mullumby Loc: Australia

Scarlet, you got it.

T Loc: New York State

Then again, the holes are a heck of a lot more interesting and useful then what was there to begin with!

mullumby Loc: Australia

Here are some of our early buildings that have survived the test of time, still in use. All are in old gold mining towns and are now mostly government buildings, some state, some local.

Scarlet Loc: Western Australia

T, I don't agree with you on this one. The holes often result in terrible ecological impact. For instance locally, bauxite mining not only results in whole sale flattening of native bushland, the resultant bauxite bath result in large ponds of caustic poisons that kill anything that comes near. (We won't begin on the even more damaging iron, uranium or asbestos mining).

There is now expectation that mining companies restore land after they've mangled it and from what I can gather they do
have a crack at it.

Sdaupanner Loc: South Dakota /New England

Scarlet ; Do you know how the uranium mining is done ... and what the results of said mining is doing to the land and the people around the mining area. The reason I ask is because living in Western South Dakota there is a group that wants to mine for uranium but they are not going to do it by Open Pit but by Pumping Oxygenated Water on which the Uranium attaches it self to the water and is pumped back to the surface and collected into tanks where it is pumped onto tankers and sent on down the HyWay to a plant to be made into useable bricks for Nuclear Power Plants and other things that are needed. If this is the kind of mining that is being done in your area what is the resulting damage to both the land and the people? Many are looking at the Jobs and not the Hazards, God Knows Money Talks and BS walks who gets hurt and what is the Half Life of the material that is spilled on the land ...... makes one wonder!!!

mullumby Loc: Australia

I'll put my two bobs worth in here as well, i have not come across one open mining pit that has been made use of after mining, a total blot on our landscape.
As far as restoration goes Scarlet, unfortunately it is mostly restricted to the re-vegetation of the over burden dumps, and they may end up like the old gold slime dumps and be re- treated because the price of metal varies over time.

mullumby Loc: Australia

This is Western Australia's oldest surviving fence, it is in the Gascoyne region and was built in the early 1900s by one of the first pastoralists.
The fence has been replaced, but left standing as a memento.

Scarlet Loc: Western Australia

I am sure you would know far more about what mining companies are doing to restore land than me Mullumby...especially in the remote areas. I know that around Collie they have reforested and created recreational areas out of old coal mines in some areas.
I posted a few pages earlier a redevelopment from the Bauxite mining established in 1980 at Wellard.
At Pinjarra there's others such as the Wellard one too, but I haven't seen them.

They are creating slurry pits and spreading the waste materials thinly over farmlands..apparently the thin layers of caustic helps some crops and spreading it out, in theory, is supposed to be environmentally friendly (fingers crossed). I did have pictures of it but deleted them.

I have an environmental scientist friend who quit working for mining companies because she spent her working on fire control and not time re-establishing anything.

This is from Wellard wetlands and Alcoa rehab project

Scarlet Loc: Western Australia

It is a worry!
It was exported to US and other countries for nuclear weapons years ago. It's now mined, so we are told, for medicinal and power purposes. There are three mines operating in Oz, but more have been given the go ahead.

Oz it the largest known source country for this mineral. There's a lot of opposition to it as the waste is a long term issue and leakage a major concern. Areas here, where it' abundant are of major ecologically importance.

The end products of mining are toxic. They leak and have caused BCCs in people and and death in animals, especially fish and waterbirds downstream.

Since the nuclear disasters this form of power has lost favour around the world and the prices are low...but I can see today's government selling out tomorrow for todays dollar as soon as prices increase.

You know the French dropped a test bomb off our coast - totally slaughtered everything on an entire Island and nothing could live on or around it for decades to come and the Govt let one rip in the middle of the desert...there's a whole lot of ugly stuff that goes with that.

http://www.nuclearfreequeensland.org/pdf/NFQwhatisuranium.pdf

That's a link to an anit-nuclear pamphlet in Australia..it may help answer your question...I really am no expert...I know I say that after an hour rant!!
The waste is the issue as it

Sdaupanner Loc: South Dakota /New England

Scarlet; Thank you for the paper even if it is against the industry ... the facts remain the facts and the people are so hurting for some sort of business within the community that they are willing to over look what will be in the end I do believe their ruin. They had an army post there during the second world war and it also was a concentration camp during the second world war. Here in this camp was the making of mustard gas and other munitions. At about the end of the war it turned into a railroad town and was supported that was till the turn of the century. During this period of time they also had mining for uranium but open pit was how it was done at that time and now beyond all reason and a lack of industry and very little rail road money they are now going to welcome with open arms a company who has not been ever in this industry... they are builder of boilers not miners of uranium. I say that god will have to be on their side because the US Government sure as hell is not. It is our kids that will have to pay the cost and their kids if there is still a world to be had ..... to be continued!!!!!

mullumby Loc: Australia

Many thanks for that Scarlet, it's really good to know that someone somewhere is doing something about it, the goldfields are certainly not.
I am much like your friend, totally disgusted at the lack of action by the big boys, rehabilitation cuts into the profits to much.

mullumby Loc: Australia

This is one of our permanent water holes in the outback, Bilung pool has has been a source of water used by many for a long long time, there are probably only about a dozen of these in the state, if that.

Scarlet Loc: Western Australia

I bet there's a few tadpoles in there!
I used to love bathing in warm tadpole pools, they would give a fabulous free exfoliation.

Lots of bunny tails out at the moment.

mullumby Loc: Australia

In the early days of opening this country up the government employed their own Geologists to search for likely mineral deposits in the various states.
They would then write reports at the end of the year and they were made available to interested parties, i have several of these amongst my collection of things interesting.

Scarlet Loc: Western Australia

I can just about smell the aged parchment and ink Mick.