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Environmental Impacts

Here we consider some environmental impact of mining. See also our analysis of energy and greenhouse gas impacts of mining and of waste disposal challenges.

Land Use

As of 2020, mining was estimated to occupy 57,277 square kilometers of land worldwide 1, with the following commodities dominant.

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Source: Maus et al. 1. Note that some mines report more than one commodity mined.

Depending on the rarity of a material, the land use required to produce it can vary widely.

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Source: Spritzley and Tolle 2.

Biodiversity Impacts

Mining takes an estimated 0.3-1.0% of the Earth's surface, though has a disproportionate impact of wildlife through long-lasting tailing pollution and acid mine drainage, which is the outflow of acidic water 3. The impact generally grows with the amount of tailings the mine produces.

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Biodiversity impact of measured in MiBiD, which "is a non-dimensional index based on data regarding land cover, protected areas and mining operations". Source: IEA 3.

Water Use and Pollution

Mining has a wide range of impacts of water use and pollution.

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Source: IEA 3.

Problem:
Environmental Impacts of Mining
Solution:
Mining Tax
Problem:
Abandoned Mines
Solution:
Effective Reclamation Bonds

Enhanced Metal Recovery

Enhanced metal recovery (EMR) refers to a variety of methods to increase metals recovery from tailings, slag, sludge, or mining residue, increase the minerals that can be harvested from a given land area 4. EMR, including efforts to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide through enhanced weatherization for mining, is an active area of research 5,6. The potential for CO2 reduction through mineralization for mining is estimate at 1.1-4.5 billion tons of CO2 per year, or about 3-11% of current emissions 7.

Recovery of metals from incinerator ash is also an active area of development 8.

Tradeoffs

No matter how or where it is done, mining comes with environmental costs. An example is the proposed Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada. If not built, however, the United States and other countries may source more lithium from Bolivia, where there too lithium mining has negative impacts on indigenous populations and society at large 9. Additionally, restricting lithium supply may delay the deployment of clean energy and prolong the usage of fossil fuels, with the negative impacts associated with those.

References

  1. Maus V., Giljum S., Gutschlhofer J., da Silva D. M., Probst M., Gass S. L., Luckeneder S., Lieber M., McCallum I. "A global-scale data set of mining areas". Scientific Data 7(1):1-3. September 2020. ↩ ↩2

  2. Spitzley D. V., Tolle D. A. "Evaluating Land‐Use Impacts: Selection of Surface Area Metrics for Life‐Cycle Assessment of Mining". Journal of Industrial Ecology 8(1‐2):11-21. January 2004. ↩

  3. International Energy Agency. "The Role of Critical World Energy Outlook Special Report Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions". May 2021. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. International Energy Agency. "The Role of Critical World Energy Outlook Special Report Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions". May 2021. ↩

  5. ARPA-E. "U.S. Department of Energy Announces $39 Million for Technology to Grow the Domestic Critical Minerals Supply Chain and Strengthen National Security". U. S. Department of Energy. October 2022. ↩

  6. Wang, F., Dreisinger, D. "Carbon mineralization with concurrent critical metal recovery from olivine". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 119(32): e2203937119. August 2022. ↩

  7. Bullock L. A., James R. H., Matter J., Renforth P., Teagle D. A. "Global carbon dioxide removal potential of waste materials from metal and diamond mining". Frontiers in Climate 77. 2021. ↩

  8. Mehr J., Haupt M., Skutan S., Morf L., Adrianto L. R., Weibel G., Hellweg S. "The environmental performance of enhanced metal recovery from dry municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash". Waste management 119, pp. 330-341. Janjuary 2021. ↩

  9. Lloyd, J. "The Costs of Mining". The Breakthrough Institute. November 2021. ↩