South Africa has failed to meet its human rights obligations to address the environmental and health effects of gold mining in and around Johannesburg, the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) said in a recently released report.. The 113-page report, The Cost of Gold, documents the threats posed by water, air, and soil pollution from mining in the West …
South Africa embarks on extensive mining activities, which consequently produce enormous quantities of toxic HMs1 that pollute the surroundings; subjecting the ecosystem to dangers of infections ...
For 140 years, gold mines in Johannesburg, South Africa have been leaking wastewater contaminated with heavy metals. The acid mine drainage from Johannesburg's estimated 278 abandoned mines and ...
A boom in small-scale gold mining in Bolivia has raised concerns about pollution from mercury used in the mining process. Researchers are citing the health impacts on downstream villages, but the government has yet to act …
tributors to air pollution in Africa. The Sahara desert is a major source of transported dust, especially during the harmattan season in West Africa. Mercury emissions are very high in South Africa due to coal combustion and gold mining. Air pollutants may contaminate water and soil through atmospheric deposition. However, the major pollution ...
It's the first court case in South Africa to challenge air pollution on the basis of this constitutional right, but the litigation could have implications internationally as well. ... Eskom, used coal to provide low-cost electricity to gold and diamond mining operations. During the apartheid era, which lasted from 1948 to 1994, the government ...
Mining has had a severe impact on the environment in South Africa including acid mine drainage into rivers (Ochieng et al., 2010), production of solid waste, biodiversity impact, community ...
Small-scale gold mining activities directly cause three main environmental footprints: land degradation, water pollution and diversion, and deforestation. Significant land …
Mining activities, including prospecting, exploration, construction, operation, maintenance, expansion, abandonment, decommissioning and repurposing of a mine can impact social and environmental systems in a range of positive and negative, and direct and indirect ways. Mining can yield a range of benefits to societies, but it may also cause conflict, not least …
Blyvooruitzicht is but one of thousands of abandoned mines scattered across South Africa, many from the gold industry. With recently shuttered mines adding to the massive impact of those left derelict years ago, the country faces a growing environmental, health, and social crisis created by a withering gold industry and inadequate oversight.
New statistics released in Parliament show that 118 mines around South Africa are polluting rivers, inadequately testing for contamination or otherwise dirtying South Africa's waterways.
Mercury (Hg) pollution remains an environmental global concern due to its non-degradable and toxic nature. Natural and anthropogenic sources of Hg adversely affect the functioning of aquatic ecosystems and biological processes. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), unregulated artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) contributes up to 20% of global …
The solution strips away the gold and is collected in a pond, then run through an electro-chemical process to extract the gold. This method of producing gold is cost effective but enormously wasteful: 99.99 percent of the heap becomes waste. Gold mining areas are frequently studded with these immense, toxic piles.
His research was conducted from 31 July to 11 August this year. He said that air pollution in the country could be attributed mainly to the 90% coal-generated electricity plants and mining. "A study has estimated that 2 …
Gold mining has serious negative environmental impacts, especially due to pollution emanating from tailings storage facilities (TSFs, tailings dams, slimes dams). The …
2 Gold Mining in Gauteng Province, South Africa7 In 1886 gold was discovered in South Africa. Since then gold mining has been a mainstay of the mining economy in that country. By 1970, South African gold pro-duction reached its high point, producing 65% of world production. But since then gold production has declined and by 2006, although at ...
Among the most prominent mining pollution cases in Africa is the Glencore case and the production of acid rain in the Mufulira region of north-western Zambia. 48 million loan to the Mopani Copper Mine (MCM) consortium, Zambia's largest mining company, whose majority shareholder is the Swiss company Glencore.
South Africa has failed to address the adverse environmental and health effects of more than 130 years of gold mining in and around Johannesburg, a new report from Harvard Law School shows.
About nine million Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) workers in Africa and people living near ASGM activities are highly exposed to geogenic and anthropogenic potentially toxic elements ...
M. A. Ondayo et al. 1 3 in ASGM depending on the location and value of gold deposits (Table 1). Generally, unsafe working conditions, crude technology, unskilled labour, and poor waste man-
Freshwater ecosystems in South Africa are relatively scarce, and a variety of human activities, such as mining, urban development, and agriculture, are an ongoing threat to water quality and ...
In gold mine tailings, concentration ranging between 8.9 and 65.7 mg/kg have been reported in South Africa by Mitileni et al. while a higher concentration of 177.56 mg/kg was reported by Bempah et al. in Ghana.
As gold makes its way across the globe, so does mercury, with small-scale unregulated mining being the single largest source of mercury pollution. A recent study revealed that 71.7% of miners at artisanal gold mining sites in Cameroon showed mercury levels at concentrations above the limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Contamination, including air, water and soil pollution, have significant health impacts on surrounding communities, many of which are composed of low-income homes. ... Waste from gold mines constitutes the …
In essence, the report estimates that the following impacts are attributable to air pollution from the burning of coal in South Africa: 2 239 deaths per year: 157 from lung cancer; 1 110 from ischaemic heart disease; …
Gold-mining waste has been estimated as accounting for 221 million tons or 47% of all mineral waste produced in South Africa, making it the largest single source of waste and pollution . There are approximately 270 tailings storage facilities in the Witwatersrand Basin, covering 400 km 2 in surface area, which store this waste . Tailings ...
Today, the mines are producing less and less gold — and more and more sulfuric acid. The metamorphic rock of the mining district contains abundant pyrite (iron disulfide or "fool's gold"), which reacts with oxygenated …
Africa accounts for nearly 30% of the discovered world's mineral reserves, with half of the world's platinum group metals deposits, 36% of gold, and 20% of cobalt being in Southern Africa (SA). The intensification of heavy-metal production in the SA region has exacerbated negative human and environmental health impacts. In recent years, mining …
Thousands of abandoned gold mines are scattered across South Africa, polluting the water with toxics and filling the air with noxious dust. For the millions of people who live around these derelict sites, the health impacts can …
Climate change and air pollution pose significant short-term and long-term health risks to South Africans due to the carbon intensity of the national economy, the severe air pollution around coal mining and coal-fired power stations in many widespread populated areas and the particular vulnerability of many subgroups in a country burdened by extreme inequality …
