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Socio-environmental issues related to mineral exploitation in the andes
Published in Diego A. Rivera, Alex Godoy-Faundez, Mario Lillo-Saavedra, Andean Hydrology, 2018
Douglas Aitken, Alex Godoy-Faundez, Oscar Jaime Restrepo-Baena, Diego Rivera, Neil McIntryre
The majority of copper mines in northern regions of Chile and the south of Peru are located inland from the coastline in the Andes mountain range at a high altitude requiring large conveyance distances and high pumping costs. Despite these cost barriers to implementation, the uptake of systems to use and treat seawater is expected to increase greatly as a result of the pressure on companies to reduce their use of freshwater. In Chile, for example, the total water consumption in the Chilean mining industry is expected to increase from 14.7 m3/s in 2015 to 24.6 m3/s in 2025, with the majority of the increase to be made up by seawater (COCHILCO, 2014). Indeed, there is currently a bill being debated in the Chilean Government to ensure that all mines with a water consumption above 150 L/s substitute freshwater with seawater (Espinosa Monardes, 2013).
Summary of Environmental Regulations of North and South America
Published in Daniel T. Rogers, Fundamentals of Environmental Law and Compliance, 2023
The city of La Oroya located in the Andes Mountains 176 kilometers northeast of Lima is considered by many to be one of the most polluted cities in the world. The source of the pollution is a copper smelter and associated copper mine which has resulted in significantly elevated levels of lead, copper, zinc, and sulfur dioxide in the air (USEPA 2021b). Ambient air quality standards are similar to the United States and EU and are listed at http://www.temasactuales.com/assets/pdf/gratis/peraiqual.htm (Peru Ministry for the Environment 2021a).
Air Pollution Regulations of South America
Published in Daniel T. Rogers, Environmental Compliance Handbook, 2023
The city of La Oroya, located in the Andes Mountains 176 kilometers northeast of Lima, is considered by many to be one of the most polluted cities in the world. The source of the pollution is a copper smelter and associated copper mine, which have resulted in significantly elevated levels of lead, copper, zinc, and sulfur dioxide in the air (USEPA 2021b). Ambient air quality standards are similar to those of the United States and the EU and are listed at https://www.iqair.com/peru (Peru Ministry of the Environment 2021).
Critical minerals for green energy transition: A United States perspective
Published in International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment, 2022
David R. Hammond, Thomas F. Brady
To recover the huge upfront capital costs, required to explore, study, and build a mine, operating plans will most typically begin in the highest quality part of a deposit. As such, ore grades will decline over a mine’s life. Using copper as an example, Figure 3 displays average reserve copper ore grades for domestic operating mines in the U.S [27]. Since 2000, ore grades have declined and continue to trend lower. Lower grades translate into mining companies needing to mine and process more ore (and higher unit costs) to recover the same amount of critical minerals. Declining grades, combined with fewer new copper mines being permitted and built in the U.S., has resulted in domestic copper mine production remaining fairly constant over the last 40 years, however, providing a decreasing share of overall global supply (Figure 4). With copper imports now nearly 50%, declining ore grades of remaining domestic reserves at all-time lows and the expected skyrocketing demand coming from the requirements for green energy transition, it is perplexing why copper is not included in the latest version of the U.S. Critical Minerals list.
Metal and metalloid accumulation in native plants around a copper mine site: implications for phytostabilization
Published in International Journal of Phytoremediation, 2022
Arezu Alizadeh, Jamshid Ghorbani, Javad Motamedi, Ghorban Vahabzadeh, Mansour Edraki, Antony van der Ent
Mining activities can increase the concentrations of metal and metalloids in local soils that can have negative effects on ecosystem structure and function, and ultimately, impact on humans (Zibret et al. 2018, Agboola et al. 2020). Metalliferous soils typically impose restrictive conditions for plant establishment due to prevailing toxic concentrations of metals and metalloids, lack of nutrients, disturbed soil structure, and often geographical isolation within a landscape (Bizoux et al. 2008; Antoniadis et al. 2017; Li et al. 2017). Contaminated soils can cause leaf chlorosis and may alter the activity of many key enzymes essential for normal plant metabolism, such as inhibition of cytoplasmic enzymes (Ke et al. 2007; Jadia and Fulekar 2008; Marques et al. 2009). Toxic trace elements can impose adverse effects on the activity of the soil microbial communities, soil organic matter decomposition and N-mineralization processes (Giller et al. 1998; Chibuike and Obiora 2014). Additional environmental challenges associated with many copper mines include high acidity, because of pyrite oxidation, as well as high exchangeable Al concentrations in the soil, which may be phytotoxic (Kramer et al. 1998; Cooke and Johnson 2002).