Mining hazards are topic areas encompassing the spectrum of physical, chemical, geological, and operational risks inherent to mineral extraction and processing activities. They include ground control failures (rockbursts, subsidence, roof collapses), explosions (methane, coal dust), inundation and water inrush, ventilation deficiencies leading to asphyxiants or toxic gas exposure, and exposure to respirable dusts such as crystalline silica causing pneumoconioses. Additional hazards involve noise, vibration, thermal stress, equipment-related trauma, and chronic exposure to heavy metals and reagents. Research on mining hazards focuses on risk assessment, monitoring and prediction (e.g., geotechnical modeling, gas sensing), control technologies, and regulatory and management frameworks to reduce morbidity, mortality, and environmental impacts.
Forests in the Peruvian Amazon aren't growing back after gold mining—not just because the soil is damaged by toxic metals, but because the land has been depleted of its water. A common mining method known as suction mining ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 2, 2025
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217
Romanian authorities scrambled Friday to save a salt mine in the northern village of Praid from further damage after heavy rains worsened flooding at a site that provides the region's economic lifeblood.
Environment
May 30, 2025
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33
Mining is essential to modern lifestyles. Copper, iron and other mined products are vital to the products many people take for granted, like electronic devices. Being able to buy these goods quite easily may give a person ...
Environment
May 26, 2025
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61
Artisanal lead mining in Nigeria is responsible for airborne lead exposures that are 10 times the U.S. Permissible Exposure Limit according to a study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene.
Environment
May 13, 2025
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40
A new analysis of a fatal landslide that occurred on 13 February 2024 at the Çöpler Gold Mine in Turkey reveals that the site of the landslide had been slowly moving for at least four years prior to the failure.
Earth Sciences
May 9, 2025
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55
The international legal order is floundering. The geopolitical and resource policy priorities of the United States are shifting.
Environment
May 1, 2025
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26
The head of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) on Wednesday criticized US President Donald Trump's order to fast-track deep-sea mining in the open ocean outside American territorial waters.
Environment
May 1, 2025
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36
On February 18, contamination in the Kafue river, Zambia, led to a mass death of fish. Its water turned a deathly gray and adjacent farmland was poisoned. The drinking water it supplied to half a million residents of the ...
Environment
Apr 28, 2025
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19
Deep-sea mining (DSM) not only poses significant environmental, social, and economic risks that may have far-reaching implications for coastal communities and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), it is also likely to negatively ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 14, 2025
0
40
For hundreds of years, the Amazon has been exploited for its gold. Today, the precious metal is just as sought after, but the remaining tiny gold particles are much harder to find. Mining often happens in artisanal and small-scale ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 8, 2025
0
59
