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1.
Academics across disciplines are increasingly employing political ecology lenses to unpack conflicts related to resource extraction. Yet, an area that remains under-researched and under-theorised is how environmental impact assessments (EIAs) are embedded in politics and imagined as sites of power relations. Drawing on long-term fieldwork in Zimbabwe engaging small-scale gold miners, EIA consultants and government officials, this article examines the changing social significance of EIAs during and after a nationwide police operation that was framed by authorities as targeting non-compliance with environmental policy, illegal mining and illicit trading. Among other articulations of dissent, small-scale miners associations protested that EIA enforcement rhetoric served unjustly as a rationale for halting livelihoods and extracting rent from miners in times of economic difficulty. The article challenges EIA narratives that focus narrowly on risk management or governance failure, exploring technocratic obfuscations and how enforcement rhetoric was perceived in relation to criminalisation and coercion, expert environmental consultancy cultures and adapted legacies of colonial practice in contemporary dynamics of rule. Heavy-handed policing under the banner of enforcing order impinged on livelihoods and had counterproductive effects in addressing environmental problems, while complying with expensive EIA report-producing requirements was far beyond the means of most small-scale miners. The article rethinks how technical EIA rhetoric becomes entangled in spaces of contentious politics, the perils of looking only at particular scales of relations to the exclusion of others, and what it means to re-engage Donald Moore’s notion of “shifting alignments and contingent constellations of power.” Suggesting future directions in political ecology theorising in relation to extractive sectors, it calls for careful attention to the situated politics of EIAs – situated in time and space, amid varying relations of power – and how multiple hegemonic practices are conceptualised and challenged.  相似文献   

2.
Health impacts of coal and coal use: possible solutions   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  
Coal will be a dominant energy source in both developed and developing countries for at least the first half of the 21st century. Environmental problems associated with coal, before mining, during mining, in storage, during combustion, and postcombustion waste products are well known and are being addressed by ongoing research. The connection between potential environmental problems with human health is a fairly new field and requires the cooperation of both the geoscience and medical disciplines. Three research programs that illustrate this collaboration are described and used to present a range of human health problems that are potentially caused by coal. Domestic combustion of coal in China has, in some cases, severely affected human health. Both on a local and regional scale, human health has been adversely affected by coals containing arsenic, fluorine, selenium, and possibly, mercury. Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN), an irreversible kidney disease of unknown origin, has been related to the proximity of Pliocene lignite deposits. The working hypothesis is that groundwater is leaching toxic organic compounds as it passes through the lignites and that these organics are then ingested by the local population contributing to this health problem. Human disease associated with coal mining mainly results from inhalation of particulate matter during the mining process. The disease is Coal Worker's Pneumoconiosis characterized by coal dust-induced lesions in the gas exchange regions of the lung; the coal worker's “black lung disease”.  相似文献   

3.
In Indonesia and other developing countries, an ingenious pebble mill and amalgamation drum serves both for gold production and bulk sample assay. Known as “tromol” mills, these locally-fabricated devices are carried to remote mountain areas for frontier small-scale mining and basic prospecting. Many hundreds of tromol drums now turn at plants in rural areas.The steel drum is filled with a standard quantity of rock, topped with hard river cobbles, and rotated by an engine or water power. Mercury, imported illegally at high cost, is added to amalgamate gold and silver Waste, containing any lost mercury, typically washes into streams. Limited studies in North America and Russia suggest some biological uptake occurs from metallic mercury lost long ago by obsolete gold processing methods. Levels regarded as hazardous are noted in river fish in Nevada and Quebec, but no major health problems are attributed to mercury from gold mining in temperate climate regions. No published data on mercury discharges in Indonesia was found. Application of simple metallurgical techniques at Indonesian mining camps could greatly decrease mercury (and probably also gold) loss.  相似文献   

4.
This paper reviews the development of multi-purpose geochemical mapping and the progress of research in applied environmental geochemistry and health at Imperial College over the past 40 years. With funding from the research councils, UK government, EU, industry and NGOs, research has provided the basis for postgraduate training in areas ranging from the applications of geochemistry to plant, agricultural livestock and wildlife nutrition, to evaluating contamination from metalliferous mining and smelting, understanding the chemical nature of the urban environment and relationships between geochemistry and human health and disease. Examples include (1) the influence of Mo in marine black shales on the Cu nutrition of grazing cattle and sheep, (2) the importance of soil ingestion on trace element intake and metabolism and metal exposure in farm livestock, (3) the impacts of soil contamination from historical metalliferous mining and smelting on agriculture and human exposure to metals, including potential health problems from Cd at Shipham and from As in SW England, (4) the growth of urban geochemistry and the importance of Pb in the urban environment, (5) the health impacts due to Hg losses from the informal sector Au mining in Brazil, and (6) health issues relating to F- excess and Se deficiency in China.  相似文献   

5.
陕西潼关金矿区农田土壤Hg污染的环境效应   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  
以潼关金矿区农田土壤Hg污染区的小麦、蔬菜、水果中的Hg含量为重点研究对象,与尚未污染的农田土壤区进行对比,研究土壤Hg污染的农作物效应.评价区小麦样本Hg的超标率为78.57%,小麦Hg超标与土壤Hg污染的关系明显.评价区萝卜样本超标率为40%,叶菜、西红柿、苹果、红薯中样本超标率均为100%,对照区果蔬类也全部超标,但明显低于评价区.评价区农作物Hg超标倍数从大到小依次为:青菜＞油麦菜＞萝卜叶＞西红柿＞苹果＞红薯＞小麦＞萝卜.土壤Hg污染的环境效应极为严重,矿区环境污染防治刻不容缓.  相似文献   

6.
Gold has been exploited intensively in the Brazilian Amazon during the past fifteen years using garimpo methods (small-scale gold mining). In this study, two gold mining areas were investigated, the municipalities of Pocone and Alta Floresta located in the state of Mato Grosso. Central Brazil. The elemental mercury (Hg) used in amalgamating the gold, the final stage of the ore dressing process, has caused abnormal Hg concentrations in waterways. This has occurred principally in the Amazon region, where most of the ore prospected is alluvial. Background levels of metals were determined by analyzing sediments and soils located upstream of the anthropogenic inputs and unaffected by mining activities. The study aimed to evaluate the pollution level in sediments and soils, taking into account drainage waters directly affected by gold mining. ‘Geoaccumulation indexes’ (Igeo) of Hg in sediments from both study areas were used to assesses the pollution level in the aquatic environment. The geoaccumulation indexes of Hg in sediments of the Bento Gomes River in Pocone indicate a relatively high degree of pollution at some sites, even reaching class 4 (1.85 mg/kg). However, when the river reaches the Pantanal swamp, Hg concentrations drop considerably to 0.30 mg/kg. This drop seems to be due to accumulation of metals in the sediments of a lake (sampling site PG-24), which retains most of the sediments transported by the Bento Gomes River. Accumulation of metals in the lake also occurred for Cu, Pb, Zn, Fe and Mn. In the region of Alta Floresta, total Hg concentrations in sediments of the Teles Pires River were studied in the grain size fractions < 74 μm and > 74 μm. Hg concentrations in bottom sediments of this river were higher than those found in the Pocone region, with increases of 1.5 to 30 times the background, and thus reaching an Igeo up to class 5.  相似文献   

7.
Gavin Hilson 《Geoforum》2008,39(1):386-400
This paper critically examines the challenges with, and impacts of, adopting the models in place for fair trade agriculture in the artisanal gold mining sector. Over the past two years, an NGO-led ‘fair trade gold’ movement has surfaced, its crystallization fuelled by a burgeoning body of evidence that points to impoverished artisanal miners in developing countries receiving low payments for their gold, as well as working in hazardous and unsanitary conditions. Proponents of fair trade gold contest that increased interaction between artisanal miners and Western jewellers could facilitate the former receiving fairer prices for gold, accessing support services, and ultimately, improving their quality of life. In the case of sub-Saharan Africa, however, the gold being mined on an artisanal scale does not supply Western retailers as perhaps believed; it is rather an important source of foreign exchange, which host governments employ buyers to collect for their coffers. It is maintained here that if the underlying purpose of fair trade is to improve the livelihoods and well-being of subsistence producers in developing countries, then the models that have proved so successful in alleviating the hardships of agro-producers of ‘tropical’ commodities such as coffee, tea, bananas and cocoa, should be adapted to artisanal gold mining in sub-Saharan Africa. Campaigns promoting ‘fair trade gold’ in the region should view host governments, and not Western retailers, as the ‘end consumer’, and focus on improving governance at the grassroots, organizing informal operators into working cooperatives, and addressing complications with purchasing arrangements - all of which would go a long way toward improving the livelihoods of subsistence artisanal miners. A case study of Noyem, Ghana, the location of a sprawling illegal gold mining community, is presented, which magnifies these challenges further and provides perspective on how they can be overcome.  相似文献   

8.
A preliminary assessment of toxic element pollution caused by artisanal and small-scale gold mining in the Bonsa river of Ghana as well as the influence of TOC and SO4 2? concentration on these traces in the sediment has been determined. With the exception of mercury (Hg), manganese (Mn), and arsenic (As), the concentration of aluminum (Al) in filtered river water exceeded the WHO guideline limit of 0.1 mg L?1 in drinking water. Analyses of toxic element in sediment using Canadian Sediment Quality Criteria, contamination factor, geoaccumulation index, and enrichment factor indicate that river sediment is severely contaminated with Hg confirming the negative impact of the amalgamation technique in gold beneficiation in Ghana. The level of Hg in the surface water exceeded reported values from some rivers in Africa, Asia, and South America. The ranking order of the mean element concentration in both matrices followed the conservative order of traces found in the Earth crust except copper, which was below the detection limit of 0.01 mg kg?1. A Pearson correlation matrix of the toxic element and geology of the river bedrock indicates that the Hg contamination is of anthropogenic origin whilst As, Mn, and Al are the result of natural enrichment. The partitioning of elements in the sediment compartments is independent of TOC and SO4 2? concentration. Health-risk assessment based on average daily dose, hazard quotient, and cancer risk indicates that Hg is a health risk to the human population. In conclusion, the study has shown that there is a likely anthropic affection of the river and that this situation has worsened since earlier studies. In order to sustain aquatic life and to prevent future human health hazard, an immediate mercury remediation in the river is recommended.  相似文献   

9.
In recent years, a buoyant global market for minerals has led to renewed interest in the mining sector as a means of generating economic growth in resource producing areas of developed nations. The development of new operations, however, raises concerns around the impacts of mining activities on the environment, health and traditional ways of life of Indigenous peoples. Using the proposed expansion of the Kemess mine in northern British Columbia as a case study, this paper examines two First Nations’ perspectives regarding the regulatory process through which environmental values may be validated and protected, and seeks to understand how these First Nations’ environmental values and perceptions of risk are connected to health and well-being. Sixteen key informant interviews were carried out and thematically analyzed through political ecology and environmental justice frameworks. The paper argues that accommodating First Nations’ environmental values and perceptions of risks is a necessary first step to reclaim health and well-being in politically marginalized settings.  相似文献   

10.
《Applied Geochemistry》2003,18(3):371-381
The Nambija Mineral District (NMD) is located in the southeastern part of Ecuador, east of Zamora (Zamora Chinchípe's country), Ecuadorian Amazon. In this district, Au occurrences have been know since colonial and pre-colonial times, but only after the early 1980s has intensive artisanal Au mining activity been developed. Currently, the different NMD Au occurrences continue to be exploited by artisanal operations and are difficult to control in the study area. The environmental impacts due to Au mining are a consequence of the illegal situation and deficiency in controlling the techniques of ore exploitation. The Au extraction is carried out by outdoor amalgamation, so the indiscriminate use of Hg by artisanal miners, associated with careless methods of tailings disposal, has caused occupational exposure and environmental degradation. The present study evaluated the geochemical dispersion and concentrations of local contamination of metallic Hg in soils, stream sediments and mine tailings in the NMD area. This article aims to contribute to the discussion of environmental changes caused by the artisanal Au mining in the Nambija district. A total of 82 samples (32 soil, 40 stream sediment and 10 mine tailings) were analyzed. The results were compared with the Hg levels in soil and stream sediments considered not to be contaminated in the Nambija mining area and in other areas where Hg is mined in the Amazon basin. In this work, mean total Hg (T-Hg) concentrations of 1.7 μg g−1 in soils and 2.7 μg g−1 in stream sediments have been found. Mercury values in the mine tailing samples revealed values ranging from 89 to 1555 μg g−1. The results found for Hg in the different analyzed materials pointed to contamination of the studied area by this metal, while soil erosion is responsible for an increase in stream sediment's T-Hg concentrations in the different aquatic ecosystems of the Nambija Creek and Nambija River.  相似文献   

11.
This study examines the political uses of “conflict diamond” discourse in global debates about commodity certification and socially responsible mining in Zimbabwe. Engaging critical literature on “conflict-free” corporate branding initiatives, the study focuses on representations of conflict in Marange, in Zimbabwe’s eastern highlands. In 2006, a diamond rush in Marange drew in tens of thousands of artisanal miners from across Zimbabwe as well as foreigners, and the government initiated military crackdowns in 2008. In a highly contested vote in 2009, the international government delegates who comprised the voting members in the Kimberley Process Certification System (KPCS) ruled that conflict in Marange did not meet the KPCS definitions of “conflict diamond.” The study examines discourses of key stakeholders in the multinational diamond industry, human rights organizations, policymakers as well as artisanal miners in Zimbabwe between 2006 and 2014. The article argues that advocacies against diamond certification as well as advocacies favouring certification both tended to overlook the interests of artisanal miners, focusing narrowly on certain forms of conflict while associating artisanal mining with illicitness. The Marange case illustrates how conventional discourses on “conflict diamonds” not only obscure the complex nature of conflicts in contemporary capitalist accumulation processes; they also risk contributing to new forms of structural violence. This analysis highlights the need to pay careful attention to how global commodity certification discourses inter-relate with political agendas at multiple scales. The study draws attention to dilemmas for geographers when portraying the interests of marginalized groups in – and affected by – the diamond mining sector.  相似文献   

12.
 Gold was discovered in 1829 and mined until about 1940 in north Georgia, particularly within an area known as the Dahlonega mining district. The mining operations there, which involved mercury amalgamation in stamp mills and sluices, delivered significant quantities of mercury waste to streams. This paper focuses on the downstream dispersal and storage of mercury in streambank sediments of two watersheds near Dahlonega, Georgia. Mercury concentrations for individual samples of historical sediment range from 0.02 to 12.00 ppm, with average values in streambanks near the core of the mining district ranging from 0.2 to 0.6 ppm. Mercury levels rapidly decrease in the downstream direction to concentrations that are slightly above a background level of 0.04±0.02 ppm. Mercury concentrations also appear to decrease with increasing distance from streambanks. Similar levels of mercury contamination from former gold mines probably exist in many other parts of the gold-bearing rocks of the Piedmont of the eastern United States. The bioavailability and environmental hazard posed by the contaminated sediment is not certain. Received: 8 January 1996 · Accepted: 29 May 1996  相似文献   

13.
Mercury smelting is one of the important anthropogenic atmospheric mercury emission sources. Small-scale mercury smelting activities with indigenous method which is considered illegal and forbidden by local government always extensively existed in the Wuchuan area, northeastern Guizhou Province, China. Because of the simple processes without any environmental protection, a large amount of mercury vapor released to the ambient air during the processing of cinnabar roasting. By determining mercury concentrations in mercury ore and smelting slag samples, a mass balance method was used to calculate mercury emission factors and annual mercury emission from indigenous mercury smelting in Wuchuan mercury mining areas, Guizhou Province, China. The mercury emission factors ranged from 6.9% to 32.1% with the recovery from 78.4% to 93.6% and the annual mercury emission was up to 3.7-9.6 metric tons. The results highlighted that the indigenous mercury smelting was one of the most important anthropogenic atmospheric mercury emission sources in this region.  相似文献   

14.
Trace element concentrations in shallow marine sediments of the Buyat-Ratototok district of North Sulawesi, Indonesia, are affected by submarine disposal of industrial gold mine tailings and unregulated dumping of tailings and wastewater from small-scale gold mining using mercury amalgamation. Industrial mine tailings contained 590–690 ppm arsenic, 490–580 ppm antimony, and 0.8–5.8 ppm mercury. Tailings-affected sediment As and Sb concentrations were 20–30 times higher than in muddy sediments not contaminated with tailings, and 50–60 times higher than pre-mining average. Highest mercury concentrations were observed in sediments affected by small-scale mining using mercury amalgamation (5–29 ppm). Concentrations of most other trace elements were comparable in sediments affected by both types of mining and were slightly higher than regional averages for sediments collected before the onset of industrial mining. Elevated concentrations of both As and Sb in approximately equal proportions suggest tailings dispersal of at least 3.5 km. Mercury released from artisanal gold mining dispersed up to 4 km from river mouths. Slight increases in concentrations of non-mercury trace elements in areas affected by artisanal mining over pre-industrial mining concentrations were probably caused by increased rates of erosion. Electronic supplementary material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at and is accessible for authorized users.  相似文献   

15.
Poboya is a major small-scale gold-mining area in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, that has been operating since 2009. About 200–500 kg of mercury is released each day as a result of gold-mining activities over a total area of 7000 ha. We examined mercury contamination by using two types of sample, namely food and human hair. Samples were obtained in Poboya and in the city of Palu, 11 km away. Samples of 22 foods were obtained from traditional markets in Poboya and Palu. Total mercury concentrations ranged from 0.003 to 0.31 µg/g in foods from Poboya and from 0.001 to 0.13 µg/g in those from Palu. The highest total mercury concentration in Poboya was found in unripe banana, which is frequently consumed by the local people. In Poboya, the weekly mercury intakes from foods were calculated at 180.3 µg/person from vegetables, 1.7 µg/person from processed foods, 51.4 µg/person from seafood, and 17.2 µg/person from meat and eggs. In Palu, the weekly mercury intakes were 2.9 µg/person from vegetables, 3.1 µg/person from processed foods, 60.8 µg/person from seafood, and 19 µg/person from meat and eggs. These findings delineated Poboya as an area polluted by mercury contamination. Intake of mercury-contaminated food influenced the results obtained in human hair. Hair concentrations of total mercury in Poboya ranged from 0.3 to 19.6 µg/g.  相似文献   

16.
Causes and consequences of cryolitozone environmental contamination by technogenous mercury have been studied in the paper. Measures have been elaborated and methods for increasing ecological safety of the territories affected by mercury- containing mining wastes have been suggested. It has been proved that comprehensive utilization of mercury-containing heaps allows to solve problems of ecological safety with the least economical expenses.  相似文献   

17.
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18.
In the mining district of Plombières-La Calamine (East Belgium), extensive Pb–Zn mining activities resulted in an important contamination of overbank sediments along the Geul river. Moreover, a huge amount of heavy metals is stored in a dredged mine pond tailing, which is located along the river. In the dredged mine pond tailing sediments, Pb–Zn minerals control the solubility of Zn, Pb and Cd. Although Pb, Zn and Cd display a lower solubility in overbank sediments compared to the mine tailing pond sediments, elevated concentrations of Pb, Zn and Cd are still found in the porewater of the overbank sediments. The considerable ‘actual’ and ‘potential’ mobility of Zn, Pb and Cd indicates that the mine pond tailing sediments and the overbank sediments downstream from the mine pond tailing represent a considerable threat for the environment. Besides the chemical remobilisation of metals from the sediments, the erosion of overbank sediments and the reworking of riverbed sediments act as a secondary source of pollution.  相似文献   

19.
Plants are frequently moved around the world, creating new regional landscapes and environmental imaginaries. Building on previous work in environmental history and geography, we develop a three-part approach to analyzing plant movements and apply it to trees from the Acacia genus (sens. lat.) exchanged between Australia and the rest of the world. First, we investigate the agents, circuits, and frequencies of acacia movements, including transoceanic transfers, regional diffusion, and ecological dispersal. Second, we trace bundles of knowledge or technology that accompany the acacias, highlighting how they help shape regional biogeographies. Finally, we analyze how different societies, with distinct economies, politics, and environmental sensibilities, receive introduced plants. This approach allows us to see transferred plants as active agents in region-forming processes, and to avoid normative tropes like ‘miracle plants’ or ‘alien invasives’. The highlighted species include Acacia colei, Acacia melanoxylon, Acacia mearnsii, Acacia farnesiana, Acacia nilotica, Acacia mangium, and their close relatives.  相似文献   

20.
受历史汞矿开采活动影响,万山汞矿区稻田遭受了严重的汞污染。为了查明万山汞矿区稻田土壤的汞污染现状以及评估其环境质量改善情况,系统采集了受汞矿区影响的五条主干河流沿岸稻田土壤进行汞含量分析,评价总汞和甲基汞污染程度及其生态风险,并与2008年以来该区域稻田土壤汞数据进行对比。结果表明,研究区稻田土壤的总汞含量为0.21~207 mg/kg,几何平均值为(4.26±4.83)mg/kg;甲基汞含量为0.42~13μg/kg,几何平均值为(1.81±1.93)μg/kg。59%的稻田土壤处于重度汞污染,75%的稻田土壤存在极强的汞潜在生态风险。与已往数据相比,稻田土壤汞含量在2012年后呈下降趋势,基本反映了当地汞防治措施的执行效果。为了避免稻田土壤汞污染引起的安全健康风险,今后应采取除污染源治理以外的土壤修复措施或风险管控措施。  相似文献   

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