
Mining; an essential part of a functioning society. Mining is the
extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials including coal,
gold, silver, and the most abundant and useful, copper. Mining has been a main
source of income since prehistoric times, whether it be for steel, or even gun
powder, it has benefited humanity immensely since discovered. Mining can
extract beneficial materials such as copper and gold. Copper is heavily used in
electronics and piping due to its beneficial qualities. Copper is an excellent
conductor, can easily be bent and sturdy, and very resistant to corrosion. Gold
conducts electricity, does not tarnish, very easy to work, and can be
drawn into wire. Although there are clear benefits to mining, there are also
heavy consequences. These consequences have severe environmental impacts which
include The environmental impact of mining includes erosion, formation of
sinkholes, loss of biodiversity, and contamination of soil, groundwater,
surface water by chemicals from mining processes as well as Acid mine drainage.
In this project, we are focusing on two particular mines; Berkeley, Montana
mine, and the Summitville mine in Colorado.
The Summitville mine in Colorado in an open pit mine found in Del
Norte, Colorado at a whopping elevation of 11,500 feet above sea level. An open
pit mine is when blocks of earth are dug
from the surface to extract the ore contained in them. During the mining
process, the surface of the land is excavated, forming a deeper and deeper pit
until the mining operation finishes. Summitville mine is used to
heavily extract both gold and silver. This site was functioning 1870 to about
1974, until gold and silver production lapsed. When this site lapsed, the
company filed for bankruptcy, it became a superfund site. Superfund is the
name given to the environmental program established to address abandoned
hazardous waste sites. Essentially, the government has to take care of abandoned
mines. This mine has created massive environmental issues because no clean up efforts were performed by the company that mined. Commercial mining at the spot began in 1984 by the company Summitville Consolidated Mining Company, Inc. (SCMCI), which was a subsidiary of the Canadian-based Galactic Resources Ltd. The Summitville mine is a silver and gold mine, which is used in jewelry and other products as well as some electronics. The mining process that was used at the Summitville mine was heap leaching. Heap leaching was used for the mine, which involved the treatment of pyritic ore with a sodium cyanide solution to leach the gold out of the ore.
In this mine, we see an influx of gold. This however is
extremely low grade ore. It takes a lot of money and time to extract the gold.
The metal ore is stuck in average rock; Rocks are crushed and melted in order
to get an ounce of gold. The mining company isn’t getting that much gold per
rock, meaning low grade ore. Why do we need gold? Gold is used for makes
excellent jewelry, it is a good material for filling cavities in teeth, and it
makes excellent fine wire for electronics. Gold is very reflective, so it
is used to protect spacecraft and a satellite from solar radiation.This is important
because it helps society function, and improve further knowledge. In order to
get gold, Geoscientists look for sighs for gold deposits. In this case,
citizens found some gold on the stream and decided there was gold in this general
are. Back then, this mine extracted gold from simple panning. Once all the easy
gold was recovered, later processing revealed a way to get all the low grade
ore. First, we start off with large-scale surface gold mining, using the
heap-leach process. Mineralized quartz-latite, a gold-bearing ore, was mined,
crushed and stacked or heaped on a multi-layered, lined pad. A solution of
sodium cyanide was used to leach gold from the ore, by sprinkling it on the
heaped ore and allowing it to percolate down. Then the sodium-cyanide solution
was pumped to a facility that removed the gold. These actions greatly increased
the acidity and dissolved metals in the surrounding streams, damaging aquatic
life. This process contaminated the surface water, groundwater, and soil with copper, cadmium, manganese, zinc, lead, nickel, aluminum, and iron(Costanzi). The company that was operating this mine declared bankruptcy and was therefore not responsible for cleaning up the giant mess that they had created. Because of this unique situation, the EPA had to take over in the cleanup process, and have been working hard to make the area less toxic and dangerous to people, animals, and plants nearby. Their progress on the Summitville mine has been organized for easy viewing by the EPA:
The toxicity of cyanide can extremely harm all
kinds of wild life. It can kill fish, as well as flow through the Alamosa River
destroying all sorts of farms and crops. The cyanide is extremely dangerous and
can devastate the environment including destroying ground water, polluting streams,
and killing animals. Increased acid and metal loadings from Summitville
are suspected to have caused the 1990 disappearance of stocked fish from Terrace
Reservoir and farm holding ponds downstream on the Alamosa River.

Restoration: It is hard to reinvigorate this part of
Colorado. However, several organizations have tried to fix it. The EPA has
provided more than $210 million to conduct cleanup work on this project.
However, construction work to contain contaminated mine water, construct a new
water-treatment plant, enlarge the containment reservoir, and improve the
capture or interception of contaminated ground water and surface water was not
funded in Fiscal Year 2004. The EPA also claims that it will consider funding
new construction work at this site in Fiscal Year 2005. Essentially, guarantying
nothing. Till this day, there has not been a cleanup.
There
are no laws forcing the mine owners to clean it up. It is a super funded site.
The owners of the mine filed for bankruptcy therefore are not liable to clean
it up. Right now, it is the government’s property and is treated as such. The mines
owners have tricked the government into making the government clean up their
own mess.

Copper is used for tubing, wiring and more malleable. We use copper in
tubing because it doesn’t corrode and can be used to heat and cold water. It
can easily be heated or cooled due to its properties. Copper is durable and
recyclable, which means that using copper piping for water pipes will not
deplete copper supplies and has a lower impact on the environment than some
other choices, like plastic. While the initial cost of copper water pipes may
be higher, its durability makes it an excellent long term value. We use copper
in wiring because it’s extremely conductive. It means that it’s really easy to
transport electricity quickly and safely.




While searching information about Berkeley mine, I came across a plethora of videos about the improvement of the pit. Countless videos first showing how terrible it was, but then later shows how well it has become. People were now paying to come see it; it’s become a tourist’s site!
WORK CITED
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