What happens before, during, and after mining? (2024)

FAQs

What happens before mining? ›

Before developing an underground mine, a series of exploration drilling and detailed studies must occur to determine if it is economic. The detailed studies include a scoping study (six months), a prefeasibility study (12 months), and a feasibility study (12 months).

Mining is the process of extracting useful materials from the earth. Some examples of substances that are mined include coal, gold, or iron ore. Iron ore is the material from which the metal iron is produced.

Mine closure is the final step in the mining cycle. Mining eventually depletes the metal-rich material that could be economically removed at a specific mine. When mining can no longer be profitably conducted, the mine and related facilities used in beneficiation or smelting will be closed.

Mining can cause erosion, sinkholes, loss of biodiversity, or the contamination of soil, groundwater, and surface water by chemicals emitted from mining processes. These processes also affect the atmosphere through carbon emissions which contributes to climate change.

Once all the ore that the mine can produce profitably is recovered, reclamation can begin, to make the land used by the mine suitable for future use.

Reclamation. Reclamation is the final stage of a mine's life cycle. Once the mine is no longer economically feasible, reclamation of the land begins.

Mining Rehabilitation

Due to the nature of erosion, and how it affects the land itself, there is a need for new soil to be laid out, and new vegetation to be planted, so that the land can resume its former environmental purpose, without causing any significant damage to that lands environment.

Tailings are a by-product of mining. After ore containing an economically-recoverable commodity is mined from the earth, that commodity is extracted in a processing plant or mill. After the commodity of value is extracted from the ore material, the resultant waste stream is termed “tailings”.

At the end of July 2022, the coal industry employed approximately 38,400 miners. US employment in coal mining peaked in 1923, when there were 863,000 coal miners. Since then, mechanization has greatly improved productivity in coal mining, so that employment has declined at the same time coal production increased.

Many negative impacts can result from mining activities. Some examples include climate change, deforestation/habitat destruction, pollution, soil erosion, human-wildlife conflict, and the loss of biodiversity.

What makes mining so bad? ›

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory, metal mining is the nation's #1 toxic polluter. Mine waste contains toxic substances like arsenic, mercury, and cadmium that are harmful to public health and fish and wildlife when released into the environment.

The mining industry operates through a sequence of stages: exploration, discovery, development, production and reclamation. All stages of this Mining Cycle provide direct economic stimulus.

Exploration & Prospecting

The beginning of any mining project begins with the exploration stage; it's where the magic happens. Companies enlist geologists and others to understand the characteristics of the land and prospect remote areas in search of mineral deposits.

Match the three steps mining involves, in order. -Locate the mineral reserve. -Extract the mineral from the earth. -Process and refine the minerals to a usable form.

The traditional method of cracking rock was fire-setting, which involved heating the rock with fire to expand it. Once the rock was heated by fire it was quenched with water to break it. Fire-setting was one of the most effective rock breaking methods until 1867 when Alfred Nobel invented dynamite.