Essay On Environmental Impacts Of Mining

Mining is a major economic activity in many developing countries such as Ethiopia (Tauli, 1997: UNEP,1997).Operations, whether small or large-scale, are inherently disruptive to the environment, producing enormous quantities of waste that can have deleterious impacts for decades (UNEP, 1997). The environmental deterioration caused by mining occurs mainly as a result of inappropriate and wasteful working practices and rehabilitation measures. Mining has a number of common stages or activities(exploration, development and mining stage), each of which has potentially-adverse impacts on the natural environment, society and cultural heritage, the health and safety of mine workers, and communities based in close proximity to operations (Moody and

These method practiced by mining company established in the area since Italian invasion up to present over taking company in the area. On addition indigenous people generate little economic income from gold mining. The area therefore is affected by the environmental impacts of each of these mining methods.Environmental impacts of mining operations are numerous and diverse. It is a fact that whichever mining method, platinum and gold mining has environmental impacts that one needs to be always aware of. What might differ is the extent of the impact from onemethod toanother. In a rapid appraisal study of community members perception of environmental impacts it wasclear that, as was expected the impacts that were said to be important were those that were visible andthose with immediate impact. Other impacts that needed laboratory analysis to be identified and those with delayed effects were said to be not that important. People were more concerned with issuesthat hadimmediate and dramatic impact, which were visible to everyone. The impacts that were emphasized include: land degradation, habitat destruction,Water resources degradation, air pollution and social