Mining as sustainable development:
NO WATER, NO MINING / Dr. Ana Isla
Professor, Department of Sociology and the Centre
for Women’s and Gender Studies
March
3rd,
Assassinated
2016
in
-
Berta
Honduras
Caceres
by
mining
interests.
Exploitation of mineral resources since colonial
times has reduced the concentration of mineral
resources in both quantity and quality. What
remains are dispersed particles in low concentrated
areas,
which
are
rocky,
icy,
forested,
and
mountainous, and which make it impossible to
extract minerals using traditional deep-pit mining
methods and technologies. Therefore, open-pit
mining
is
available.
the
current
Open-pit
technological
mining
removes
method
entire
mountains, forests, and glaciers, with the aim of
finding rocks with gold, silver, and other metallic
and non-metallic minerals. Open-pit mining uses
dynamite to kill the surface matter (e.g. forests,
mountains, glacier covers, lakes, springs water
sources). Moreover, its heavy machinery eliminates
biological diversity (e.g. flora, fauna, and micro-
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