Case studies: books and documents (classified by mineral)

Published by MAC on 2001-05-01

Case studies: books and documents (classified by mineral)

Aluminium/Bauxite

Preliminary Report on Red Mud Pollution Problem at Gove, NT, consultancy report for the Northern Land Council, Australia, 1975

Gold

Minewatch Gold Pack, London 1994 [Package of articles related to gold mining, with commentary]

Panos Institute The Lure of Gold, London 1996 [Often-quoted background briefing on the gold industry in the mid-nineties]

D Valle, Environmental Impacts of Gold Mining in the Podocarpus National Park in Southern Ecuador, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London, September 1992 [Based on interviews with small-scale miners - "petroleros" - on problems associated specifically with mercury use.]

CRC/MCDC/Task Force against Open Pit Mining Special Report on the Antamok Gold Project, Baguio 1991 [Well researched and documented warning against a large-scale gold mine in Benguet province, in the Philippine Cordillera, some of whose predictions have come true]

Project Underground Gold, Greed and Genocide, San Francisco 1998

The Garimpeiros of Brazil, Mining Survey No.1, South Africa Chamber of Mines 1990

Lesli O'Dowd Gold Mining and the Irish environment, Earthwatch Special Report, Bantry 1990

Asbestos

Icef (now ICME) Asbestos: politics and economics of a Lethal Product Geneva, 1985 [Good concise trade union-sponsored study, albeit dated in terms of recent court cases and industry response]

Coal

Trans Tech publications, Braunkohle: Surface Mining, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, 3/99 [Recent publication in industry series concentrating on technology and - to a much lesser extent - impacts of surface mining, primarily coal. Glossy with good illustrations]

Labour Research Department, The Hazards of Coal Mining, London, 1989 [Useful, if simple, summary booklet, primarily addressing problems in underground British mines]

Green Brigades, Poland After the Harm is Done and Untitled Document [Two short , interesting discussion papers on the damage caused by coal mining in one of the world's biggest producing countries]

Friends of the Earth USA Undermined: High-tech coal mining shatters lives and land, vol. 21 no. 1, winter 1991

Cement

Minewatch Asia Pacific The Cement Pack, London 1999 [Briefing on the current state of the cement industry with articles covering Philippines, Indonesia, India et al]

Copper

Wilma Berends, Bertram Zagema and Teo Wams While stocks last: a case for sustainable resource management, Milieudefensie, Amsterdam, 1996

Jorg Hettler and Bernd Lehmann Environmental Impact of Large-Scale Mining in Papua New Guinea: Mining Residue Disposal by the Ok Tedi Copper-Gold Mine, UNEP and FU-TU-TPR Berlin, 1995 [Particularly relevant in light of admission by BHP, operator of the Ok Tedi mine, that its impacts are virtually uncontainable.]

Iron

Ligia Noronha "Ecological management in a [iron ore] mine in Goa, India - a case study of afforestation", Geoscience and Development no. 2 May 1995 ["Afforestation in its crudest form....allows the company to comply with regulations, keep the environmental lobby pacified and get away with the minimum by way of reclamation"]

D Costa et al "Production of free radicals arising from the surface activity of minerals and oxygen, part one Iron Mine Ores", Toxicology and Industrial Health, vol. 5 no. 6, Paris 1989 [Technical paper addressing important problems associated with inhalation of dusts in iron ore mining]

Jewellery (other than gold)

Women's Environmental Network, Jewellery, Women and the Environment [Simple, four page summary, which covers gold, coral and turtleshell]

V G Venturini: The diamond cartel, unpublished thesis, Australia 1985

Mineral Sands (ilmenite, rutile)

Sullay Kamara Mined Out: The Environmental and Social Implications of Development Finance to Rutile Mining in Sierra Leone, Friends of the Earth Trust, London, 1997 [Shows that Sierra Leonean farmers and families have become worse off, thanks to the operations of the world's biggest rutile mine, and pinpoints the agencies responsible, including World Bank/IFC and CARE]

Nickel

FJ Dupon The effects of mining on the environment of high islands: a case study of nickel mining in New Caledonia, Environmental Case Studies: South Pacific Study no. 1 SPREP, Noumea, 1986

Phosphate

FJ Dupon Pacific phosphate island mining versus the mining industry: an unequal struggle, Environmental Case studies: SP Study no 4,SPREP, Noumea, 1989

Uranium

[NB: Minewatch Asia Pacific/Nostromo Research has a large library of documentation on the uranium industry, from the 1970's onwards. The following is a selection of the more basic or interesting papers]

Honicker versus Hendrie: a lawsuit to end atomic power, Book Publishing Co, Summertown TN, 1978 [One of the first lawsuits related to mine destructiveness: well put together and argued though it never got anywhere]

Jeffrey Davidson Mining the Middle Ground: a Reassessment of Uranium and Coal Development Policy on the Reservations, Dept of Mining Engineering, Butte, Montana, 1983 [Jeffrey Davidson is the founder of Small Mining International, and this early paper argues the virtues of small and medium-scale mining on Indigenous territory, in preference to large-scale energy-resource projects]

Political Ecology Research Group, The Environmental Impact of a Projected Uranium Development in County Donegal, Ireland, No date (early 1980s) [Dispassionate, well-researched and fairly comprehensive generic study which includes some US case studies]

Peter Diehl Uranium Mining Wastes: An Overview, WISE Amsterdam, date not known

S J Thornton Dutch Nuclear Power and the Environmental Implications of Uranium Mining and Milling – An Analysis of the Framework of Energy Policy Formulation [Paper contributed to the Dutch government appraisal of nuclear power, which broadly came out against its use]

Uranium - the plain facts, ANC Working Group and SCRAM, London (no date)

Weissberg and Mendes "Preliminary geophysical study of interactions between tailings and the hydrologic cycle at a uranium mine in Caldas, Brazil", Geoscience and Development, no. 4/5 1997

Operation Action UP, Uranium Mining and Radiation Safety: proceedings of a conference, Michigan, 1979

Miles Goldstick Voices from Wollaston Lake: Resistance against Uranium Mining and Genocide in Northern Saskatchewan, Earth Embassy, WISE, Vancouver 1987