Gold Mining

Gold Digging Gold mining is one of the most destructive industries in the world. It can displace communities, hurt workers, destroy environments and contaminate drinking water. Water and land become polluted with mercury and cyanide which endangers ecosystems, animals and people. the health of people and ecosystems. Toxic mine waste contains many dangerous chemicals including arsenic, cyanide, lead, acids, merry and petroleum byproducts. Mining companies worldwide dump toxic waste into oceans, streams, rivers, lakes, streams and oceans. This waste totals more than 180 million tons annually. Even if a company does not dump waste toxins often find their way into waterways when tailings dams, which holds mine waste, fail. Out of the 221 major tailings dam failings drinking water for millions has been contaminated, thousands of people have been displaced and hundreds more were killed. This contaminated water is called acid mine drainage and is destructive to aquatic life. Byproducts such as mercury and heavy metals sicken generations and people for generations after they too have worked their way into the food chain. Solid waste from digging up ore displaces huge piles of rock and earth. To produce metals the ore is processed which generates immense quantities of waste.
The amount of recoverable metal is a small fraction of the total ore mass. For example, to manufacture an average gold ring creates 20 tons of waste. Many gold mines use a process known as heap leaching which is dripping a cyanide solution through piles of ore. The solution strips away the gold which collects in a pond, then an electro-chemical process extracts the gold. The method is cost effective but wasteful as 99.99% of the heap becomes waste. The gigantic toxic piles (heights can reach over 300 feet) are often found near gold mining areas. The heaps are often abandoned to cut