![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/metal-mining-pollution-impacts-23-million-people-worldwide/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/131222028_mediaitem131222027.jpg&description=Image source, Getty Images Image caption, An aerial view of a tailings dam storing waste from a copper-mining operation in Chile At least 23 million people around the world live on flood-plains contaminated by potentially harmful concentrations of toxic waste from metal-mining activity, according to a study. UK scientists mapped the world's 22,609 active and 159,735 abandoned metal mines and calculated the extent of pollution from them. Chemicals can leach from mining operations into soil and waterways. The researchers say future mines have to be planned "very carefully". This is particularly critical as the demand surges for metals that will support battery technology and electrification, including lithium and copper, says Prof Mark Macklin from the University of Lincoln, who led the research. Your device may not support this visualisation "We've known about this for a long time," he told BBC News. "What's alarming for me is the legacy - [pollution from abandoned mines] is still affecting millions of people." The findings, published in the journal Science, build on the team's previous studies of exactly how pollution from mining activity moves and accumulates in the environment. The scientists compiled data on mining activity around the world, which was published by governments, mining companies and organisations like the US Geological Survey. This included the location of each mine, what metal it was extracting and whether it was active or abandoned. Prof Macklin explained that the majority of metals from metal mining is bound up in sediment in the ground. "It's this material - eroded from mine waste tips, or in contaminated soil - that ends up in river channels or [can be] deposited over a flood-plain." Prof Macklin and his colleagues used previously published field and laboratory analyses to work out how far this metal-contaminated sediment moves down river systems. That data allowed the scientists to produce a computer model that could calculate the extent of r){kind=link}
At least 23 million people around the world live on flood-plains contaminated by potentially harmful concentrations of toxic waste from metal-mining activity, according to a study.
UK scientists mapped the world’s 22,609 active and 159,735 abandoned metal mines and calculated the extent of pollution from them.
Chemicals can leach from mining operations into soil and waterways.
The researchers say future mines have to be planned “very carefully”.
This is particularly critical as the demand surges for metals that will support battery technology and electrification, including lithium and copper, says Prof Mark Macklin from the University of Lincoln, who led the research.