The mining sector has an inarguable impact on water quality and ground health. While its side effects inevitably affect the water table and nearby soils, the workforce can mitigate them. The industry can collaborate to reduce the long-term consequences of essential operations by understanding the most significant influences and their targeted solutions.
The threat of acid mine drainage (AMD)
AMD is a unique phenomenon in the sector, as it accelerates the natural weathering process of rocks containing sulphide. While this would occur naturally, nature cannot keep up with the pace hastened by mining. Water and air transform the sulphide into sulphuric acid, hindering the workforce’s access to materials while contaminating the soil and water with metals.
Remote areas, where mining operations often occur, may experience water scarcity or lack adequate treatment infrastructure. AMD makes already limited resources unsafe for consumption. Miners must use passive abiotic treatment techniques to preserve as much of the water table as possible. Artificial wetlands and other limestone-based water bodies regulate acidity and include microorganisms to help remove metal and chemical pollutants.
Neglecting treatment puts countless communities at risk and leads to environmental degradation, particularly for Indigenous populations. In the Western US, 160 000 hard rock mines and 4000 uranium mines have been abandoned. They are located near Native lands and have contaminated 40% of the watershed's headwaters.
The persistent water table drawdown
Mining activity causes water to react in unexpected ways. An inability to drain could cause it to run through unstable soil, causing sinkholes and endangering workers. Explosives and opencast dig sites cause runoff and unexpected movement. Workers also pump groundwater at a rate exceeding their capacity. These influences, among others, exacerbate drawdown in the water table. Local resources, such as wells, become depleted.
Reducing water consumption is crucial for environmental equity and resource awareness. Companies can recycle as much as possible, especially for activities like washing. They can also use hydraulic barriers to prevent underground reservoirs from leaking into mines, wasting even more reserves. These include physical fixtures like contaminant wells and slurry walls.
Geoengineered structures like these need to remain sturdy to withstand flow, requiring soil nails and heavy materials to keep them in place in constantly aggravated soil. Launched soil nails are ideal for these applications, as they are specifically designed for looser ground compositions, such as clay.
The looming soil degradation
Miners remove topsoil, uproot vegetation and erode land to achieve their goals. These activities displace nutrients and disrupt soil structures, weakening them. Abandoned waste rock weighs down once-healthy earth, potentially contaminating it with the metals it once surrounded.
To make land healthy and agriculturally viable again, miners can stockpile topsoil and restore the area with native plants to replenish it with the necessary nutrients. Phytoremediation is another strategy that naturally removes pollutants through the process of organic absorption. It can extract metals like zinc, chromium, and lead.
How mining can clean the soil and water
Essential mining activities no longer have to leave as much of a mark as conventional practices. Modern methods are more considerate of water tables and soil health, so remediation and preservation are easier to manage. Stakeholders and the workforce must advocate for these techniques on their jobsites to revise the sector’s practices for sustainability.