause landscape modification, could block the waterway and the airway, compact the soil and even disperse the pollutants. Depending on the nature of the soil and that of the pollutants, the soil has certain capacity of purification in that there is a maximum capacity of components that the soil can take without causing it any harm.
Minerals are good and must be extracted but the process also has great effect on the soil. It is clear that the soil is the receiver of most of mining pollutants or that form as a process of mining and has a lot of harm to both the living and non-living since acid rain corrodes roofs also. Rules need to be put in place to govern mining activities and how to bring land back to its original state.