Environmental impact of mining

The growth of world demand for minerals and the consequent increase in the scale of mining have exacerbated the conflict between mines and their external environment. The impact of mining on the environment can be broken down into numerous components which are conventionally discussed as isolated topics and nowhere in the literature is the wide range of impacts examined as a whole. This book presents the first attempt at a comprehensive synthesis based on an interdisciplinary approach. The immediate problem of environmental impact is also linked to the longer-term questions of resource availability since the changing grades and types of mineral resource which may have to be worked in the future are liable to give rise to environmental problems on a hitherto unknown scale.