Mining and the Environment

http://blackhawk-mining.com/2013/04/23/mining-and-the-environment/


Even though we always say there could be such a thing as responsible mining, sadly, mining can often have distressing effects on the environment.  Mining necessitates the use of many seriously harmful chemicals such as, Mercury, Cyanide, Sulfuric acid, Arsenic, and Methyl mercury. These can have acutely dangerous effects on water.

Because these chemicals are used the whole time of mining process, consequently these chemicals will seep into the ground.  Because of the chemicals seeping underground the groundwater becomes polluted and even if pipes were used to dispose of the chemicals, the chemicals often leak from the pipes.

What is causing it to become more of a burden is that these chemicals are often disposed in close by bodies of water, thus causing water pollution.  Moreover, when this happens worse part is, when the chemicals are released into the bodies of water, it frequently results in the loss of aquatic plants and animals.  When run-off of the chemicals takes place above ground, it is harmful for nearby vegetation and plants.

Gold mining has equally devastating effects on water.  The process that is required in mining gold has negative effects on water.  River dredging is just one way which gold is mine.

River dredging is a method in which gravel and mud is suctioned from a specific part of the river.  The gold will then be sifted out of this gravel and mud then the gravel and mud will be returned to the river.

Most of the time, the gravel and mud is returned to an area of the river that they did not originally come from.  Making the natural flow of the river disturbed resulting to deaths of multiple fishes and plants in the river.

Water and land has no much of a difference when it comes to the consequences mining gives.  The process of mining alone entails a large area of land is cleared.  Mining means digging through the earth to find the minerals or substances for which they are seeking.  Worst, mining often requires large-scale deforestation.

In addition, deforestation means loss of numerous types of animals, and wildlife.  Besides deforestation, large areas of nearby vegetation must be cut and trimmed to clear a road for the mining workers to even reach the area that they are mining.

Recurrent deforestation of neighborhood areas can put the whole species at threat for becoming scarce, or shoddier, extinct.  When vegetation is not detached through the procedure of mining, it dies because of land pollution from the chemicals.  What’s more, when the chemicals soak into the soil, it makes the soil inappropriate for new plants to grow in it.  No organisms can live in the polluted soil; it will die due to the pollution.

The process of mining results in a type of liquid waste in some occasions.  Instead of being properly disposed, this liquid waste is sometimes disposed in the mining pits.

This frequently takes place in countries in which the mining policies are not as firm as other countries.  When the pit becomes overflowing with this liquid waste, it turns into a sluggish and hazardous pool of liquid.  It is hazardous because diseases normally develop in it.

Calgary trio draws $54-million fine for fraud

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/%20Calgary+trio+draws+million+fine%20+fraud/7320671/story.html 



"All of the respondents were involved in perpetrating a systemic massive fraud on Alberta and other investors, involving a complicated web of domestic and offshore corporate and other entities, bank accounts and offerings," the commission said Friday.

"Investment fraud is reprehensible and completely unacceptable capital-market misconduct; instances of fraud in the capital market severely threaten the public's confidence and sense of fairness in the whole of our capital market."

The case centres around a now-defunct company called Arbour Energy, which the ASC says illegally raised $45.5 million from investors.

Arbour was led by Dennis Morice, who, according to the ASC decision, considered himself a "bit player" and "cog" in a scheme led by Milowe Brost and Gary Sorenson - two men charged in a separate high-profile alleged Ponzi scheme in 2009.

Morice faces the smallest penalty of the three men - a $150,000 fine, an order to pay $50,000 to cover the cost of the investigation and hearing and a variety of bans. Arbour itself faces no financial penalties, but it's been barred from trading in and purchasing securities, among other things.

In its decision, the ASC said Brost's misconduct was "the most egregious" of the three men. Brost led the Institute For Financial Learning, which he claimed was an "information club" but the ASC contends was really used to sell investors stock in Arbour and other entities connected to Brost.

Brost has been fined $3 million and ordered to pay $85,000 in costs, the second-highest fine against an individual in ASC history. IFFL must pay back $10 million of the funds it gained from the fraud and pay $85,000 in costs.

"We conclude Brost has not recognized the seriousness of his misconduct and the devastating consequences that he caused to Alberta and other investors. These circumstances heighten the need for severe sanction," the ASC panel said in its decision.

Sorenson led a private Alberta junior mining company called Merendon, which the ASC said was a "participant in - and a significant beneficiary of - a massive complex securities fraud."

The ASC said Merendon was used as a vehicle to receive and disburse investor money.

"Clearly his was egregious behaviour, although not to the same extent as Brost's and IFFL's misconduct - Sorenson did not have the same direct contact with investors as did Brost and IFFL and was not found to have contravened multiple provisions of Alberta securities laws."

Sorenson has been fined $2 million and has been ordered to pay $70,000 in costs. Merendon must pay the $38.6 million it made from the fraud to the ASC and $70,000 in costs.

In a separate case, Brost and Sorenson were arrested in 2009 for what police called "the largest Ponzi scheme" in Canadian history, bilking $400 million.