The area used for mineral extraction is a key indicator for understanding and mitigating the environmental impacts caused by the extractive sector. To date, worldwide data products on mineral extraction do not report the area used by mining activities. In this paper, we contribute to filling this gap by presenting a new data set of mining extents derived by visual interpretation of satellite images. We delineated mining areas within a 10 km buffer from the approximate geographical coordinates of more than six thousand active mining sites across the globe. The result is a global-scale data set consisting of 21,060 polygons that add up to 57,277 km². The polygons cover all mining above-ground features that could be identified from the satellite images, including open cuts, tailings dams, waste rock dumps, water ponds, and processing infrastructure. The data set is available for download from https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.910894 and visualization at www.fineprint.global/viewer.

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A global-scale data set of mining areas.

Mining activities induce profound changes to societies and the environment they inhabit. With global extraction of metal ores doubling over the past two decades, pressures related to mining have dramatically increased. In this paper, we explore where growing global metal extraction has particularly taken effect. Using fine-grain data, we investigate the spatial and temporal distribution of mining of nine metal ores (bauxite, copper, gold, iron, lead, manganese, nickel, silver and zinc) across approximately 3,000 sites of extraction worldwide between 2000 and 2019. To approach the related environmental implications, we intersect mining sites with terrestrial biomes, protected areas, and watersheds categorised by water availability. We find that 79% of global metal ore extraction in 2019 originated from five of the six most species-rich biomes, with mining volumes doubling since 2000 in tropical moist forest ecosystems. We also find that half of global metal ore extraction took place at 20 km or less from protected territories. Further, 90% of all considered extraction sites correspond to below-average relative water availability, with particularly copper and gold mining occurring in areas with significant water scarcity. Our study has far-reaching implications for future global and local policy and resource management responses to mitigate the negative effects of the expected expansion of metal mining.

Surge in global metal mining threatens vulnerable ecosystems

Freshwater salinisation is a growing problem, yet cross-regional assessments of freshwater salinity status and the impact of agricultural and other sectoral uses are lacking. Here, we assess inland freshwater salinity patterns and evaluate its interactions with irrigation water use, across seven regional river basins (401 river sub-basins) around the world, using long-term (1980–2010) salinity observations. While a limited number of sub-basins show persistent salinity problems, many sub-basins temporarily exceeded safe irrigation water-use thresholds and 57% experience increasing salinisation trends. We further investigate the role of agricultural activities as drivers of salinisation and find common contributions of irrigation-specific activities (irrigation water withdrawals, return flows and irrigated area) in sub-basins of high salinity levels and increasing salinisation trends, compared to regions without salinity issues. Our results stress the need for considering these irrigation-specific drivers when developing management strategies and as a key human component in water quality modelling and assessment. Freshwater salinisation is a growing water quality problem, but impacts and drivers across regional to global scales have been lacking. A new assessment of inter-regional freshwater salinisation demonstrates the importance of irrigation as a driver of salinisation.

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Common irrigation drivers of freshwater salinisation in river basins worldwide.

Critical metals, identified from supply, demand, imports, and market factors, include rare earth elements (REE), platinum group metals, precious metals, and other valuable metals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and uranium. Extraction of metals from U.S. saline aqueous, emphasizing saline, sources is explored as an alternative to hardrock ore mining. Potential aqueous sources include seawater, desalination brines, oil-and-gas produced waters, geothermal aquifers, and acid mine drainage, among others. A feasibility assessment reveals opportunities for recovery of lithium, strontium, magnesium, and several REE from select sources, in quantities significant for U.S. manufacturing and for reduction of U.S. reliance on international supply chains. This is a conservative assessment given that water quality data are lacking for a significant number of critical metals in certain sources. The technology landscape for extraction and recovery of critical metals from aqueous sources is explored, identifying relevant processes along with knowledge gaps. Our analysis indicates that aqueous mining would result in much lower environmental impacts on water, air, and land than ore mining. Preliminary assessments of the economics and energy consumption of recovery show potential for recovery of critical metals.

Recovery of Critical Metals from Aqueous Sources.

Ecological restoration in mining areas in the context of the Belt and Road initiative: Capability and challenges

The growing demand for minerals has pushed mining activities into new areas increasingly affecting biodiversity-rich natural biomes. Mapping the land use of the global mining sector is, therefore, a prerequisite for quantifying, understanding and mitigating adverse impacts caused by mineral extraction. This paper updates our previous work mapping mining sites worldwide. Using visual interpretation of Sentinel-2 images for 2019, we inspected more than 34,000 mining locations across the globe. The result is a global-scale dataset containing 44,929 polygon features covering 101,583 km2 of large-scale as well as artisanal and small-scale mining. The increase in coverage is substantial compared to the first version of the dataset, which included 21,060 polygons extending over 57,277 km2. The polygons cover open cuts, tailings dams, waste rock dumps, water ponds, processing plants, and other ground features related to the mining activities. The dataset is available for download from https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.942325 and visualisation at www.fineprint.global/viewer . 

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An update on global mining land use

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The Pampa is a geographical area of approximately 700,000 km2, located throughout the territory of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, the central-eastern part of the Republic of Argentina and part of the Federative Republic of Brazil, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its morpho-structure is constituted by pre-Cambrian crystalline rocks (Sul-Rio-Grandense Plateau), by sedimentary formations deposited from the Permian to the Jurassic (Peripheral Depression) and by Cenozoic fluvial-marine sediments (Coastal Plain). The landscape is characterized by grassland formations of herbaceous and shrub associations, with different floristic compositions, mainly influenced by climatic, lithological, pedological, and geomorphological aspects, as well as those linked with appropriations and uses in the succession of human societies that settled there. Concerning the biodiversity of the fields, which typifies the Pampa, it is characterized by the importance of the rural formations as habitat of endemic species of flora and fauna which faces the threat of extinction. Besides, regarding the set of landscape and the identity of its inhabitants, it is possible to state that Pampa is associated primarily to the countryside biome. This is to say that its replacement or gradual degradation by crops, mainly grains and trees monocultures, has also transformed their socio-territorial identity.

Pampa: The South Brazil

Os estudos e o marco legal sobre zona costeira no Brasil apontam a necessidade em desenvolver o planejamento territorial de sua ocupacao e ordenacao atraves do Zoneamento Economico-Ecologico (ZEE) com vistas a promocao da gestao integrada dos recursos naturais com sua preservacao e conservacao. Na Amazonia brasileira, as Areas Protegidas ou Unidades de Conservacao (UC) sao conhecidas como instrumentos de gestao ambiental e foram instituidas com fins para a conservacao e preservacao dos recursos ambientais tanto interiores como costeiros. Na Zona Costeira Paraense (ZCPA), as UC ainda sofrem os efeitos da ausencia de instrumentos que nao permitem sua efetivacao na constituicao de novos cenarios protegidos. Este artigo tem como objetivo apresentar uma proposta de Zoneamento Geoambiental da ZCPA a partir das UC estabelecidas como subsidio e contribuicao para o planejamento ambiental, tendo como metodologia de analise o zoneamento proposto a partir do Processo Analitico Hierarquico – AHP e do modelo DPSIR (Forca, Pressao, Estado, Impacto, Resposta). O Zoneamento apresentado pode ser utilizado como um diagnostico ambiental para o exercicio da gestao e uso do territorio como um ponto de partida para a implantacao de uma politica de ordenamento territorial da Zona Costeira Paraense (ZCPA). Palavras-chave: Gestao Ambiental, DPSIR, Paisagem, Zoneamento, Amazonia. Geoenvironmental Zoning from Conservation Units: Subsidies for Integrated Management of the Paraense Coastal Zone – Brazil A B S T R A C T Studies and the legal framework on the coastal zone in Brazil point to the need to develop the territorial planning of their occupation and ordering through the Economic-Ecological Zoning (ZEE) with a view to promoting the integrated management of natural resources with their preservation and conservation. In the Brazilian Amazon, the Protected Areas or Conservation Units (UC) are known as instruments of environmental management and were established for the purpose of conserving and preserving both inland and coastal environmental resources. In the Paraense Coastal Zone (ZCPA), UCs still suffer the effects of the absence of instruments that do not allow their effectiveness in the constitution of new protected scenarios. This article aims to present a proposal for ZCPA Geoenvironmental Zoning from the UCs established as a subsidy and contribution to environmental planning, having as analysis methodology the zoning proposed from the Hierarchical Analytical Process - AHP and the DPSIR model (Forca, Pressure, State, Impact, Response). The Zoning presented can be used as an environmental diagnosis for the exercise of management and use of the territory as a starting point for the implementation of a territorial planning policy for the Coastal Zone of Para (ZCPA). Keywords: Environmental Management, DPSIR, Landscape, Zoning, Amazon.

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Sidnei Luís Bohn Gass

Papers

A global-scale data set of mining areas.

An update on global mining land use

An update on global mining land use

Pampa: The South Brazil

Zoneamento Geoambiental a partir das Unidades de Conservação: subsídios para a Gestão Integrada da Zona Costeira Paraense - Brasil