Mining Impacts
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Mining Impacts
Mining supplies metals, fuels and minerals used throughout modern economies, but extraction can impose substantial environmental and social costs. The effects extend far beyond the physical boundaries of individual mines. Roads, settlements, waste facilities, processing plants and other infrastructure can fragment habitats, accelerate deforestation, alter rivers and groundwater, and increase human access to previously remote ecosystems.
The consequences vary considerably according to the mineral being extracted, mining method, local geology, climate, environmental regulation and the strength of government oversight. Large industrial mines, artisanal gold operations, coal mines, lithium projects, uranium sites and proposed deep-sea mines create different combinations of risks, but several recurring themes emerge: habitat destruction, contaminated water, enormous volumes of waste, toxic substances, community displacement and long-lasting environmental liabilities.
Biodiversity and Habitat Loss
Mining can directly remove forests, wetlands, grasslands and other habitats, but research increasingly shows that its indirect footprint may be considerably larger than the mine itself. Roads, transmission corridors, settlements and associated economic development can expand forest clearing and fragment ecosystems across surrounding landscapes.
Tropical regions are particularly vulnerable because many major mineral deposits overlap areas of exceptional biological diversity. Research from the Amazon, sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia has documented mining-related deforestation, fragmentation and disruption of habitats used by threatened and narrowly distributed species.
Mining can also change rivers, floodplains and coastal ecosystems. Sedimentation, altered drainage, erosion and contaminated runoff may affect aquatic organisms far downstream from extraction sites. In marine environments, mining-related sediment can damage coral reefs, mangroves, fisheries and other biologically productive habitats.
Water Pollution and Mine Drainage
Water is one of the most persistent pathways through which mining affects ecosystems and communities. Excavating sulfide-bearing rock can expose minerals to oxygen and water, producing acidic drainage capable of dissolving metals and carrying them into streams and groundwater.
Acid mine drainage may continue for decades or even centuries after mining stops. Contaminated drainage can contain iron, aluminum, arsenic, lead, copper and other metals, producing ecological damage long after the economic life of a mine has ended.
Mining can also affect water supplies through sedimentation, groundwater pumping, processing chemicals and tailings leaks. Communities near mining districts may face reduced access to clean water at the same time that mines require substantial quantities of water for extraction and processing.
Tailings, Waste and Industrial Pollution
Mining produces exceptionally large quantities of waste because valuable minerals often constitute only a small fraction of the material removed from the ground. Waste rock and finely ground processing residues known as tailings may remain permanently at mine sites.
Tailings are commonly stored behind large engineered dams. Failures can release enormous quantities of contaminated material into rivers, farmland and settlements. Disasters in Brazil, Zambia and elsewhere demonstrate how failures at individual facilities can produce regional environmental and human consequences.
Even without catastrophic collapse, tailings facilities may create chronic pollution through seepage, dust and contaminated runoff. Because many wastes remain chemically reactive, safe management may be required long after mining operations cease.
Gold Mining and Mercury Pollution
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining presents a distinctive set of environmental and public-health challenges. Mercury is frequently used to separate gold from ore and can escape into air, soils, rivers and food chains.
Mercury released into aquatic ecosystems can be converted into forms that accumulate in fish and other organisms. People who depend heavily on local fish may consequently receive significant exposure even when they are not directly involved in mining.
Studies and reporting from the Amazon, Africa and Southeast Asia have connected gold mining with mercury contamination, deforestation, river sedimentation and destruction of aquatic habitats. Illegal mining may intensify these effects because operations often occur without environmental safeguards or effective monitoring.
Critical Minerals and the Energy Transition
The transition toward renewable energy, electric vehicles and large-scale battery storage is increasing demand for lithium, copper, cobalt, nickel, rare earth elements and other critical minerals.
These materials can reduce dependence on fossil fuels, but expanding their production transfers environmental pressures to mining regions. Lithium extraction can place additional stress on scarce water resources, nickel mining can affect tropical forests and coastal ecosystems, and cobalt and copper development has produced displacement and pollution concerns in parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The challenge is therefore not simply whether critical minerals should be mined, but how much material is required, where extraction occurs, what environmental standards are applied and whether recycling, material efficiency and recovery from existing mine waste can reduce demand for new mines.
Communities, Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights
Mining projects can transform local economies while simultaneously creating conflicts over land, water and political power. Communities may receive jobs, infrastructure and government revenue, but they may also experience displacement, pollution, livelihood losses and increased dependence on a single industry.
Indigenous communities are especially affected where mineral deposits overlap traditional territories. Mining may interfere with hunting, fishing, farming, culturally significant landscapes and access to water. Disputes frequently concern whether communities gave meaningful consent to development and whether compensation reflects the long-term value of lost land and resources.
Investigations in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and North America show that environmental impacts and human-rights questions are often inseparable. Pollution can become a social-justice issue when communities receiving the greatest environmental burdens receive relatively few economic benefits.
Coal Mining and Landscape Transformation
Coal mining has created some of the most extensive examples of mining-related landscape alteration. Surface mining and mountaintop-removal operations can remove vegetation and soil, change drainage systems, bury streams and alter watershed chemistry.
Appalachian research has documented elevated salinity, sulfate, selenium and other contaminants downstream from heavily mined landscapes. Selenium can move from water into aquatic organisms and eventually into terrestrial food webs.
Underground coal mining can also cause subsidence, changing groundwater movement and damaging buildings, roads and other infrastructure. The environmental legacy of coal extraction can therefore remain visible after production has declined or stopped.
Uranium Mining and Radioactive Legacies
Uranium mining creates many of the same environmental problems as other hard-rock mining while adding potential exposure to radioactive materials and radon.
Abandoned uranium mines and waste sites may contaminate soil and water for long periods. These problems have been especially significant in parts of the western United States, including the Navajo Nation, where hundreds of abandoned uranium sites require investigation or cleanup.
Uranium mining also demonstrates the importance of considering contamination pathways beyond the mine itself. Water, plants, animals, dust and traditional foods may all provide routes through which mining contaminants reach surrounding communities.
Deep-Sea and Marine Mining
Growing demand for critical minerals has increased interest in extracting polymetallic nodules and other mineral deposits from the deep ocean.
Deep-sea environments contain ecosystems that remain poorly understood and can recover extremely slowly from physical disturbance. Experimental mining studies indicate that collector vehicles can remove habitat, reduce the abundance and diversity of seafloor organisms and generate sediment plumes extending beyond the immediate mining tracks.
Waste discharged into the water column could also affect organisms living above the seafloor. Because many deep-ocean species have limited geographic ranges, habitat destruction could potentially create irreversible biodiversity losses before the ecological functions of those species are fully understood.
Abandoned Mines and Long-Term Environmental Liabilities
A mine's environmental effects do not necessarily end when extraction stops. Abandoned mines can continue releasing acidic drainage, metals and other pollutants into groundwater and rivers.
Cleanup is frequently difficult and expensive. Some sites require perpetual water treatment, stabilization of mine waste or long-term monitoring. Where companies disappear or become insolvent, governments and communities may inherit these liabilities.
The large number of abandoned mining sites around the world illustrates the importance of requiring financial assurance and closure planning before new mines begin operating.
Reducing Mining Impacts
Environmental impacts can be reduced through stronger mine planning, rigorous environmental assessment, water protection, safer tailings management and meaningful consultation with affected communities.
The mitigation hierarchy emphasizes avoiding environmental damage where possible before relying on restoration or compensation. Particularly sensitive ecosystems, protected areas and critical habitats may therefore be inappropriate locations for mining regardless of proposed restoration measures.
Recycling and recovery of metals from mine waste may also reduce some pressure for new extraction. Research into recovering rare earth elements from acid mine drainage and iron ore from existing mining waste illustrates how previously discarded materials can sometimes become secondary mineral resources.
Better product design, recycling systems, longer product lifetimes and more efficient material use can further reduce the quantity of newly mined material required by the global economy.
Conclusion
Mining presents a fundamental environmental dilemma. Modern societies depend on minerals for construction, transportation, electronics, energy systems and industrial production, yet extracting those materials can create environmental damage lasting far longer than the products they eventually become.
The evidence shows that mining impacts cannot be evaluated solely by examining the footprint of the mine itself. Roads, deforestation, water use, tailings, processing facilities, pollution, community displacement and abandoned mine wastes can expand the consequences across entire landscapes and watersheds.
The accelerating demand for critical minerals makes these questions increasingly important. A lower-carbon economy may require substantial mineral resources, but environmental benefits from cleaner technologies can be undermined if extraction destroys biodiversity, contaminates water or transfers environmental burdens to vulnerable communities.
Reducing those impacts will require stronger environmental standards, careful decisions about where mining should occur, improved waste management, effective restoration, greater recycling and meaningful participation by communities whose land and water are affected by mineral development.
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General Environmental and Biodiversity Impacts (20)
[Mining triggers extensive additional deforestation in sub-Saharan Africa | Oscar Morton et al. | Nature | 2026-06-03]
Researchers examining more than 16,000 mines find that mining causes both direct forest clearing and substantial additional deforestation in surrounding landscapes.
[Mapping global resource driven nature loss in the mining sector from 2001 to 2022 | Yu-Tong Cheng et al. | Nature Communications | 2026-05-28]
A global assessment estimates that mining caused more than 16,000 square kilometers of forest loss from 2001–2022, with especially large impacts in tropical biodiversity regions.
[The environmental impacts of deep-sea mining | Research authors | Current Biology | 2026-05-04]
Decades of deep-sea research indicate that commercial mining could destroy seafloor habitats, alter biological communities and threaten species that remain poorly understood.
[Advances in ecological restoration of mining-impacted landscapes: Techniques, case studies, and key challenges | Research authors | Environmental Research | 2026-02-01]
This review assesses attempts to restore mining-degraded soils, vegetation, biodiversity and ecosystem functions while highlighting the difficulty of achieving durable ecological recovery.
[How much deforestation in sub-Saharan Africa has been caused by mining? | Research authors | Biological Conservation | 2025-04]
A continent-wide analysis finds substantially greater forest loss around mines than in comparable unmined areas, illustrating important indirect effects of mineral development.
[Metal mining is a global driver of environmental change | Bebbington et al. | Nature Reviews Earth & Environment | 2025]
This broad review examines rapidly increasing metal extraction and its effects on land use, freshwater resources, biodiversity, waste generation and environmental pressures worldwide.
[New report highlights the closing window of opportunity to protect important areas for people, climate, and biodiversity | IUCN | International Union for Conservation of Nature | 2024-10-21]
New mapping shows extensive overlap between mining and other extractive concessions and protected areas, Indigenous territories and high-integrity tropical forests.
[No evidence of increased forest loss from a mining rush in Madagascar’s eastern rainforests | Research authors | Communications Earth & Environment | 2024]
This study provides an important counterexample, finding that a particular artisanal mining rush did not produce measurable additional forest loss despite significant potential biodiversity risks.
[Assessing the impacts of river bed mining on aquatic ecosystems: A critical review of effects on water quality and biodiversity | Research authors | HydroResearch | 2024]
Riverbed mining alters channel structure, raises turbidity, increases sedimentation and damages aquatic habitats and biodiversity across entire river systems.
[Mining and socio-ecological systems: A systematic review of Sub-Saharan Africa | Research authors | Resources Policy | 2022]
The review links mining with habitat degradation, biodiversity loss, pollution, altered livelihoods, governance problems and major changes to interconnected human and ecological systems.
[The environmental impacts of river sand mining | Research authors | Science of the Total Environment | 2022]
A systematic review finds widespread physical, biological and chemical impacts from sand extraction, including riverbed erosion, biodiversity decline and poorer water and soil quality.
[Mining, Biodiversity, and Protected Areas | IUCN | International Union for Conservation of Nature | 2022]
IUCN examines the growing collision between mineral development, the energy transition, threatened species, protected areas and globally important ecosystems.
[Exploring potential impacts of mining on forest loss and fragmentation within a biodiverse region of Brazil's northeastern Amazon | Research authors | Resources Policy | 2020-08]
Mining around Brazil's RENCA region demonstrates how mines and associated infrastructure can drive extensive forest loss and fragmentation beyond the mine footprint itself.
[Managing Mining for Sustainable Development | UNDP and UNEP | United Nations Development Programme | 2018]
The report surveys mining's lifecycle impacts, including enormous waste production, water contamination, habitat destruction, air pollution, social disruption and post-closure liabilities.
[Mining drives extensive deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon | Laura J. Sonter et al. | Nature Communications | 2017]
Mining-related development caused forest loss far beyond lease boundaries, with roads, settlements and supply infrastructure greatly enlarging the industry's Amazonian footprint.
[Understanding the Long-Term Impacts of Natural Resource Extraction | UNEP | United Nations Environment Programme | 2016-05-16]
UNEP emphasizes that mining's secondary impacts can include roads, deforestation, settlement expansion, bushmeat hunting, invasive species, logging and agricultural encroachment.
[Good Practice Guidance for Mining and Biodiversity | IUCN and ICMM | International Union for Conservation of Nature | 2006]
This guidance describes how mining affects habitats and species and outlines measures for avoidance, mitigation, restoration and biodiversity management throughout a mine's lifecycle.
[Mining and Critical Ecosystems: Mapping the Risks | Miranda et al. | World Resources Institute | 2003]
This influential report maps mining against environmentally sensitive regions and explains impacts from exploration, roads, habitat fragmentation, pollution and increased human access.
[Artisanal and small-scale gold mining and biodiversity: A global literature review | UNEP Global Mercury Partnership | United Nations Environment Programme | n.d.]
A global review documents how poorly regulated small-scale gold mining contributes to deforestation, habitat loss, mercury contamination, land degradation and pressure on protected areas.
[Deep-sea mining | IUCN | International Union for Conservation of Nature | n.d.]
IUCN reviews potential seabed destruction, sediment plumes, species loss and ecological disruption associated with proposed industrial extraction from deep-ocean ecosystems.
Water Pollution, Tailings and Mine Drainage (20)
[Environmental, ecotoxicological, and human health impacts of a major tailings dam collapse | Research authors | Environmental Research | 2026-08-15]
A systematic review of the Brumadinho disaster synthesizes more than 100 studies of contamination, ecological damage, toxicological effects and human-health consequences.
[A mine polluted a Zambian river in 2025: Residents continue to live with the impacts | Victoria Schneider | Mongabay | 2026-08-13]
More than a year after the Zambia tailings disaster, researchers found heavy metals in water, sediments, fish and pasture and communities remained exposed to contamination.
[Abandoned Mine Drainage | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026-07-14]
Abandoned mines remain major sources of acidic, alkaline and metal-rich drainage capable of harming humans, wildlife, plants, groundwater and surface-water ecosystems.
[Monitoring the adverse effects of mining on water resources | Saúl Dávila-Cisneros et al. | Physics and Chemistry of the Earth | 2026-06]
This systematic review identifies groundwater alteration, tailings runoff, acid mine drainage, heavy metals and threats to water security among major mining impacts.
[Water pollution and treatment challenges from artisanal gold mining in Ghana: A decade review | Research authors | Scientific African | 2026-06]
Mercury, cyanide, arsenic, lead, cadmium, sediment and mining wastes have heavily degraded some Ghanaian river systems while complicating conventional drinking-water treatment.
[Impact of coal mining activities on the water quality: A case study of Jharia Coalfield, Dhanbad, India | Alok Kumar et al. | Environmental Research | 2026-03-15]
Water samples near mines, washeries and waste dumps showed elevated dissolved solids and toxic metals, with several measurements exceeding drinking-water guidelines.
[4 months after DRC mine spill, residents remain impacted | Mongabay | Mongabay | 2026-03]
Residents near a Democratic Republic of Congo mining spill reported degraded wells and concerns about heavy metals and other contaminants entering soil, crops and food chains.
[Flood in Vale mining area damaged Brazilian river, state government says | Reuters | Reuters | 2026-01-26]
Overflow from mining areas in Minas Gerais reached the Maranhão River, triggering emergency cleanup, monitoring requirements and demands for an environmental recovery plan.
[Assessment of water quality in Moatize, Mozambique: Possible human health risks from coal mining and use | Micaela Arlete José Chapo Cossa et al. | Environmental Geochemistry and Health | 2026]
Surface and groundwater testing found elevated potentially toxic elements and possible non-cancer health risks, particularly for children relying on affected water resources.
[Chilean regulator, workers flagged risk at Teck's Quebrada Blanca dam | Reuters | Reuters | 2025-12-09]
Cracking and leakage concerns at a major Chilean copper-mine tailings dam illustrate continuing global questions about mine-waste storage and long-term structural safety.
[Perceived impacts of artisanal and small-scale mining practices on water quality in Songwe district | Research authors | Discover Water | 2025-11-23]
Communities in southern Tanzania report deterioration of domestic water sources associated with mining chemicals, waste disposal and poorly regulated artisanal extraction.
[A river 'died' overnight in Zambia after an acidic waste spill at a Chinese-owned mine | Associated Press | AP | 2025-03-15]
A collapsed copper-mine tailings facility released acidic waste and heavy metals into waterways linked to the Kafue River, killing fish and threatening downstream water supplies.
[Relationship between small-scale gold mining activities and water use in Ghana | Research authors | Environmental Challenges | 2023-08]
The review finds significant weaknesses in policies intended to protect Ghana's waterways from small-scale mining and stresses the importance of enforcement and water treatment.
[Mine Drainage | Water Resources Mission Area | U.S. Geological Survey | 2019-02-28]
Mine drainage can become extremely acidic and carry high concentrations of metals into streams and groundwater, sometimes continuing long after mining operations cease.
[Mining and Water Quality | Water Science School | U.S. Geological Survey | 2018-06-08]
USGS explains how mining can contaminate drinking water, disrupt aquatic reproduction and expose waterways to acidic runoff and metals such as copper, lead and mercury.
[Water footprinting and mining: Where are the limitations and opportunities? | Stephen A. Northey et al. | Journal of Cleaner Production | 2016-11-01]
Mining's relationship with water is highly site-specific and includes consumption, contamination, cumulative impacts, accidents and pollution that can persist after closure.
[Acid mine drainage | Jerry M. Bigham and Charles A. Cravotta | Encyclopedia of Soil Science / USGS | 2016]
Acid mine drainage can transport sulfate, iron, aluminum and toxic metals through groundwater and streams for considerable distances from active and abandoned mines.
[Water Quality Impact from the Discharge of Coal Mine Wastes to Receiving Streams | Research authors | Water, Air, & Soil Pollution | 2016]
Both active and closed coal mines can substantially alter stream chemistry, showing that serious water pollution may continue decades after production stops.
[Hydrogeochemistry and microbiology of mine drainage: An update | D. Kirk Nordstrom, D.W. Blowes and C.J. Ptacek | Applied Geochemistry | 2015]
Mining exposes sulfide minerals to air and water, accelerating chemical and microbial reactions capable of producing extremely acidic and metal-rich drainage.
[The effects of acidic mine drainage from historical mines in the Animas River watershed | Stanley E. Church et al. | Geological Society of America / USGS | 2007]
Research in Colorado shows how a relatively small number of abandoned mine sites can contribute a large share of toxic-metal loads to an entire watershed.
Gold Mining, Mercury and Artisanal Mining (20)
[Illegal mining threatens Ghana's first marine protected area | Mabel Adorkor Annang | Mongabay | 2026-08-12]
Gold mining in a forest reserve is sending mercury, arsenic, cyanide and large sediment loads toward mangroves and Ghana's newly established marine protected area.
[Rescuers recover more bodies after Central African Republic mine collapse kills over 100 | Associated Press | AP | 2026-08]
A deadly artisanal gold-mine collapse highlights occupational hazards created by informal shafts, limited safety infrastructure, heavy rainfall and weak regulatory oversight.
[Water and Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining: A Review of the Literature | Hausermann et al. | WIREs Water | 2026-06-12]
Reviewing more than 300 sources, the authors connect artisanal gold mining with water-quality degradation, altered water distribution, disease exposure and water insecurity.
[Liberia's largest gold miner repeatedly spilled dangerous chemicals, records show | Associated Press | AP | 2026-01-30]
Regulatory records document repeated releases of cyanide, arsenic and copper around a major Liberian gold mine, alongside fish deaths and community water concerns.
[Indonesia’s illegal gold boom leaves a toxic legacy of mercury pollution | Sarjan Lahay, Junaidi Hanafiah and Teguh Suprayitno | Mongabay | 2026-01-07]
Expanding illegal gold mining is contaminating rivers, crops and communities with mercury while also damaging protected forests and important wildlife habitat.
[Artisanal and small-scale gold mining effects in social-ecological systems | Research authors | The Extractive Industries and Society | 2026]
A systematic review identifies water contamination, mercury exposure, biodiversity damage, food insecurity, livelihood disruption and other interconnected consequences of artisanal gold extraction.
[Peru's Amazon communities accuse the state of failing to stop mercury pollution from illegal mining | Associated Press | AP | 2025-06-27]
Indigenous and rural communities say illegal gold mining is contaminating Amazonian fish and water, with testing finding widespread elevated mercury exposure among residents.
[In Peru’s Madre de Dios, deforestation from mining brings huge economic losses | Maxwell Radwin | Mongabay | 2024-06-13]
Analysis of three Indigenous communities placed a large economic value on mining-related forest loss, sedimentation, mercury contamination and resulting public-health impacts.
[Public health assessment of Kenyan ASGM communities using multi-element biomonitoring | Maureene Auma Ondayo et al. | Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety | 2024-06-01]
Biomonitoring in Kenya's Kakamega gold belt found exposure to arsenic and other potentially harmful elements through drinking water, food and mining environments.
[Artisanal gold mining in Kakamega and Vihiga counties, Kenya: potential human exposure and health risk | Research authors | Environmental research literature | 2023]
Researchers found arsenic, chromium, mercury and other pollutants in soils, sediments and water and calculated elevated cancer and non-cancer health risks.
[Maternal exposure to arsenic and mercury and associated risk of adverse birth outcomes in small-scale gold mining communities in Northern Tanzania | Research authors | Environment International | 2020]
The study investigates reproductive-health risks associated with maternal exposure to mercury and arsenic in communities where artisanal gold extraction is widespread.
[Environmental and human health risks of arsenic in gold mining areas in the eastern Amazon | Research authors | Environmental Pollution | 2020]
Gold-mine tailings in parts of the eastern Amazon contained extremely high arsenic concentrations, creating potentially serious environmental and human-health risks.
[Illegal gold rush causing ‘irreversible damage’ to rivers in the Brazilian Amazon | Ana Ionova | Mongabay | 2019-12-20]
Illegal mining combined mercury contamination with riverbank destruction and deforestation, undermining fisheries and threatening Indigenous territories in Brazil's Amazon.
[Review of Environmental and Health Impacts of Mining in Ghana | Research authors | Journal of Health & Pollution | 2018]
Mining in Ghana has been associated with water pollution, forest degradation, soil deterioration, wildlife habitat destruction and numerous potential human-health effects.
[A preliminary study on health effects in villagers exposed to mercury in a small-scale artisanal gold mining area in Indonesia | Research authors | Environmental Research | 2016]
Air, soil, fish and rice were contaminated by mercury around an Indonesian gold-mining village where residents reported significant health concerns.
[Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining and Health | World Health Organization | WHO | 2016]
WHO reviews mercury exposure pathways, neurological damage, occupational hazards and wider health risks associated with artisanal and small-scale gold production.
[Mercury exposure and health impacts among individuals in the artisanal and small-scale gold mining community | Gibb and O'Leary | Environmental Health Perspectives | 2014]
This comprehensive review describes neurological and other health effects associated with mercury used by millions of people in small-scale gold extraction.
[Spatial distribution of mercury and arsenic levels in water, soil and cassava plants in a community with long history of gold mining in Tanzania | Research authors | Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology | 2014]
Mercury and arsenic contamination was detected in drinking-water sources, soils and food crops throughout a Tanzanian artisanal gold-mining community.
[Health and environmental assessment of mercury exposure in a gold mining community in Western Mindanao, Philippines | Nelia Cortes-Maramba et al. | Journal of Environmental Management | 2006-10]
Mercury-based gold processing contaminated local environmental media and exposed both miners and other residents in a community near aquatic ecosystems.
[Mercury Monitoring in and around artisanal and small-scale gold mining sites | UNEP Global Mercury Partnership | UNEP | n.d.]
UNEP provides guidance for measuring mercury contamination and protecting human health, Indigenous communities, biodiversity and ecosystems surrounding artisanal gold-mining areas.
Critical Minerals and the Energy Transition (15)
[Mining threat persists in Raja Ampat, Indonesia’s ‘Amazon of the Seas’ | Hans Nicholas Jong | Mongabay | 2026-08-04]
Nickel mining threatens exceptionally rich marine ecosystems through deforestation, sedimentation, runoff, erosion and potential chemical pollution of coral and coastal habitats.
[The US and others turn to Brazil for rare earths, raising environmental concerns | Associated Press | AP | 2026-08]
Brazil's emerging rare-earth boom is bringing mining claims close to protected and Indigenous lands, raising concerns about deforestation, radioactive waste and water pollution.
[Deep-sea mining threatens molluscs holding promise for science, Red List shows | Reuters | Reuters | 2026-07-09]
IUCN assessments indicate that many hydrothermal-vent molluscs could face extinction if deep-sea mineral extraction destroys or smothers their specialized habitats.
[Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026 | International Energy Agency | IEA | 2026-07]
Rapidly growing strategic demand for copper, lithium, cobalt, nickel and other minerals is intensifying pressure to expand mining and diversify global supply chains.
[Little-known company targets South African biodiversity hotspot for mining | Anna Weekes | Mongabay | 2026-04-23]
Critical-mineral prospecting in South Africa's Northern Cape raises concerns over groundwater contamination, radioactive dust and disturbance of an exceptionally diverse arid ecosystem.
[Albemarle starts environmental review for Chile lithium extraction project | Reuters | Reuters | 2026-03-25]
A proposed direct-lithium-extraction project seeks to raise lithium recovery while reducing brine pumping in a region where mining's effects on water remain highly contentious.
[Mining controversies: The hidden toll of green energy | Valisoa Rasolofomboahangy | Mongabay | 2025-12-17]
Research on energy-transition minerals highlights damage to forests, soils, water, wildlife habitat and communities as demand for renewable-energy materials accelerates.
[Satellite data show burst of deforestation in Myanmar rare earth mining hotspots | Mongabay | Mongabay | 2025-09]
Rare-earth operations in Myanmar are linked to extensive clearing, erosion, contaminated waterways, heavy metals, landslide risks and deteriorating local livelihoods.
[Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025 | International Energy Agency | IEA | 2025]
The report finds improving disclosure by major mining companies but continued concerns involving water use, mine waste, worker safety and climate-related production risks.
[Lithium mining is slowly sinking Chile's Atacama salt flat, study shows | Reuters | Reuters | 2024-08-22]
Satellite measurements indicate that intensive lithium-brine pumping is causing localized subsidence in the Atacama while Indigenous communities remain concerned about scarce water supplies.
[Native groups sit on a treasure trove of lithium. Now mines threaten their water, culture and wealth | Associated Press | AP | 2024-03-13]
Indigenous communities across the lithium triangle fear industrial brine extraction could deplete interconnected water systems and disrupt traditional livelihoods, ecosystems and culture.
[Sustainable and Responsible Critical Mineral Supply Chains | International Energy Agency | IEA | 2023-12-13]
The IEA identifies water use, emissions, biodiversity, human rights, community impacts and corruption as important risks associated with expanding critical-mineral production.
[Why is ESG so important to critical mineral supplies, and what can we do about it? | K.C. Michaels, Louis Maréchal and Benjamin Katz | IEA | 2022-09-09]
Poor environmental and social performance can harm frontline communities while creating protests, litigation, project delays and other risks to critical-mineral supply chains.
[Encouraging sustainable and responsible practices | International Energy Agency | IEA | 2022]
Mining policies increasingly need to address water stress, biodiversity loss, emissions, pollution, human-rights violations and community impacts alongside mineral-security concerns.
[Sustainable and responsible development of minerals | International Energy Agency | IEA | 2021]
Increased mineral extraction can produce habitat loss, water depletion, pollution, mine waste, air emissions, worker hazards, displacement and human-rights abuses if poorly managed.
Community, Indigenous and Human-Rights Impacts (15)
[Mining Impacts on Communities: A Systematic Review of Social, Economic, Environmental, Territorial, and Health Dimensions | Research authors | Sustainability | 2026]
A systematic review of 57 empirical studies finds recurring problems involving contamination, livelihood loss, economic dependency, conflict, health effects and territorial disruption.
[Human rights in Indonesia | Amnesty International | Amnesty International | 2026]
Indigenous residents of Maba Sangaji protested environmental degradation associated with nickel mining and subsequently faced arrests and criminal prosecution.
[Nickel Mining in Kabaena and the Bajau People | UN Special Procedures | OHCHR | 2025]
Reported nickel-mining impacts include marine sedimentation, toxic-metal contamination, respiratory and skin problems and severe losses to Indigenous fishing and seaweed livelihoods.
[Democratic Republic of the Congo: Industrial mining of cobalt and copper for rechargeable batteries is leading to grievous human rights abuses | Amnesty International | Amnesty International | 2023-09-12]
Amnesty documented forced evictions, destroyed homes and farmland, violence and inadequate compensation as industrial cobalt and copper mines expanded around Kolwezi.
[DRC: Powering Change or Business as Usual? | Amnesty International and IBGDH | Amnesty International | 2023-09-11]
This detailed report documents displacement and abuses associated with expanding industrial cobalt and copper mines supplying minerals needed for rechargeable batteries.
[Gold Rush: Indonesia's mining plans risk fueling abuses in Papua | Amnesty International | Amnesty International | 2022-03-21]
Proposed development of Papua's Wabu gold deposit raised concerns about environmental impacts occurring amid conflict, militarization and repression of Indigenous Papuans.
[Aluminum: The Car Industry’s Blind Spot | Human Rights Watch | HRW | 2021-07-22]
The investigation connects aluminum supply chains to bauxite-mining impacts including destroyed or polluted water sources, land loss and harm to rural communities.
[Health impacts of industrial mining on surrounding communities: Local perspectives from three sub-Saharan African countries | Research authors | PLOS One | 2021]
Residents near mines in Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Tanzania reported pollution, water scarcity, livelihood disruption and multiple perceived effects on physical and social well-being.
[Impact of mining projects on water and sanitation infrastructures and associated child health outcomes | Research authors | Public-health research | 2021]
Analysis across sub-Saharan Africa examines how large mines can simultaneously stimulate infrastructure investment and produce environmental degradation, population pressure and health risks.
[Uranium Exposure in American Indian Communities: Health, Policy, and the Way Forward | Research authors | Public-health literature | 2021]
Uranium contamination of reservation water sources illustrates the continuing health and environmental-justice consequences of abandoned mining across the western United States.
[Environmental and occupational health on the Navajo Nation: a scoping review | Sharly Coombs, Darrah K. Sleeth and Rachael M. Jones | Reviews on Environmental Health | 2021]
Research connects the legacy of uranium mining and mine waste with environmental exposures and a range of chronic-health concerns on the Navajo Nation.
[“What Do We Get Out of It?”: The Human Rights Impact of Bauxite Mining in Guinea | Human Rights Watch | HRW | 2018-10-04]
Hundreds of residents described loss of farmland, reduced access to water, mining dust, inadequate compensation and weak government oversight during Guinea's bauxite boom.
[Environmental impact assessment of uranium exploration and development on indigenous land in Labrador | Research authors | Environmental-health literature | 2018]
A community-driven study measured uranium and lead in water, soil, vegetation and aquatic organisms around an abandoned development site on Inuit land.
[Mining and Environmental Health Disparities in Native American Communities | Lewis et al. | Current Environmental Health Reports | 2017]
More than a century of hard-rock and uranium mining has left many Native American communities exposed to abandoned mine waste and contaminated environmental media.
[Bulldozed: How a mining company buried the truth about forced evictions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo | Amnesty International | Amnesty International | 2014-11-24]
Evidence concerning the demolition of homes near a Congolese mine illustrates how mining expansion can produce displacement, weak accountability and conflicts over land rights.
Coal Mining, Mountaintop Removal and Legacy Impacts (10)
[Mountaintop Removal Mining: Impacts on Health in the Surrounding Community | National Toxicology Program | NIEHS | 2026]
The federal review examines possible community exposure through contaminated groundwater, streams, dust and chemical mixtures generated by large-scale Appalachian surface mining.
[Mountaintop Mining Research | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2025-10-08]
EPA research focuses on the consequences of mountaintop removal for headwater streams, watersheds, aquatic life, water quality and surrounding environments.
[Basic Information about Surface Coal Mining in Appalachia | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2025]
EPA summarizes how mountaintop mines and valley fills bury streams, elevate dissolved chemicals and produce water-quality conditions harmful to aquatic organisms.
[Environmental, hydrological, and social impacts of coal and nonmetal minerals mining operations | Research authors | Journal of Environmental Management | 2023-04-15]
This lifecycle review examines pollution, hydrological change, mine facilities, post-mining environmental damage and lower quality-of-life indicators in mining-dependent communities.
[Surface coal mining and public health disparities: Evidence from Appalachia | Rose M. Mueller | Resources Policy | 2022]
More surface coal mining near Appalachian communities was associated with increased cardiovascular mortality among older residents, adding an environmental-justice dimension to extraction.
[Systematic Review of Community Health Impacts of Mountaintop Removal Mining | Boyles et al. | Environment International | 2017]
Mountaintop mining exposes nearby communities to altered water, dust, particulate matter, metals and other pollutants while dramatically transforming Appalachian landscapes.
[The public health impacts of surface coal mining | Michael Hendryx | The Extractive Industries and Society | 2015]
This review evaluates evidence linking coal extraction and especially mountaintop removal with community health problems beyond occupational diseases such as black lung.
[Mountaintop Removal Mining and Catchment Hydrology | Andrew J. Miller and Nicolas P. Zégre | Water | 2014-03-18]
Removing mountaintops and filling valleys fundamentally changes topography, soils, drainage networks, runoff pathways and the movement and storage of water.
[The effects of mountaintop mines and valley fills on the physicochemical quality of stream ecosystems in the central Appalachians | Research authors | Science of the Total Environment | 2012-02-15]
Mountaintop mining and valley fills permanently alter streams, increasing dissolved ions and other contaminants and degrading downstream aquatic conditions.
[Subsidence from underground mining: Environmental analysis and planning considerations | Fitzhugh T. Lee and John F. Abel | U.S. Geological Survey | 1983]
Underground extraction can cause surface subsidence that damages buildings and infrastructure, alters groundwater and surface-water systems and affects vegetation and wildlife.
Recent Global and Tropical Mining Impacts (10)
| Robert Muggah | Mongabay | 2026-07-30
Record gold prices are intensifying illegal mining across the Amazon, where forest clearing, mercury contamination, sediment pollution and fuel use are damaging protected areas and Indigenous territories.
| Aimee Gabay | Mongabay | 2026-07-03
Global tracking of transition-mineral projects finds hundreds of allegations involving water pollution, deforestation, community-rights violations, labor abuses and attacks on environmental defenders.
| Rubens Valente | Mongabay | 2026-06-17
Illegal miners remaining in Brazil's Yanomami territory are moving deeper into remote forests, prolonging risks from deforestation, mercury contamination and mining-associated disease.
| Gabriela Verdezoto Landívar | Mongabay | 2026-06-12
Illegal mining in Ecuador's Amazon has expanded dramatically along the Puní River, contaminating a principal water source for the Kichwa community of Capirona and forcing residents surrounded by rivers to depend on trucked drinking water.
| Reuters | Reuters | 2026-05-05
Public concern over potential pollution of rivers, farmland and the Sabaneta Dam prompted the Dominican Republic to halt development activities associated with the proposed Romero gold-copper mine.
| Abraham Nunbogu and Kaveh Madani | Phys.org / The Conversation | 2026-04-29
Expanding extraction of lithium, cobalt, copper and rare earths can create heavily polluted mining regions where local communities face water scarcity, contaminated food systems and chronic health risks.
| Shanna Hanbury | Mongabay | 2026-04-15
Satellite monitoring documents thousands of hectares of mining-related forest destruction in the Kayapó Indigenous Territory and shows how mining can rebound after enforcement operations end.
| Mongabay Staff | Mongabay | 2026-04
Artificial-intelligence-assisted satellite monitoring identified mining damage across protected areas and Indigenous territories throughout the Amazon, including extensive forest loss in Brazil, Peru and Guyana.
| Reuters | Reuters | 2026-03-31
Indonesia experienced a sharp increase in forest loss in 2025, with tens of thousands of hectares converted within coal, gold and nickel concessions.
| Aimee Gabay | Mongabay | 2026-01-06
Illegal mining, road building and urban expansion around Mitú, Colombia, are contributing to forest loss, soil degradation and water contamination affecting nearby Indigenous communities.
Illegal Gold Mining and Mercury in the Amazon (10)
| Enrique Vera | Mongabay | 2025-12-31
Gold-mining dredges are damaging the Nanay River while testing among nearby residents has found widespread elevated mercury exposure associated with consumption of contaminated fish.
| Aimee Gabay | Mongabay | 2025-11-12
Wampís Indigenous patrols in Peru are attempting to protect their territory from expanding illegal gold mining and mining dredges despite limited government support and significant personal risk.
| Maxwell Radwin | Mongabay | 2025-10-17
Satellite analysis shows gold mining spreading into new areas of Peru's Amazon, with more than 139,000 hectares of mining-related deforestation documented since 1984.
| Robert Muggah | Mongabay | 2025-08-07
Artisanal gold mining is a major source of livelihoods but also a leading source of mercury pollution and tropical deforestation, making improved processing and formalization important environmental strategies.
| Aimee Gabay | Mongabay | 2025-06-23
Brazil's campaign against illegal mining has reduced some activity in Munduruku territory, but communities continue dealing with mercury contamination, damaged ecosystems and lingering health effects.
| Bobby Bascomb | Mongabay | 2025-04-08
Scientists found that tropical tree rings can record atmospheric mercury released by gold processing, revealing another pathway through which mining contaminates rainforest ecosystems.
| Aimee Gabay | Mongabay | 2025-04-08
Mining in Munduruku territory has contaminated rivers and food supplies with mercury, destroyed hunting areas and generated difficult economic choices for Indigenous residents.
| Maxwell Radwin | Mongabay | 2025-03-26
Illegal gold mining is destroying carbon-rich peatland swamps in Madre de Dios, threatening biodiversity while potentially releasing millions of tons of stored carbon.
| Fernanda Wenzel | Mongabay | 2025-02-10
Illegal gold dredges returned to Brazil's Madeira River following an enforcement operation, again disturbing riverbeds and exposing aquatic environments to mercury.
| Duke University | Phys.org | 2022-01-28
Research in Peru found that forests near artisanal gold mines capture exceptionally large amounts of atmospheric mercury, turning intact rainforest vegetation and soils into mercury reservoirs.
Nickel, Critical Minerals and Biodiversity (10)
| Research authors | Phys.org | 2026-06
Research on African mining shows that associated infrastructure and secondary development can destroy substantially more forest than the mine sites themselves.
| Reuters | Reuters | 2026-04-08
Investors representing trillions of dollars have called for stronger safeguards as nickel extraction in Indonesia and the Philippines is associated with forest clearing, water pollution and Indigenous-rights disputes.
| Andrew Chapman | Eos | 2026-03-04
Researchers are investigating lithium-extraction processes designed to reduce the large water and environmental footprint associated with conventional brine evaporation.
Expanding gold mining around Senegal's Fongoli chimpanzee research area is increasing forest disturbance, water pollution and opportunities for disease transmission between humans and wildlife.
| Hans Nicholas Jong | Mongabay | 2025-09
Norway's sovereign wealth fund divested from Eramet over environmental and human-rights concerns associated with the massive Weda Bay nickel mine in Indonesia.
| Hans Nicholas Jong | Mongabay | 2025-07-23
Nickel mining on Kabaena Island has polluted coastal waters, damaged forests and reduced fishing and seaweed-farming income while threatening endemic wildlife.
| Hans Nicholas Jong | Mongabay | 2025-06-10
Indonesia revoked several nickel permits in Raja Ampat after evidence of environmental damage, although one major mine remained authorized in the globally important marine biodiversity region.
| Jaya Barends | Mongabay | 2025-03-11
Nickel extraction on Indonesia's Gebe Island has been linked to damaged farmland, declining fisheries, pollution and concerns over mining on ecologically fragile small islands.
| University of Cambridge | Phys.org | 2024-07
Research estimates that mining threatens more than 4,000 vertebrate species worldwide, with freshwater fish and narrowly distributed tropical species particularly vulnerable.
| World Bank Group | World Bank | n.d.
The World Bank identifies biodiversity, water consumption, community safety, Indigenous rights and social conflict as central environmental and social risks of expanding mineral production.
Tailings, Spills and Industrial Pollution (10)
| Reuters | Reuters | 2026-08-20
More Brazilian municipalities joined the compensation settlement arising from the 2015 Samarco tailings disaster, whose waste devastated communities and ecosystems throughout the Rio Doce watershed.
| Dave Petley | Eos – The Landslide Blog | 2026-08
The failure of a chrome-mine tailings storage facility in South Africa provides another contemporary example of the serious downstream risks posed by unstable mine-waste impoundments.
| Bobby Bascomb | Mongabay | 2026-03
An investigation into copper-cobalt processing in the DRC raises concerns about sulfur-dioxide emissions, respiratory exposure and environmental injustice around industrial mining facilities.
| Mongabay.com | Mongabay | 2025-10-28
Mercury contamination and damaged waterways persisted in the Dimonika Biosphere Reserve even after authorities shut down industrial gold-mining activity.
| Ashoka Mukpo | Mongabay | 2025-08-04
Communities around Guinea's Simandou iron-ore development report increasingly polluted streams and degraded agricultural land as construction and mining expand.
| Research authors | Phys.org / The Conversation | 2025-05
Tailings facilities can threaten communities through catastrophic collapse as well as chronic dust, seepage and water contamination extending well beyond mine property.
| Dave Petley | Eos – The Landslide Blog | 2025-02
Satellite imagery of the Chambishi tailings failure in Zambia shows how containment failure can allow enormous quantities of mine waste to escape into surrounding land and waterways.
| Mongabay | Mongabay | 2024-11
Women living and working around copper and cobalt mines in the DRC report polluted waterways and reproductive-health problems that researchers are investigating for links to mining contamination.
| Immaculée Inamuco | Mongabay | 2022-06-01
Congolese authorities suspended a gold-mining company accused of polluting the Aruwimi River, illustrating broader problems with weak environmental enforcement in mineral-producing regions.
| Sylvain-Gauthier Kabemba | Mongabay | 2021-09-01
A tailings failure associated with an Angolan diamond mine polluted the Tshikapa and Kasai rivers, killing wildlife and exposing hundreds of thousands of people to potentially contaminated water.
Uranium Mining and Radioactive Legacies (10)
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026-01-22
EPA explains how uranium-mining and processing wastes can contaminate air, soil and water and why radon accumulation remains an important occupational hazard underground.
| G. Van Deelen | Eos | 2024-02-20
Collaboration with the Havasupai Tribe documents culturally important pathways through which uranium contamination could move through water, plants, animals and traditional food systems.
| R. S. Ramadan et al. | Environmental Earth Sciences | 2022
Measurements around the El Allouga uranium mine in Egypt found elevated radionuclides in sediments and groundwater and assessed potential environmental and health consequences.
| Research authors | Radiation Protection Dosimetry | 2020
Modeling of Tanzania's proposed Mkuju River uranium project assesses possible radiation exposure to residents, grazing areas and communities surrounding future mine operations.
| Research authors | Journal of Environmental Radioactivity | 2015
Research on in-situ uranium recovery in Wyoming examines how mining alters groundwater concentrations of uranium and other regulated contaminants and evaluates resulting health risks.
| R. Pereira, S. Barbosa and F. P. Carvalho | Environmental Geochemistry and Health | 2014-04
A review of abandoned uranium mines in Portugal documents radiological and chemical contamination affecting ecosystems, biological organisms and human populations.
| National Research Council | National Academies Press | 2011-12-19
Uranium mining creates conventional mining hazards as well as exposure to radioactive materials, radon and contaminated tailings capable of affecting workers and surrounding populations.
| National Research Council | National Academies Press | 2011-12-19
Uranium extraction can affect groundwater, surface water, soils, air quality and wildlife, while mine tailings may remain potential contamination sources for thousands of years.
| National Research Council | National Academies Press | 2011-12-19
The National Academies summarizes documented uranium-mining impacts including trace-metal and uranium contamination, groundwater depletion and ecological exposure to radionuclides.
| Doug Brugge and Virginia Buchner | Canadian Family Physician | 2011
Uranium mining can expose workers and surrounding communities to radioactive dust, radon, contaminated water and long-lived radioactive mine wastes.
Coal Mining and Appalachian Ecosystems (10)
| Associated Press | AP | 2025-11-07
Coal miners and physicians describe a continuing epidemic of advanced black lung disease as silica exposure rises in Appalachian mines.
| Lexington Herald-Leader | Phys.org | 2025-02-20
Kentucky environmental officials warned that proposed changes to water protections could increase groundwater risks in coal-mining regions where many households depend on private wells.
| Leah Willingham | Associated Press | 2024
New federal silica rules were introduced as severe black lung disease increasingly affected younger Appalachian coal miners exposed to silica while cutting through sandstone.
| Roger A. Burke et al. | Frontiers in Water | 2023-01-19
Mountaintop-removal mining changes stream hydrology, water chemistry and microbial ecosystem functions, producing persistent degradation of ecological integrity.
| Laura C. Naslund et al. | Environmental Science & Technology | 2020-03-19
Selenium originating in mined watersheds moves from streams into insects and then into terrestrial predators, extending coal-mining contamination into surrounding food webs.
| Thomas R. Cianciolo et al. | Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry | 2020
Fish, salamanders and aquatic invertebrates in mining-affected Appalachian headwaters accumulate substantially more selenium than organisms in reference streams.
| Keridwen M. Whitmore et al. | Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry | 2018-10
Selenium released from Appalachian coal-mining areas accumulates in stream organisms at levels capable of stressing aquatic ecosystems.
| Research authors | Environmental Science & Technology | 2017-07-13
Mountaintop removal and valley fills alter watershed storage and increase sustained saline baseflows, showing that hydrological impacts continue after landscape reconstruction.
| Emily S. Bernhardt et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2012
Research on a West Virginia watershed shows cumulative increases in selenium, sulfate, salinity and other contaminants as the proportion of upstream land affected by surface mining rises.
| National Research Council | National Academies / EPA archive | 2005
The Coeur d'Alene mining district illustrates how more than a century of metal mining can contaminate soils, river sediments, floodplains, surface waters and entire regional watersheds.
Papua New Guinea and Bougainville Mining Legacies (10)
| Ok Tedi Mining Limited | Ok Tedi Mining Limited | 2025
Ok Tedi's own environmental program acknowledges continuing downstream impacts from mine sediment and waste rock and monitors approximately 1,000 kilometers of the Fly River system.
| Rio Tinto | Rio Tinto | 2024-12-06
An independent assessment of the abandoned Panguna copper mine documents continuing environmental, social and human-rights impacts decades after operations stopped.
| Human Rights Law Centre | Human Rights Law Centre | 2024-12-05
An investigation concludes that communities around the abandoned Panguna mine continue to face severe environmental hazards and associated threats to human rights and safety.
| The National | The National | 2024-06-07
A Papua New Guinea overview describes sedimentation, vegetation dieback, water pollution, forest loss and impacts on river-dependent communities downstream of Ok Tedi.
| Tetra Tech Coffey | Tetra Tech Coffey | 2024
Independent investigators documented mine-generated waste, erosion, altered rivers and long-term social and cultural impacts around the former Panguna operation.
This environmental assessment tracks mine-derived sediments and trace metals throughout the Fly River floodplain downstream from Ok Tedi.
| Autonomous Bougainville Government | Autonomous Bougainville Government | 2021-07-27
Bougainville's government describes extensive unresolved environmental damage, population displacement and social disruption associated with the former Panguna mine.
| UNEP | United Nations Environment Programme | 2019
UNEP documentation describes the enormous quantities of tailings and waste rock discharged from the Ok Tedi copper-gold mine into one of Papua New Guinea's major river systems.
| Research authors | Science of the Total Environment | 1998-06-18
Long-term biological monitoring found significant reductions in fish catches at multiple sites downstream from the Ok Tedi mine following large-scale disposal of mining waste into rivers.
| Jörg Hettler et al. | SPREP / AGRIS | 1995
Research documents dispersal of copper-rich mine sediments across the Fly River floodplain following massive waste disposal from the Ok Tedi operation.
Mining Standards, Environmental Risk and Mine Waste (10)
| International Finance Corporation | IFC | 2024-12
International environmental guidance covers air emissions, wastewater, water conservation, hazardous substances and waste management relevant to mining and mineral processing.
| UNEP | United Nations Environment Programme | 2024-02-13
UNEP examines the environmental challenge created by mercury-containing mine tailings left behind by precious-metal and mercury production.
| OECD | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development | 2023
The OECD handbook explains how mineral supply chains can generate environmental and human-rights impacts and sets out procedures for identifying, preventing and mitigating those harms.
| UNEP Global Mercury Partnership | UNEP | 2022
Updated international guidance addresses reducing mercury use and improving management of contaminated tailings produced by artisanal and small-scale gold mining.
| UNEP, PRI and ICMM | United Nations Environment Programme | 2020
Developed after catastrophic mine disasters, the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management establishes environmental, human-rights and safety requirements for tailings facilities.
| Rebecca Darling et al. | World Bank | 2014-01-01
Mining's intense demand for water and its potential to degrade shared watersheds can generate serious conflict between extraction companies and surrounding communities.
| UNEP | United Nations Environment Programme | 2010
This report evaluates options for processing and managing mercury-contaminated mining tailings, including case studies in Chile and Ghana.
| Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide | ELAW / Earthworks | 2010
This guide explains major mining impacts including acid drainage, metal leaching, groundwater contamination, sedimentation, habitat destruction and hazardous mine wastes.
| International Finance Corporation | IFC | 2007
IFC's mining guidelines identify environmental, occupational and community hazards associated with open-pit, underground, alluvial, brine and dredging operations.
| Earthworks and Oxfam America | Earthworks | 2004
The Dirty Metals report surveys the environmental legacy of modern metal mining, emphasizing toxic mine drainage, enormous waste volumes, polluted waterways and damaged communities.
Deep-Sea, Marine and Coastal Mining (10)
| Reuters | Reuters | 2026-08-17
A proposed seabed-mining lease sale near the Northern Mariana Islands illustrates growing pressure to extract critical minerals from marine environments whose ecological response remains uncertain.
| Eva C. D. Stewart et al. | Phys.org / Nature Ecology & Evolution | 2025-12-07
A commercial-scale mining test reduced macrofaunal abundance by 37% and species richness by roughly one-third within tracks made by a seabed collector.
| Alexus Cazares-Nuesser | Phys.org / The Conversation | 2025-03-25
Waste sediment released during seabed mining could affect animals in the ocean's midwater zone, potentially expanding ecological impacts far beyond the seafloor itself.
| Ilka Thomsen | Phys.org | 2025-03-05
Scientists studying deep-sea mining tests found that sediment plumes can spread beyond collector tracks, an important consideration for determining the true footprint of seabed extraction.
| Reuters | Reuters | 2025-02-05
First Solar pledged not to use deep-sea minerals until scientific research can adequately establish the environmental consequences of commercial seabed extraction.
| Bryan J. O'Malley et al. | Nature Communications | 2025
Researchers developed methods for tracing sediment redeposition from deep-sea mining tests, helping quantify how far disturbed material spreads across abyssal ecosystems.
| University of Plymouth | Phys.org | 2024-11
Research across Southeast Asian coastlines identifies sand mining among activities capable of damaging seabeds, changing coastal habitats and adding water, noise and physical disturbance.
| Marion Bessol | Earth.Org | 2024-01-25
Norway's decision to open Arctic seabed areas to mineral exploration triggered concern because of the limited scientific understanding of ecosystem effects.
Research reviewed by Eos suggests polymetallic-nodule mining could remove unique habitat, disrupt food webs, generate persistent sediment plumes and affect deep-ocean carbon cycling.
| Sarah Derouin | Eos | 2020-05-21
Scientists revisiting an experimental deep-sea disturbance found major ecological changes still visible 26 years later, suggesting very slow recovery following seabed mining.
Abandoned Mines, Remediation and Lower-Impact Alternatives (10)
| Reuters | Reuters | 2026-03-12
Vale more than doubled production of iron ore recovered from existing mine waste, illustrating how reprocessing tailings and waste can reduce requirements for new extraction and waste-storage capacity.
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2025-09
More than 500 abandoned uranium mines remain on or near Navajo Nation lands, requiring extensive assessment and cleanup to reduce radiation and water-contamination risks.
| Research authors | Phys.org | 2025-06
The mineral jarosite can trap arsenic, lead and antimony in acidic mine environments, although changing chemical conditions can later release those contaminants again.
| Steven H. Emerman | Earthworks | 2023
Technical analysis of the Pueblo Viejo mine explains how sulfide-bearing wastes can produce acid mine drainage that mobilizes arsenic, copper, lead and other toxic metals.
| Jenessa Duncombe | Eos | 2021-11-29
Researchers are exploring recovery of rare-earth elements from acid mine drainage, potentially transforming a persistent mining pollutant into a secondary mineral resource.
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2016-08-01
EPA's Gold King Mine retrospective describes the extensive and continuing water-pollution legacy of abandoned western mines and the enormous cost of treating metal-laden mine drainage.
| Earthworks | Earthworks | 2013
Acid drainage from hard-rock mines can become a self-perpetuating source of groundwater and surface-water contamination requiring treatment long after mining stops.
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 1997-09
EPA's Hardrock Mining Framework details erosion, contaminated drainage, groundwater impacts, metals pollution and the difficulty of restoring groundwater after mine contamination occurs.
| UNEP | United Nations Environment Programme | n.d.
UNEP evaluates remediation of contaminated sludge ponds, slag heaps and tailings around Kyrgyzstan's Khaidarkan mercury mine to reduce long-term health and environmental risks.
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | n.d.
EPA's abandoned-mine reference material documents thousands of mining sites where uranium, lead, arsenic and other metals have contaminated soil, groundwater, surface water and air.
