Mining & the environment - pros & cons?

Question

What are the advantages and disadvantages of mining on our environment

Answer 1

These days, the environmental damage amount to changes in the landscape.  As far as I know, most places requires mines to set aside funding for reclamation and cleanup of the sites after they shut down.  I've seen this work in Nevada and the site was reclaimed and naturalized quite effectively after the operations ceased.  

There is a pretty big problem with some older mines that cause headaches to this day.  Oversight and regulation was non-existent in the old days and practices were unsafe, to say the least.  Many old sites are contaminated with arsenic or cyanide used to leach the minerals from the ore, or the sites exposed toxic minerals that then contaminated the area from the runoff.  

Mining today is a whole different world from the way it used to be.  Horror stories of mine operations from the past do not portray a valid picture of current practices.

Answer 2

Ainslee,

The mining question plagues all of us.  There are definitely advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:  It provides access to our natural resources, Coal, ores, and the like.

Disadvantages:  Rearrangement of our landscape, not always a bad thing, some mining concerns do really restore the landscape to near original conditions, but some concerns rape the land, taking what they want, and leave behind a mess that other people have to reclaim.

I do not like to see any country ship out all of their precious resources, they will be left barren and forgotten when the resources are gone.